Published by
July 2015
Melissa Williams Rabun County Superintendent of Schools Melissa Williams has the distinction of being the first woman hired as Rabun County Superintendent of Schools. Born in Metter and raised in Pulaski, Williams assumed her duties concurrent with the 2014-15 school year. She had previously been superintendent in Towns County. Williams received degrees in Educational Administration & Instructional Supervision and Business Education from Georgia Southern University. She worked as a paralegal with Neville and Skene Attorneys in Metter, before she began her educational career. Rabun’s new superintendent taught middle school Reading and Math for one year and Business Education for 18 years before beginning her Administrative career. She served as Director of Technology, CTAE and Personnel in Candler County for four years before serving as Curriculum Director and Superintendent in Jenkins County Schools in Millen, for five years. Most recently Williams was Superintendent in Towns County for three years before being chosen for the Rabun County position. She has been married to her husband Stevie, for 30 years and they have one son, Tyler, 27.
RABUN COUNTY BOARd
Of
EdUCATiON
Rabun County Primary School
Rabun County Elementary School
Since
1871
Rabun County Middle School
Rabun County High School
Melissa Williams, Superintendent of Schools
WWW.RAbun.k12.GA.uS
Tiger Connector Rd. • Tiger, GA 30576
706-212-4350
2
Ridges & Reflections • July 2015
From the publisher...
Photo Courtesy Rabun County Historical Society The Clayton Woman’s Club is the oldest civic organization in Rabun County, founded in 1910. This photo is taken from about that year at the Blue Ridge Hotel on North Main Street. The club has been very active and productive over the years, promoting construction of Clayton’s first public school on Picket Hill, organizing the county’s first PTA, Girl Scouts troop and much more.
Welcome to the sixth edition of Ridges & Reflections, the biannual magazine of The Clayton Tribune. Our first issue, published in June 2012, was a smorgasbord of topics covering all parts of Rabun County and subjects past and present. Local history was the theme for two issues each in 2013 and ’14, as Tribune staffers, with the invaluable help of the Rabun County Historical Society, told the stories of Rabun County’s towns and communities, plus an edition devoted solely to the impact of the Civil War locally. With this issue we turn the page, changing from history to profiling women who have had an impact on Rabun County or done something distinctive and memorable. Inside these pages we present the stories of seven women. Some ladies you will recognize and others will make you say, “Hmmm. I didn’t know that.” Let us hear from you after you’ve read through this Ridges & Reflections. Give us suggestions for other topics or maybe different women who should be featured in a second edition themed around Rabun County women. We appreciate your feedback, and we thank you for reading Ridges & Reflections. Michael Leonard, Publisher
Story Index Martha Ezzard: Breaking down the barriers................................................................. .4 Jacobs wields the power of the pen.................................................................................. 8 Irene Powell Bynum and the Bynum House................................................................. 12 Carrie Edwards Dillard births Southern tradition....................................................... 14 Eleanor Deal Law took on NYC, Rabun pharmacy....................................................... 18 Jo Kinman Brewer brought health care to Rabun County........................................... 22 Maude York Fisher: A life of service............................................................................. 26
About the cover ... Black Rock State Park was officially established in 1952, but according to the Rabun County Historical Society the first road to the top opened to the public on September 3, 1931. The first car to the top was driven by a woman, Margaret Johnson, with her friends Florida Johnson and Nisbet LeConte. At that time, it was the highest point in Georgia to which a car had been driven. Photo courtesy of Rabun County Historical Society.
