Di Rushing’s The Delta in the Rearview Mirror: The Life and Death of Mississippi’s First Winery (UMiss Press 2024) is described as both memoir and true crime. If one reads the book for memoir alone, the description of the author’s Mississippi upbringing, her travels abroad as a young military wife in Germany, and the return to her roots to begin a business and a family provide plenty of satisfying narrative. And for the true crime enthusiasts, hopeful for a Southern Gothic tale, then Emmitt Ray Russell is a real-life character who could easily play the antagonist in a Flannery O’Connor short story. But it is a third component in the book, the Mississippi landscape, that provides the tension in, as well as the backdrop for, the story.
Merigold, Mississippi, in the heart of the delta, was home to the Winery Rushing and the Top of the Cellar Tearoom from the late 1970s until early May of 1990. The rich soil nourished the initial six thousand muscadine vines and sustained them through subsequent harvests. Rushing writes of the vineyard setting in the way one writes of an old relative, with reverence and respect. Her descriptions of the Sunflower River, the views from the tearoom across the vineyards, and of course, the abundance of cricket song and lightning bug flashes are necessary to understand the complexity of the place, the people, and the eventual crime. Rushing weaves together her personal story with humor, with a bit of Southern charm, with business acumen, and with an honest portrayal of modern Mississippi. Tried and true friendships, southern manners, and hardworking people set the tone for the story and make Russell’s crimes against the business and the family all the more shocking.
In many ways, the devastating events of May 3, 1990, are the crux of the story, but the choice to unfold the story incrementally over the chapters is what makes the book unique. Each chapter begins with a snippet from a local newspaper reporting on the winery or its products, the success of the tearoom, and the ultimate demise of the business due to Russell’s criminal actions. These accounts are drawn out slowly and deliberately, because the author is careful to ensure it is the winery remains the protagonist, not Russell. The newspaper articles offer perspectives of the story that are unemotional and factual. This affords the author with the opportunity to supply the shock, the anger, the disbelief, indeed, the full range of emotions that come with being vandalized. But the newspaper articles round out the story in another way. They reveal the impact Russell’s action had on the community, not just to the author and her family, and contextualize why the community rallied around the Rushing family in the aftermath. The loss of the winery was felt most acutely by the Rushings, but the community mourned right alongside them.
The title of the book, The Delta in the Rearview Mirror, foreshadows the ending. The Rushing family ultimately leaves Mississippi to start over in Colorado away from the bittersweet memories of the winery. While the main crime Russell inflicted upon the family was financial ruin, his acts were laced with hatred and vengeance not warranted by his circumstances. Perhaps this is what made him such a dark character? He was predictable and unpredictable simultaneously, the type of villain who thrived on the anxiety and fear instilled in his victims. His eventual acquittal and lingering harassment proved too much for the author. The vineyards and its promise of sweet wine, the peaceful meander of the Sunflower River, and the idyllic but somewhat flawed setting of Merigold, Mississippi, simply could not quell Rushing’s fears.
And so impulsively but also intuitively, the family uproots and departs the Delta for the mountains of Colorado. It is not the happy ending one would want for the family, though peace of mind may be the greatest gift if karma is not an option. The author should be applauded for telling a story that does not have perfect characters nor a neatly packaged conclusion. The reality is that lives are messy. This story is not a page-turning, ripped-from-the-headlines drama. This is a genuinely crafted account of place, of family, of tragedy, and of beginning again. A story so good, so richly nuanced it should be savored one page at a time, like a glass of fine wine.
Di Rushing
Di Rushing grew up in the Mississippi Delta. In 1976, she and her husband established the state’s first winery near Merigold, Mississippi. A few years later, Rushing opened Top of the Cellar Tea Room and published a companion cookbook featuring its recipes. In 1990, she and her family relocated to Ouray, Colorado, where she taught high school English for twenty years.
Love this. How unique!