Otis "Hot Sauce" Washington (1908-1965)

Wandering once again in Chattanooga, Tennessee's, long abandoned, long neglected Pleasant Garden Cemetery. Visited today the once hidden grave of "Hot Sauce" Washington.

Hot Sauce received his nickname after developing back in the 1940s an especially tasty barbecue sauce. Hot Sauce and his wife Madie opened a little restaurant that became at the time one of his neighborhood's more popular barbecue eateries.

Hot Sauce died in 1967. Madie kept the restaurant going until her death several years later. Their restaurant is still serving barbecue with Hot Sauce's sauce more than 50 years after Hot Sauce was buried.

Our across-the-street neighbor continues almost daily to visit the old cemetery with shovel, clippers, rakes and saw to clear bit by bit the long hidden and virtually forgotten graves. He asks for no reward for his work. I think he does it because he can, and he knows if he didn't, no one would.

Someone placed a bottle of sauce on the grave. That had to be some time ago. The bottle is almost empty--the Angel's Share, you know.

Keep Smilin'

Sunset BBQ's website:   Sunsetbbq-chatt.com

(I'm attaching an "extra" photo tonight of the old cemetery before the neighbor's slow by steady, day-by-day clearing. And there also a photograph of the work line that separates what's been cleared and what has not been cleared)