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Martha Ezzard takes a break while working at Tiger Mountain Vineyards. Ezzard said she lost the diamond from her wedding ring while planting the grapes at the vineyard and her husband, John, still jokes that she is now married to the vineyard. Photo/Submitted
Martha Ezzard: Breaking down the barriers By Mat Payne, Staff Writer When Martha Ezzard entered a writing contest as a senior at Brown High School in Atlanta, she couldn’t have known the result would alter the course of her life. Encouraged by a teacher who recognized her natural talents as a wordsmith, Martha won a $500 scholarship to the University of Georgia, which she described as big money at the time. But it came with one stipulation — it had to be used at the Grady College of Mass Communication and Journalism. Since then, Martha has lived the writing life in one form or another, stringing together sentences for media organizations across the country, drafting bills for the Colorado legislature or creating marketing campaigns for the winery she co-owns with her husband John and another couple. In the late 1950s, as an incoming freshman, all of that was beyond her wildest dreams. The young woman from the West 4
End knew that if she could write, she would have a bright future. A natural reporter with the gift of gab, Martha landed a gig with the NBC affiliate in Atlanta after graduating from UGA and completing an internship with the Atlanta Journal. Half a century after the fact, sitting in her home at Tiger Mountain Vineyards, Martha spoke about her first big stories as if they were freshly minted memories. As with most cub reporters, Martha remembered the frantic energy of covering a high profile event without fully understanding the nuances needed to nail every aspect of the assignment. “One that stands out, they sent me out to the airport to interview Lady Bird Johnson, and that would have been when Lyndon Johnson was the vice presidential candidate,” she said. Ridges & Reflections • July 2015
“I remember that because I was He thought the teachers so unaccustomed to television unions were evil and I just … everybody was cramming decided I could do a better around the limo … I got the job.” microphone right there in her Having grown accustomed face and I got the interview but to breaking into professions the video was of … well — my that had traditionally been back.” “boys clubs,” Martha said As a journalist working in the she never considered herself segregationist South, Martha a pioneer for women or a covered the state’s slow move role model. She was too busy toward equality. Her coverage doing the job to even think ultimately influenced her own about it. political opinions. “There were some After working on a disadvantages,” Martha said. documentary detailing the “I remember when I would peaceful desegregation of an speak to take a position on a Atlanta public school, Martha water issue in the legislature remembered walking out of the that affected rural areas and station one night only to walk ranchers, they would act like into a group of Klu Klux Klan ‘You’re this city girl,’ and I members cloaked in their robes don’t know if they would have and protesting the film. done that to a man.” Martha married John But sexism like any other and the newlyweds moved social barrier can be broken around the country while John down and Martha’s drive was completed his medical training. her wrecking ball. They then found themselves “She really had to gain in Washington, D.C., where strength within herself in John was stationed with the a man’s world to stand up Martha and John Ezzard pose for a photo U.S. Army at the Walter Reed and be up to their level,” during the infancy of their marriage. The couple now co-own Tiger Mountain Medical Center. It was there said granddaughter Georgia Vineyards and still epitomize love and an Martha gave birth to two O’Farrell. “(She had to say) egalitarian partnership. Photo/Submitted daughters, Lisa and Shelly. just because you’re a man Motherhood did little to doesn’t mean you’re better slow the dynamo that is Martha than I am.” Ezzard. After the family moved Martha spent two years in to Missouri, she found herself studying journalism part-time at the Colorado House of Representatives before completing an the University of Missouri and taking care of the children while eight-year stint in the state senate. John worked 24-hour shifts at the hospital. A liberal Republican and one of less than a half dozen female “We had a good time, but it was a lot of work. I spent all my senators, Martha championed environmental protection time in class and hanging diapers out on the line,” Martha said. initiatives as well as legislation to promote gender equality. She added, “I think it was important for them to see that women “I got a lot of legislation through,” she said. “I had a could forge some new frontiers. I was among some of those philosophy that I would try to push three bills each session. women and proud of it.” “I really would try to bring different sides together and listen After Martha graduated and John’s residency was complete, to what they had to say and help compose the bill,” she added. the Ezzards packed up and moved to Colorado, where they “In that day and today, lobbyists write the bills and bring them expected to settle down permanently. to you and say sign here and I just refused to do that.” But staying settled is something easier said than done for While in the legislature, Martha got her juris doctorate from some, and once the couple felt the children were old enough, the University of Denver, balancing her studies with her political Martha went