Remembering John Gordon Roach, Jr., Late McComb Attorney and His Love of Gas Station Cuisine

John Gordon Roach, Jr., would be proud Mississippi's 'gas station cuisine' is drawing the raves he believed it deserved.

My friend John Gordon, the late McComb lawyer who served our people and institutions with superlative legal work for 50-plus years, was known to hit a filling station food joint whenever he felt the urge for a bite on runs from courthouse to courthouse, or after work. His wife, Mary Ford McDougall Roach, a retired teacher, writer and humorist of immense talent on whom more famous female comediennes like Phyllis Diller and Joan Rivers have absolutely nothing, says boiled peanuts, 'the spicier the better,' was JG's favorite item at these dens of gas station vittles.

I recall his claim that the barbecue ribs at a Marathon in McComb were the best in the state.

Roach (September 08, 1938 - October 22, 2025), who died Oct. 22, 2025, was known to advocate for gas station cuisine to anyone who'd listen. He would've enjoyed Brian Broom's recent Clarion Ledger report on Delta farmer Stafford Shurden's reviews of the fare.

'We go anywhere from a million to two million on any given channel,' said Shurden, who shares cuisine videos on Facebook, TikTok and other social media platforms. 'All (told), I'm probably around 2 million (video views) a month.'

Shurden, operating from Drew in North Sunflower County, told Broom his 'Gas Station Tailgate Review' series began at a Double Quick convenience store in Indianola, filming his daughter as she dined on chicken livers from his truck's tailgate. Double Quick is legendary for gas station food.

He said that he'd developed a format for his video scenes, showing close-up shots of the food as he talks about where the gas station is located. He also eats the food in the businesses' parking lots while standing at the tailgate of his pickup.

A former justice court judge—who knew that could produce a food critic?—Shurden wrote a book about his experiences, 'Meet and Three: A Southern Gentleman's Philosophy on Connection and Life,' and he owns a restaurant, Stafford's Market and Deli in Drew.

This is at least twice in the last year Mississippi's gas station/convenience store cuisine industry has been featured in the at-large media.

The first was also set in the hallowed Delta, where creativity in the arts—culinary included—is omnipresent. An April 2024 article in The New York Times by Kim Severson told how Jackson photojournalist Kate Medley documented rural gas stations that serve food, like this one, Fratesi Grocery and Service Center in Leland, Miss. Medley took a Times reporter to a place in the middle of Mississippi Delta farmland that also sprang from an immigrant story. Mark Fratesi's father opened Fratesi Grocery and Service Center in 1941, just east of Leland. It's a wonderland of homemade pork rinds, pantry staples and bait, with a freezer full of frozen steaks and bags of unshelled pecans.

'There are grits and burgers, but also a rigatoni plate lunch and a po'boy (their own invention) made with deep-fried balls of chopped black olives, shredded mozzarella and seasoned breadcrumbs bound together with a little mayonnaise and ranch dressing. Canvas-wrapped logs of seasoned, salted pork loin called lonza cure in the beer cooler.' Trust me, the beer cooler hums. I know that place from a 13-year duty as editor of the local weekly. I also know Mark Fratesi and his folks who preceded him in farming and operating the store. I know the time they and Mark put in creating this institution. Few operators anywhere could do it better.

That's how it's done in Mississippi. John Gordon must be smiling at the thought of some Marathon ribs.

Mac Gordon is a native of McComb. He is a retired newspaperman. He can be reached at macmarygordon@gmail.com.