Holly Ashton knows a thing or two about shrimp. Her husband invented the fish stick!

She and her first husband Jack Hice, the head of the Seapack and Carnation companies, had a knack for inventing things, and they had 96 patents between them. The couple invented a version of the deep fryer, flash freezing and the process of sealing shrimp in a ring, the way it comes in the grocery store.

One day, a friend who had been out fishing gave the couple three fresh fish. Jack froze them, but then he took them out of the freezer, intending to take them home that evening. Instead, he left the fish on the counter.

When he got to work the next morning, the fish were smelling up the place, so he tossed them in the garbage. Two days later, he started thinking about how the fish when they had thawed out had stuck together.

So he took some fish, formed them into a block of boneless, skinless fish and froze them using additional pressure. When that worked, he formed more fish into 13-pound fish blocks.

The fish stick was born!

The Hices opened a big fish stick plant in Canada, where good, white fish were plentiful.

Today, billions of pounds of fish sticks are sold around the world.

During the 1960s, Holly went to trade shows all around the country showing off the inventions. The Hices were the first people to freeze fish using liquid nitrogren.

The process froze fish so quickly that it didn’t do any damage to the product. To illustrate this concept, Holly would take a live goldfish and freeze it using liquid nitrogen.

 In a few minutes, she explained, she would thaw the fish and it would still be alive.

“I told the crowd if I dropped the fish on the floor, it would shatter, and everybody went ‘Ahh, be careful,’ “ Holly said.

She didn’t show it, but she was very nervous. The ice had to be the perfect temperature or the fish would die.

“I had practiced it at home to make sure it wouldn’t be a flop,” Holly said, giggling.

After convincing crowds that the process was safe and easy and kept fish fresh, she was able to sell her inventions everywhere.

She began as a seafood broker, but soon became involved in every aspect of the business. She has overseen the startup of shrimp processing plants in India, Alaska, Georgia, Florida and Louisiana. She has negotiated business deals with the governments of India, Japan, Germany, Austria, Guinea, The Bahamas, Canada and the U.S.

The Hice family had a fleet of 50 shrimp trawlers in India.

Born in Canada, Ashton started her career in Michigan, where she excelled in business. She was vice president of a bank before she was 26.

She then worked as a fashion designer, bringing The Holly Hice brand’s profits from zero to one million in a year. She designed an inaugural dress for Pat Nixon.

She moved to Charlotte in the 1970s and became a socialite, serving as president of the Charlotte Philharmonic Orchestra Society and the Charlotte Opera.

Holly came to Anderson seven years ago, becoming active in civic groups, including the Anderson Women’s Club, where she is membership chairwoman.

So when the industrious Mrs. Ashton started the task of writing a novel, her friends were not surprised. Neither was it a surprise that the book was about shrimp. Set in New Orleans, “Midnight on the Bayou” is the story of Paul Stark, and his battle to save his wife Rita and his shrimping boat “The Helen S.”  from a gang of thugs who hijack the boat.

Her friends were surprised to learn how, well, realistic some of the racier scenes in the book are.

“Some of my friends’ husbands have said ‘That sweet, little lady wrote this?’” she said.

It seems Holly Ashton knows a thing or two about sex and murder, too. 

Ashton is about to begin a trek around the country to promote the book and tell people more about the shrimp industry.

If she can get through it without blushing, she might even read some of the bedroom scenes at her book signings.

She plans on handing out free beads (since the book is set in the Bayou) and champagne (because she likes it a lot) and maybe freezing a few goldfish in the process.