back to work. This time she worked on the and family lives. It was a task she said has made everything else other side of the interview, serving as the press aide for two she’s had to do seem easy. governors, including John Love. After two failed attempts at national campaigns, Martha went Handling the press and helping to craft the political image of to work as an attorney. She was slated for an appointment with a powerful politician might have been enough for some, but not the Environmental Protection Agency, but she wasn’t feeling for Martha. fulfilled by her work. Something about it didn’t feel right — she Fed up with politics as usual, she decided to run for public missed writing. office. An unsolicited letter to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s “I was so upset with my own senator in the district where editorial board wound up yielding her a job and ultimately a we lived … he was so big on protecting the oil and gas and coal nationally syndicated column that she would keep for the next industry,” Martha said. “He was really down on school teachers. decade. Ridges & Reflections • July 2015
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Martha Ezzard poses on the patio of the Red Barn Cafe, in front of Tiger Mountain, namesake of the vineyard she co-owns with husband John and another couple. Photo/Mat Payne, The Clayton Tribune
While Martha was writing on the topics of the day, John started to feel the call of his family’s farm at the base of Tiger Mountain. The couple moved back to Georgia, and by 1995 they had opened Tiger Mountain Vineyards with the help of then co-owners, Bill and Leckie Stack. The Ezzards now share ownership with John and Marilyn McMullan, of Atlanta. With her career as a columnist closed out, Martha creates the marketing campaigns for the vineyard and is the primary planner for its events. Although she no longer drafts legislation or affects change with her publications, Martha said she felt the vineyard’s contribution to Rabun County was one of her greatest achievements. Just as John was drawn back to Tiger to the family’s homestead, some of their children and grandchildren have come ’round as well. O’Farrell found herself at the vineyard after college last year and said her grandmother’s strength and determination are a continual source of inspiration. “The women in my family …. they don’t let people push them around really and they stand up for what they believe and the people they believe in and care about,” O’Farrell said. “They really were just role models to me — just what being a woman means — but my grandma is just on a whole other level.” Martha has written a critically-acclaimed book about her journey from the big city to a farm winery, “The Second Bud.” At the end of the day, she would tell you she’s still a storyteller, a writer scrawling out the pages of a rich life tapestry. 6
The photo of a young Martha Ezzard used for one of her political campaigns has aged as gracefully as the candidate and still embodies her youthful exuberance. Photo/Submitted Ridges & Reflections • July 2015
Nannette Carter Curran is pictured on the campus of Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School with statues of her grandparents, Addie Corn Ritchie and RGNS founder Andrew Ritchie.
Nannette Carter Curran Carrying on RGNS legacy Nannette Carter Curran is the granddaughter of Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School founder Andrew Ritchie and Addie Corn Ritchie. Nannette was born in Orlando, Florida, in 1937 and moved along with her mother and brother to the home of Andrew and Addie Ritchie on the RGNS campus in 1941. She holds degrees from Young Harris College, Emory University and Georgia State University. Nannette married Christopher Curran in Atlanta in 1978, and in 2004 they moved to Dillard. The legacy of community service exemplified by her grandparents is alive in Nannette. She is active in St. James Episcopal Church, the Rabun County Historical Society, the Rabun County Democratic Party (serving as party chair), and has supported Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School as an active member of the Alumni Association. She has served as President of the Alumni Association and as a member of the School’s Board of Visitors. Nannette currently serves on the Advisory Board of Piedmont College’s Lillian E. Smith Center. Cooking, gardening and reading are some of Nannette’s favorite activities. She and Christopher enjoy weekly visits to the Mountain View Health Center with therapy dog, Michael. Between them, Nannette and Christopher have five children and nine grandchildren.
Ridges & Reflections • July 2015
A young Nannette Carter Curran posed with her grandmother, Addie Corn Ritchie.
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Jacobs wields the power of the red pen By Mat Payne, Staff Writer Hearing Rabun County’s clerk and chief financial officer rattle off a list of names she’s been called and the complaints some have lodged against her during the years is akin to a humorous Top 10 list from late night TV show host David Letterman. It’s just something that comes with the territory of Debra Jacobs’ job: keeping the county’s finances in order and recording the actions of the Rabun County Board of Commissioners. As county clerk and CFO, Jacobs wields the red pen and she’s not afraid to use it to keep the county’s budget tight and taxes as low as economically feasible. “My job includes keeping the budget intact,” Jacobs said. “It includes what’s best for the county as a whole, not individual departments or individual people and no one likes to be told ‘no.’” But telling people “no” is something to which she’s become accustomed to during the years. With an $11.5 million fund balance that many other counties in the state only dream of having, Jacobs remembered what it was like coming to work when the county couldn’t even get enough credit to buy a refrigerator. The highest paid woman working for the county has been employed since 1995, initially serving as a consultant to 8
