The Daily Times
By Anna C. Irwin

A sweet tradition in Blount
Richy Kreme Donuts still has same recipe after 50  years.

Deane Cable fills a box with doughnut holes at Richy Kreme Donuts
on Old Knoxville Highway

Richy Kreme Donuts are 50 years old and still fresh everyday.

The doughnuts first filled the racks behind the cash register in the Richy Kreme Donut shop on July 18, 1948, in the same location across from Eagleton Ballpark on Old Knoxville Highway.

Marion Richardson cooked the first batch as he launched a business that became a Blount County tradition. Clay Collins is cooking the same doughnuts today, using the same recipe and same ingredients used in the first batch.

Georgia Richardson remembers the early years in her late husband’s doughnut business. She often helped in the shop on weekends and in the morning before she went to Rockford School where she taught for 37 years.

Mrs. Richardson says her husband and his brother-in-law had owned and operated a doughnut franchise in Danville, Va., before the family moved to Blount County in 1939. Marion Richardson worked at ALCOA for awhile, then worked at Oak Ridge. However, a lung problem forced him to leave that job.

serviceman stationed in Japan. The got him cream-filled doughnuts,” she said. “The said he loved them and they would ‘taste like home’.”

‘Taste like home’

Apparently Richy Kreme doughnuts “taste like home” to lots of people.

Some of Collins’ customers are people who grew up in Blount County, moved away, and come back to visit. They stop at the doughnut shop for the taste they remember and introduce their children to treats they remember from their own childhood.

As Marion Richardson’s business grew, he began sponsoring teams which needed some financial support. Photographs of those teams from the 50’s and 60’s still hang on the walls at the shop.

“He loved sports and he liked to help children,” Mrs. Richardson says of her late husband.

Richardson did more than buy uniforms for youngsters. He served 32 years on the Blount County Board of Education and counted the two consolidated high schools as the board’s greatest achievement during his tenure.

“He didn’t run (for re-election) the year before he died. He knew he wasn’t able to serve another term,” his widow said.

Richardson’s health also prompted him to sell his business – the Maryville doughnut shop and the drive-in restaurant next door and shops in nearby small towns.

Mrs. Richardson said the Maryville shop has had three owners since her husband sold the equipment, recipe and name of the businesses. She thinks he’d be pleased with the current owners, Collins and his wife Kathie, who Mrs. Richardson called “good Christian people.”

Clay Collins (right) owner of Richy Kreme Donuts gives Lynn Tereshko change
back from her purchase.

Work begins at 2 a.m.

Collins bought the business two years ago and is dedicated to re-establishing some of the Richy Kreme Donut traditions. He’s at work preparing doughnuts at 2 a.m. so they are fresh when customers start buying them at 6 a.m.

“These aren’t ‘production line’ doughnuts,” Collins said. “There’s no ‘instant’ involved.

Collins combines flours shipped from Maryland in 50-pound bags with yeast and water, then allows the dough to rise. Then, he kneads it, rolls it out to the right thickness and cuts the doughnuts by hand. Both the rings of dough and the dough from the center hole must rise again before they are fried in vegetable oil. The final step before the doughnuts are ready for customers in the glazing table where the treats are dipped in glaze and tipped on a rack to dry.

When the shop is busy, rack after rack of doughnuts are filled and emptied into boxes for customers, only to be filled and emptied again.

Doughnut psychology

Collins and his son Chuck say they’ve learned a little about “doughnut psychology” and hope to learn more. For example, glazed doughnuts are best sellers after noon. They’ve also learned that rainy days increase the demand for chocolate covered doughnuts and people eat more doughnuts in winter than summer.

Chocolate covered, several cream filled flavors, cinnamon buns, apple fritters – 14 varieties in all – are available at Richy Kreme. Most varieties are also available at the Snack Shack on East Lamar Alexander parkway, another business owned by the Collins family.

“This is a 14-hour a day job,” Collins said. “But, I feel lucky to be part of something like this where there is such a tradition and quality depends on the human factor.”

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