After moving to Savannah in 1987, she recovered enough to secure a job in a hospital.
In addition to the challenge of raising two young boys, cumulative adversity-including being robbed at gunpoint while working as a bank teller-were overwhelming for Deen, and she became psychologically unstable, experiencing frequent panic attacks and increasingly debilitating bouts of agoraphobia. Her father died in 1966 and her mother four years later. Shortly after Deen graduated from Albany High School in 1965, she married her high-school sweetheart, Jimmy Deen (divorced 1989). Deen remained close to her grandparents, however, and it was from her grandmother that she learned the style of cooking that would eventually make her famous. She spent her early childhood at a small resort owned by her maternal grandparents, but she left at age six, when her parents purchased a gas station and souvenir shop in Albany and the family moved into the back of the shop. Aside from her culinary creations, her appeal lay largely in her rags-to-riches story, her distinctive Southern accent, and her warm and welcoming public persona.ĭeen grew up in southwestern Georgia, not far from the site where her ancestors had operated a cotton plantation in the mid-19th century. Paula Deen, née Paula Ann Hiers, (born January 19, 1947, Albany, Georgia, U.S.), American chef who popularized the cuisine of the American South through restaurants, cookbooks, and television programs.
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