“They don’t look at the overall picture,” Brown said. “When we came into this office, we couldn’t get credit, we couldn’t get anything if we didn’t pay (cash on delivery).” Looking back over her career, Jacobs said getting the county into a financially stable position was her greatest accomplishment. “It just never entered my mind that somebody would think that having fund balance was a bad thing. For the first three years, we had to borrow money to make payroll,” Jacobs said. “Once we got out of that situation, that was just something I never wanted to see the county get into again.” The county’s account didn’t reach its current size overnight. The CFO said many factors Debra Jacobs poses with her played a role, including daughter Kelly McKay and the start of initiatives to grandchildren, Conor and Megan keep expenses low. For McKay. Photo/Submitted instance, Jacobs created the county’s wellness program in an effort to help digitize the county’s finances before keep employees healthy and hold down being asked to stay on as the county clerk health insurance costs. and chief financial officer. With the recent The program alerts employees to retirement of former county administrator potentially undiagnosed health issues. Jim Bleckley, Jacobs became the most Jacobs said about four employees are experienced county employee working in diagnosed with diabetes each year who, the board of commissioners offices. prior to participating in the program, had Debbie Brown, assistant financial no idea. officer, began working at the county a few She added the county’s individual months after Jacobs and remembered the health insurance benefit payment was role her supervisor stepped into. about $10 more now than it was when she Ridges & Reflections • July 2015
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first started two decades ago. A self-professed conservative, Jacobs said her approach to county finances was similar to her personal one. “Nobody likes to pay taxes, including all of us in this office,” Jacobs said. “But at the same time, we’re here to provide a service so we have to find a balance between providing a service and taxes. “That’s not always a pretty picture, but we try to do the best we can with it.” Having weathered 20 years of county commissioners coming and going, Jacobs said she has grown a thick skin to the criticisms of her position and work as chief financial officer. “I’ve had several commissioners that have come in here and of course their goal is to get rid of me and Jimmy (Bleckley),” Jacobs said. “It’s understandable because you hear people out in the public and you’re not in here. “You don’t really know what’s going on, and when they get in here and see what’s going on and how it’s run, I’ve had several come to me and say, ‘I’ve made a huge mistake.’” But Jacobs isn’t all for cutting every penny out of the budget, either. She has earned a reputation among employees as a champion for better pay and benefits. “She will fight tooth and nail to get raises, to get good health insurance, anything she can do to help,” Brown said. “You know, trying to inform commissioners about new ideas.” Having worked together for the better part of 20 years, Brown and Jacobs have developed a friendship only time can forge. Brown said their families had become close during the Ridges & Reflections • July 2015
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Debra Jacobs snaps a quick selfie with husband Roger. Jacobs has played a crucial role in the county’s well being for more than 20 years as county clerk and chief financial officer. Photo/Submitted
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A mother to all: Irene Powell Bynum and the Bynum House By Megan Studdard, Staff Writer
As the years went by, the Bynum House grew to 48 rooms, seven cottages, the county’s first swimming pool and golf course, tennis courts, shuffleboard, a pond and more. Families visited every summer, some spending weeks at a time. Each meal was farm fresh and the Bynums churned their own butter and ice cream on site at their dairy. Irene’s main job was managing the kitchen. Though she did not cook, she wrote out menus and planned every meal. She also was in charge of keeping supplies and food in stock. After Thad died in 1952, she enlisted the help of her daughter, Roslyn, who ran the front office and took registrations. All of the Bynum children — Roslyn, Irene Powell Bynum is pictured with her children, from left, Bill Bynum, Roslyn Bynum Knox, Bill and Emily — Strickland, Emily Bynum Albright and Knox Bynum. Photo/Submitted grew up working summers at the resort. They lived in rooms in the house and moved to a cottage in the winter. Irene In a bygone time, piano music filled the lobby of the Bynum remained on the job until the resort officially closed its doors House as a child’s laughter followed splashing in the pool. Inside, in 1970. Irene Powell Bynum sat at a desk outside the kitchen. Plates passed “Mother did meal planning, the buying of supplies and looking her by, each one carefully inspected before heading into the dining after the pantry and looking over the kitchen area,” said Roslyn, now room for guests. 