Sema Wilkes

Sema Morris Wilkes (June 23, 1907 – October 31, 2002) was an American restaurateur and author. She owned Mrs. Wilkes' Dining Room in Savannah, Georgia, for 59 years. The restaurant was named one of America's Classics by the James Beard Foundation in 2000.

Life and career Mrs. Wilkes' Boarding House occupied the right-hand side of the Algernon Hartridge Duplex in Savannah Sema Americus Morris was born in Vidalia, Georgia, in 1907 to farmers William Lawton Morris and Sarah Emily Taylor. She was their eldest child, arriving before brother Lawton and a sister who died in infancy. After her mother's death in 1914, when Morris was seven years old, her father married Maymie Shively. It was at this point that Morris began cooking for her family and their farmhands. Morris married another farmer, Lois Herman Wilkes. on West Jones Street in Savannah. Wilkes had worked there in its previous guise, Mrs. Dennis Dixon's Boardinghouse, having come to know the owner after Lois stayed there during his job search.

Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) inducted Wilkes into the Savannah Women of Vision program in 2018.

Wilkes was a member of Savannah's Wesley Monumental United Methodist Church.

Publications

Famous Recipes, from Mrs. Wilkes' Boarding House in Historic Savannah (1976) She was interred in the city's Forest Lawn Memory Gardens, alongside her husband of 67 years, who died in 1990, and her son, Carlton, who died in 1975.