Lamenta D. [Watkins] Crouch was born in 1947 in Greenbay, Virginia, in Prince Edward County, about ninety miles from Richmond. During her childhood she spent many Sundays eating at other people’s homes as the daughter of a father who served as a local pastor and a pastor at several churches out of town. For dessert southerners in Virginia served Lamenta Crouch and her family pound cake, chess pie, and “very rarely apple pie.” There are many theories of where the name chess pie comes from (English for cheese or custard type pies or a southern pie chess where folks stored pies) but know one really knows.
