Buddy Powell, who with his family operated the Golden Corral restaurant in McComb for nearly 40 years, died at home on Wednesday, March 11, 2026.
Funeral arrangements were incomplete.
Powell arrived in McComb in the 1980s to own and operate the Golden Corral when it was on Delaware Avenue. The China Palace restaurant is now in that building.
In the late 2000s, Powell relocated the restaurant to a much larger building on Anna Drive and turned the format into a buffet.
Then, in 2020, he and his family won the Mississippi franchise for the Huey Magoo's chicken tender chain. They opened the state's first location in McComb that year, an event made memorable by the long lines of drive-through lane cars that for several days spilled out onto Anna Drive. There are now Huey Magoo's restaurants in Brookhaven, Pearl, Flowood and Tupelo.
Powell and Pat Brumfield had bought the property that became Anna Drive, and several business have since opened along the roadway that provided a new connection between Delaware Avenue and Park Drive.
