[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 108 (Tuesday, June 24, 2025)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E617]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       REMEMBERING BARBARA NEELY

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. STEVE COHEN

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 24, 2025

  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remember Memphis' Interstate 
Bar-B-Que co-founder Barbara Neely who passed on June 16 at the age of 
86. Mrs. Neely started the barbecue restaurant empire in 1979 with her 
husband, Jim, and was its public face, greeting customers from the 
front counter while her husband worked the pits in the kitchen. For 45 
years, she would arrive at the restaurant at 5 a.m. every morning. The 
restaurant they founded became a Memphis institution and a tourist 
attraction, especially after Jim's nephew, Patrick, starred in the Food 
Network reality cooking show ``Down Home with the Neelys,'' which ran 
from 2008 to 2014. Born Barbara Jean Frison, Barbara went to Manassas 
High School then relocated to New Orleans, where she met Jim, an Air 
Force veteran who left Memphis after high school. The first Interstate 
was founded the year they were married on Christmas Day, 1979, in Las 
Vegas. There are now Neely's restaurants at the original South Third 
Street location, on Winchester Road in Memphis, on Stateline Road in 
Southaven, Mississippi and a Memphis-style barbecue restaurant, Jay 
Bee's, in Gardena, California. Mrs. Neely put Memphis moist pit 
barbecue and chopped pork sandwiches on the map. I extend my 
condolences to her husband, Jim, her extended family, and her many 
devoted customers. Hers was a life well-lived.

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