--- title: "Mama Sue: Serving Up Hope from a Southern Kitchen" date: 2025-08-26 author: "Laurie Stroud" featured_image: "https://birminghamchristian.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Mama-Sue.jpeg" categories: - name: "More" url: "/category/news/more.md" tags: - name: "Cover" url: "/tag/cover.md" --- # Mama Sue: Serving Up Hope from a Southern Kitchen **Cover Story** Sue Garrett’s life has taken many unexpected turns, but the retired school teacher and principal from Harpersville, Ala. never imagined she’d become one of the most popular cooks on the internet. As “Mama Sue,” she reaches out to hundreds of thousands of followers and millions of viewers through her Facebook pages and YouTube channels. Her cooking videos began as a way to teach people how to cook simple, Southern recipes. But through her struggles with breast cancer and her everyday positivity, Garrett’s been able to reach many with encouragement and a Christ-like witness. [![Mama Sue in kitchen](https://birminghamchristian.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Mama-Sue-in-kitchen-225x300.jpeg "Mama Sue in kitchen")](https://birminghamchristian.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Mama-Sue-in-kitchen.jpeg)Mama Sue calls her recipes Southern and simple. [Click here for her popular Meatloaf Balls recipe](https://birminghamchristian.com/recipe/mama-sues-meatloaf-balls/).**In the Kitchen.** “Mama Sue’s Southern Kitchen” began in 2020 when Garrett started posting photos of her daily meals on her personal Facebook page. It was during the start of the pandemic, and people spent more time than ever before online looking for ideas and inspiration. “For months I’d take a photo of whatever I was having for dinner that night, and people told me to keep doing it because they were planning their menus for the next day and needed ideas,” she recalls. “I never intended to have Mama Sue’s Southern Kitchen. It just happened from that beginning.” A local farm in nearby Vincent, Ala. had begun selling boxes of vegetables and contacted Garrett’s daughter Amy to ask her mom if she would post a video of her cooking with the vegetables; they’d then put the video on their page to promote the farm. “The next day Amy shared it on my personal page and people started asking us to make certain recipes,” she says. “From the response, we knew we needed our own page.” Amy came up with the title of “Mama Sue’s Southern Kitchen,” and it debuted in July. “And then, wham! It grew overnight, and soon all these people were asking if I had a cookbook,” she says. “I had put one together for our church \[Vincent Revival Center\], so I made one and ordered it from the same place where I’d done the church one. When they came in, I just told myself that I’d see how they’d do.” Within 24 hours, she’d sold 762 copies, and all 1,000 of her original order were gone in two days. Today, Garrett’s social media platforms have impressive numbers as she continues to post videos on Facebook and YouTube via “Mama Sue’s Southern Kitchen” and “Home with Mama Sue.” A video on her Facebook page preparing her strawberry cake recipe has a 6.3 million reach, and one featuring her 7-layer salad has 11.4 million. [![Mama Sue with husband and children](https://birminghamchristian.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Mama-Sue-with-husband-and-children-290x300.jpeg "Mama Sue with husband and children")](https://birminghamchristian.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Mama-Sue-with-husband-and-children.jpeg)Sue’s daughter Amy was in­strumental in helping her start her channel back in 2020 and came up with the name of “Mama Sue’s Southern Kitchen.” Sue is seen here with Amy, husband Harold and son Chris.**Challenges along the Way.** Garrett continued to handle the bulk of the work for “Mama Sue’s Southern Kitchen” on her own until struggles began to come her way. In October of 2020, her grandson was born with a very rare condition that at the time only had 30 documented cases. Mosaic Trisomy 22 is a genetic disorder leading to a wide range of potential symptoms and severity, including growth delays, intellectual disability, and various physical abnormalities. “We were so busy, shipping out cookbooks from our house and trying to video every day,” she says. “It was too much, and we needed more time with our family.” She connected with Annie McDaniel, a fellow Alabamian who runs [“Miss Annie’s Home + Kitchen,”](https://birminghamchristian.com/miss-annie-lives-her-mantra-you-can-do-hard-things/) who gave her advice on how to more effectively run her platforms. That led her to Angela Deaver, who became her social media manager. “In June of 2021, I left for vacation, and Angela shipped cookbooks for me while we were gone. And as soon as I returned from vacation, I went in for a mammogram. I didn’t expect anything to go wrong,” she says. “But they called the next day and said I had breast cancer. I couldn’t do anything, so Angela turned her dining room into Mama Sue’s Southern Kitchen.” [![Mama Sue with two of her grandsons](https://birminghamchristian.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Mama-Sue-with-two-of-her-grandsons-240x300.jpeg "Mama Sue with two of her grandsons")](https://birminghamchristian.