‘Uncle Bubba’ Wayne Hiers dies at 65

SAVANNAH — Earl Wayne “Bubba” Hiers, the man who helped turn Albany celebrity chef Paula Deen into a household name, died recently after battling pancreatic cancer. He was 65 years old.

Hiers sold his landscaping business in Albany in 2002, moved to Savannah after Deen’s small restaurant The Lady & Sons became a big hit in the Atlantic coast city, and established his own cooking success by opening Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House in 2004. Deen praised her brother, proclaiming in a cookbook he released that she would probably have become a “lost soul” without him.

It was a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against Hiers in 2013 that led to Deen’s temporary plummet from stardom into notoriety when, while giving a deposition in the case, Deen said that she’d used racial slurs in the past. Her popular Food Network show was cancelled and a number of her sponsors dropped her from their ranks. And while Deen eventually regained much of her former luster among the elite celebrity chefs, Hiers closed Uncle Bubba’s in 2014. His lawsuit was settled, and little was heard from him again until his death.

Hiers stayed behind in Albany when his sister moved to Savannah and started a business making, selling and delivering bag lunches. When that business proved a huge success, Deen opened The Lady & Sons in Savannah’s historic district. After Deen found success with the Food Network show “Paula’s Home Cooking,” she coaxed Hiers into joining her.

She credited her brother with helping turn her tiny, 90-seat restaurant into an establishment that served up to 2,000 meals a day.

Hiers’ survivors include his daughter and son-in-law, Corrie and Brian Rooks; his grandson, Sullivan Way Rooks; his sister, Paula Hiers Deen and her husband, Captain Michael Groover; nephews Jamie Deen and his wife, Brooke, and Bobby Deen and his wife, Claudia; his great-nieces and great-nephews, Jack Deen, Matthew Deen, Amelia Deen, Linton Deen and Olivia Deen; his aunt, Peggy Ort; his former wife, Jill Hiers, and many other nieces, nephews and cousins.

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