About
In 1999, Billi Beard’s sweet tooth turned into a mouthful of homemade candies. That was the year she went to Vaughn-Russell Candy
Company to buy a box of chocolates and ended up buying the entire operation.
The store’s original owners, Marva and Leroy “Mac” McManaway, founded Vaughn-Russell in 1950. In those days, confectioneries were as common as Starbucks is today. There was a candy store on virtually every corner, especially up North where the owners were from. They decided to introduce Greenville to the concept of the local candy store and opened it on Augusta Street, a few doors down from where the operation sits today.
Fascinated with candy, the McManaway’s had learned to make confections the old-fashioned way from family recipes. There are no modern techniques—no preservatives, no wax, no large manufacturing assembly lines—just the backbreaking work of a handful of employees making each piece by hand with natural ingredients and lots of love.
Beard’s interest was piqued when she came into the store that day and learned it was for sale. Mac McManaway had passed away, and Marva was growing weary of trying to run the operation in her elder years. Her back needed a rest, so Marva sat down and taught Beard how to make candy. She shared her secret recipes and passed along the patent to the store’s signature mint pecans. The nuts come from south Georgia, and each one is inspected, roasted, seasoned, cured, and individually hand-dipped in minted chocolate. “We are known for our mint pecans,” Beard proudly explains. “This recipe and process has not changed since it was introduced in 1950.”
During the holidays, they sell more than 1,000 pounds of mint pecans, and that’s just one of their confectionery delicacies. Vaughn-Russell Candy Company has counters full of various chocolates and delicious sweets—all created from old-fashioned recipes and each made by hand, in small batches, so the only candies you get are made the way they were originally intended.