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Mama-Sue-with-two-of-her-grandsons.jpeg)Sue is seen here with her grandchildren Bryce and Blake. Blake has the rare disorder Mosaic Trisomy 22; his life has encouraged Sue’s faith, and she’s shared his story with her fans and followers.Garrett had aggressive chemotherapy treatment for six months and, after beating the cancer, returned full-time, but she and Harold realized that Angela needed to keep working with them. From then on, Garrett’s influence has continued to grow; it can be seen in both numbers and the way she’s personally impacted people. “I shared my story with my people, and it opened a whole other avenue,” she says. “People shared with me about their diagnosis and their cancer stories.” She was especially touched by people’s care and concern for someone they only knew online. “When I was sick, I got so many get-well cards. Our mailperson would drive down our road, blow the horn, and we’d go check out the box. It would be full of cards,” she remembers. “People were so gracious.” Then came “Shark Tank.” [![Mama Sue and Miss Annie](https://birminghamchristian.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Mama-Sue-and-Miss-Annie-225x300.jpeg "Mama Sue and Miss Annie")](https://birminghamchristian.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Mama-Sue-and-Miss-Annie.jpeg)Alabama has several successful social media influencers, and Sue said it’s important that they support each other. Here, she and Annie McDaniel showcase their favorite tea made by Alabamians Darien Craig and Brandon Echols.**More Opportunities & Connections.** Soon after her breast cancer went into remission, Garett got a call from the creators of the Y’all Sweet Tea brand and Hayden. Ala. natives, Darien Craig and Brandon Echols. They’d seen her content (Brandon’s wife’s grandmother was the first to see the “Mama Sue’s Southern Kitchen” page) and knew they wanted to work with her. “We had worked with a few other influencers in the past, and we knew she had something a little different and better. We saw it and loved it,” Craig says. “Once we heard the positive news about her breast cancer recovery, that gave us the green light to reach out. Her authenticity, good energy, good personality, and really good cooking drew us in. And then there was the hope she showed through her cancer journey,” he says. They asked her to prepare and share about their tea, which they first sold at festivals and farmer’s markets in her videos. She agreed after meeting them and recognizing their genuineness, energy, business acumen, and youth. “I could be their grandmother,” Garrett says. Their connection was immediate, and when Craig and Echols were invited to apply to be on “Shark Tank” (which eventually secured them a deal), they brought Garrett along. “We told them we’ve used Southern grandmas in our promoting,” Echols says. “After they saw Mama Sue, they called back and said we want her here with you. When she told us she doesn’t like to fly, we said we aren’t going without you.” The three appeared on “Shark Tank” last year, and Y’all Sweet Tea secured a $500,000 deal with Lori Greiner and Rashaun Williams. Today, Garrett continues to promote the tea on her platforms. “I meet people all the time who will say, ‘I saw you on Shark Tank.'” [![Mama Sue with family](https://birminghamchristian.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Mama-Sue-with-family-300x200.jpeg "Mama Sue with family")](https://birminghamchristian.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Mama-Sue-with-family.jpeg)Sue and her husband Harold have two children, nine grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. They live in the town of Harpersville in Shelby County, Ala.**Living by Faith.** Garrett says that her Christian faith has guided her along her journey- both during the successes and the challenges- and that it’s given her the opportunity to share her faith with others. She and Harold often talk about faith on her channels; she’ll post about what they did in church that day, or they’ll share a video of them talking about an inspiring moment from their lives. She’s also open about her faith when people comment on videos, meet her in person, or reach out to her. An experience at the beginning of her online journey showed her how her faith could impact others. [![Sue and Harold](https://birminghamchristian.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Sue-and-Harold-224x300.jpg "Sue and Harold")](https://birminghamchristian.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Sue-and-Harold.jpg)Sue’s husband Harold is a favorite on her social media channels. He doesn’t appear all the time, but when he does, she said her fans love it.Soon after she started filming videos, she received a private message from a young lady who’d been watching her on Facebook. “She told me she didn’t have a relationship with the Lord and that she’d been abused as a child. But she said, ‘I love watching you for some reason.’ I just talked to her, didn’t preach to her, and said I was sorry for what had happened in her life,” Garrett says. “Then I sent her a book called *Forgiving What You Can’t Forget*.” Although Garrett never gives out her telephone number, she felt like she should give it to the woman; she told her to call if she ever needed to talk. In between Garrett having her mammogram and receiving her results, she received a call from the woman. “She said, ‘Tell me about Jesus,’ and I did. I told her it’s easy. He loves you no matter what you’ve done. I told her this doesn’t mean you’re not gonna have troubles, but you’ll have someone to walk with you during it,” Garrett recalls. “The next morning, I got the call about the cancer.” She soon received a message from the young lady that said, “I don’t know how to pray, but I will for you.” That experience showed Garrett how her business could positively impact people. God gave her a platform to share her faith. As she looks to the future, Garrett plans to keep sharing her signature recipes while also representing Christ with her positive attitude and witness. Meet Mama Sue in person at the upcoming [Celebrate the Family Expo Saturday September 13, 2025](http://www.birminghamchristian.com/expo) at the Hoover Met Finley Center. *-Cheryl Wray*