Dan Nicholas was born in Yazoo City in 1945 to Dan Nicholas and Marie Nicholas, neé Joseph. His grandparents immigrated to Mississippi at the turn of the century. Like many early Lebanese newcomers to the state, his paternal grandfather first worked as a peddler, traveling along the Mississippi River in central Mississippi, eventually settling in Yazoo City. His maternal grandfather, Ellis Joseph, lived in Jackson and owned a fruit stand. He later began a wholesale fruit company called A. Joseph and Co.

In Yazoo City, Dan Nicholas and his family enjoyed the company of other Lebanese families, such as the Ellis and Moses families, who owned businesses on Broadway and Mound Sts. In his interview for this project, Nicholas recalled that his grandfather owned a “general mercantile store” and the family lived in an apartment above it.

Nicholas’s father later “ended up in the automobile business and the restaurant business,” where his mother cooked and included Lebanese dishes, like kibbee and cabbage rolls, on the menu, alongside southern fare. They owned the restaurant, Danrei’s, on Main St., from around 1953 to around 1974. The photo below shows Danrie’s advertised on the Nicholas’s Yazoo Motor Company’s desk pad.

Nicholas attended the University of Mississippi. He majored in history and sociology, and then went on to attend the UM law school.

As is often the case, food is one way that the Nicholas family maintains Lebanese traditions into the twenty-first century. Dan’s aunt, Margie Joseph Weber, taught his non-Lebanese wife, Beth, how to cook Lebanese food, and their daughter and daughter-in-law are both learning to cook it. “I think the food seems to be the most important thing,” he said.

Dan and Beth Nicholas now live in Ridgeland, which is between Jackson and Yazoo City.

This interview took place in the home of Dan and Beth Nicholas on February 3, 2018.

Audio Clips

On coming to America

On the importance of wholesale houses to Lebanese businesses

On maintaining customs but speaking English

“The Lebanese were very wary of the Citizens Council and the KKK.”

“[My mother] had a restaurant, and she was a great cook. She would cook kibbee, mishie, lamb, Mediterranean-style red snapper, whole red snapper stuffed in different things. It was called Danrie’s. It was on Main Street, and it was a nice restaurant. I mean it was steak and stuff, fried shrimp, hamburgers, and things. They had lunch everyday. It was it was full service restaurant. Momma had kibbee on the menu.” – Dan Nicholas

The Nicholas family's restaurant, Danrie’s, advertised on the Nicholas’s Yazoo Motor Company’s desk pad.