For 50 years, he’s been the man behind the meat counter at Ramey’s, Jerry Lee’s
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- Vint Necaise marked 50 years as a butcher at Ramey’s Marketplace in Pascagoula.
- He trained his son-in-law in meat cutting, forging a bond through shared craft.
- Community and family shaped Necaise’s legacy as much as his work behind the counter.
How long does it take to cut up a chicken? For Vint Necaise, it’s less than eight seconds.
Over the past 50 years, Moss Point native Vint Necaise has expertly carved nearly everything at Ramey’s Marketplace, formerly Jerry Lee’s Grocery, leaving behind a legacy of dedication and unexpected generational bonds.
Vint Necaise’s journey began with an unexpected opportunity: a job as a cleaner at Publik Warehouse Foods, a grocery store owned by Jerry Lee’s. Having worked at a fishing camp since he was 12, Vint Necaise was ready for a change of scenery.
“I got out of the river from swimming, changed clothes and went down there with them that day,” Vint Necaise said.
What began as a simple clean-up job at Publik Warehouse turned into a 50-year career as a master meat cutter in Pascagoula and Gautier. From the very first day on the job, Vint Necaise fell in love with the craft.
“We don’t even think of them as cows, it’s just a piece of meat to us. It takes somebody that really enjoys it and understands what it is. ... I guess it takes a special person to do it,” Vint Necaise said.
According to Vint Necaise’s daughter, Ashlyn Necaise, it wasn’t just the job that shaped his life. During one of his shifts at Jerry Lee’s, he met Sherry Strahan, a receiving clerk. Nearly 19 years later, they’re still together.
“He met the absolute love of his life, who he’s with now, when he worked for Jerry Lee’s,” Ashlyn Necaise said.
Outside of work, Vint Necaise balanced the demands of fatherhood with coaching baseball and football at Orange Lake Elementary, while raising four children. On Sundays, however, Ashlyn Necaise got to look forward to spending the day at work with her father.
“He’d give me a pillow and a blanket under his desk, and I would lay there and sleep. ... After work he’d go through all the back roads so we could stay in the truck a few minutes longer and talk. Those are some of my fondest memories,” Ashlyn Necaise said.
Eric Brown, a former Publik Warehouse employee, said family has always been Vint Necaise’s top priority.
“He worked to be able to spend time with his family, and meat cutting allowed him to do that,” Brown said.
An unlikely bond
When Scott “Adam” Williamson, Vint Necaise’s son-in-law, started dating Ashlyn Necaise, he quickly learned that his father-in-law wasn’t particularly fond of Northern Mississippians — or bartenders, both of which Williamson happened to be.
“He always joked with me and called me a Yankee because I was from north of Interstate 10,” Williamson said.
After the COVID-19 pandemic brought the service industry to a halt, Williamson faced an uncertain future.
“It felt like the end of everything. I thought I’d never get on my feet again because I’m older and I’ve got two kids. I knew I’d have to figure something out,” Williamson said.
Despite their rocky start, Vint Necaise took his daughter and Williamson in without hesitation, even helping Williamson secure a job at Ramey’s.
“I fell in love with cutting meat and learning under him. ... It just all kind of came together and just really clicked for me. ... I’m extremely grateful for him and everything he’s done for us,” Williamson said.
Vint Necaise and Williamson’s enemies-to-friends transformation is especially familiar to Necaise, who shares a very similar story with his first father-in-law.
“To this day, Vint has a great relationship with his first father-in-law. His father-in-law ran all of Jerry Lee’s stores for a long time and coached my father-in-law through the meat business,” Williamson said.
As time passed, Williamson and Vint Necaise continued to grow closer and, when Williamson suddenly lost his father two years ago, Vint Necaise became more than just a mentor.
“Mr. Vint has been a father figure to me before that, but even since then, he’s really helped me hold it together in not just work, but in life,” Williamson said.
Embracing change
After just two years of working with Vint Necaise at Jerry Lee’s, the store was bought out by Ramey’s Marketplace, a local grocery chain.
“It was a difficult change for everybody, not just myself, but everybody who worked there and everybody who shopped there,” Williamson said.
Despite the upheaval so late in his career, Vint Necaise chose to stay.
“There were opportunities for him to leave over the years, but he decided to stay. He’s one of the best I ever worked with, because he loves what he does,” former Jerry Lee’s employee Elbert Stork said.
Williamson believes Vint Necaise’s story could help shoppers recognize the value of often-overlooked work.
“It’s much more than just going into a grocery store and buying a pack of steak. There’s a lot of work that goes into the back end of it, and he fell in love with the process,” Williamson said.
This story was originally published June 10, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
