Cookbook shows funeral food is a tradition that won't die
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Perre Coleman Magness' latest cookbook came to be in sort of a funny way, particularly for a book about feeding the bereaved.
"The publisher asked me if I would be interested in doing a book on funeral food because it is a 'trending topic,'" she said. "I said that I could do one on Southern food, but not one for Lutherans in Minnesota or Italians from Brooklyn."
While she mulled it over, she called her mother, also a writer and also named Perre Magness.
"The first thing I did was call my mother, as you do, and when I told her what was going on, she said, 'Oh, you need my obituary file,' " she said.