92. “She just looked after everything there to see that everything At night, Irene meticulously planned out menus for each meal, was in order, clean and kept available, which was a job. She was very all written by hand. By day, she entertained guests and mentored a busy.” mostly teenage staff. Roslyn said her mother would also pack lunches for excursions At 19 years old, Irene married local attorney Thad L. Bynum, a guests would take. She said guests would often take day trips to man nearly 20 years her senior who opened a summer mountain resort on Highway 76 East outside Clayton in 1913. She left the cabin Warwoman Dell and Black Rock Mountain. Irene, she said, loved picnics and made sure her guests were taken care of even when they where she grew up — located where Heaven’s Landing Airport is were away from the property. situated today — to start a life helping with her husband’s business. But Irene was more than just the matriarch of the Bynum House The couple’s age difference did nothing to slow their devotion to — she was a mother to everyone. Stories of her loving character are each other. Both Clayton natives, they met while Irene was working told by relatives, guests, employees and community members. Her on a thesis as a student at Georgia State College for Women. caring persona even won her Mother of the Year from the Georgia “They went on a train ride; it was like a date. She said she could remember him holding her hand on the train and it was like cymbals Federation of Women’s Clubs in 1961-62. She was also a member crashed in her stomach,” said her granddaughter Irene Bynum. of many community groups, including Clayton Music and Literary 12
Ridges & Reflections • July 2015
Club, Clayton Woman’s Club, experienced the Bynum House Eastern Star, the hospital when she was seven, but she has auxiliary and Friends of vivid memories of staying with Covecrest. her grandmother. Irene has been Suzanne Todd calls herself collecting memories and stories of a “Bynum House child.” The the Bynum House and has written LaGrange native traveled to the several pieces on the family legacy. resort almost every summer She says there was more to her and can remember how much grandmother than her time at the Irene cared for her. Bynum House. “She greeted you like a She described Irene Powell grandmama would,” Suzanne Bynum as a woman with a sense of said, reminiscing on how Irene humor. After her retirement, her allowed her to ring the dinner grandmother went down to Miami bell, churn butter and spend to spend time with her son and time with the local employees. daughter-in-law, Bill and Barbara Suzanne loved blueberries, Bynum. While there, the staunch and when she came to the Baptist woman bet $2 on a horse Bynum House, Irene made race and won $10, and she also sure they were on the menu. went to Barbara Walters’ father’s In 1977, seven years after the nightclub on Miami Beach. resort’s era ended, Suzanne Unbeknownst to her and her and her husband moved to hosts, there was a nude show that Clayton. They heard a knock at night. Bill and Barbara said she Pictured is the cabin where Irene Powell Bynum was born laughed the whole time. their door and standing there in Germany Valley, presently where Heaven’s Landing was Irene with a bowl full of Irene Powell Bynum knew is located. The Powell cabin was at the north end of the when to have fun and when to blueberries in her hands. runway looking down into the valley. Photo/Submitted be serious. When it came to her “She had a way of making everybody feel special,” grandchildrens’ happiness and Suzanne said. “When you came to the safety, she was serious. Bynum House, it wasn’t like coming to a On a dark night in Clayton, Bill resort. They treated you like you were a part and Barbara’s first daughter, Beth, of the family.” was having a seizure. It wasn’t just the guests who revered “She got very sick with a Irene. As charge of all the employees, Irene high fever and almost stopped often mentored the teenagers. The Bynum breathing. Nanie B, Bill and I House was one of the only employers for rushed her over to the hospital high schoolers at the time, and teens spent and the doctor at the time, Dr. their summers working in the kitchen and Boyd, was in surgery. Nanie B doing other tasks around the resort. Many marched through the surgical boarded at the Bynum House during their doors and grabbed him away from employment. the operating table and made him Nancy Craft Waldrop worked under come out in the hall to check her Irene’s leadership and remembered the grandchild,” Barbara said. lasting effect she had on her. Irene Bynum also recalled “Nana was a very calm individual, the a time her grandmother and dining room could be filled to capacity as several local ladies dressed up on Irene Powell Bynum loved the outdoors. Her Halloween to give her homebound Roslyn would walk through and announce son, Knox, always brought her something sister a Halloween to enjoy. another family of 10 for supper. I could fresh picked when he visited. Pictured is remember Nana saying, ‘James, Wes put For Irene Bynum, holding her fall foliage he brought in from the outdoors grandmother’s name is special. another bean in the pot.’ All the staff would for her to enjoy in the early 1980s. Photo/ laugh because we knew we had strung “My gosh, what an honor to Submitted have her name. I don’t feel like I enough beans to feed for the next week,” and stuff from us, extra stuff they might she remembered. “(She was) truly a strong do it justice. I could never fill her Southern lady, with a strong faith that helped have run out of or something,” he said. shoes,” she said. “My grandmother was “Irene Bynum was a nice, nice lady. Always, many young adults in Rabun County grow there for me and all of her grandkids. She she had a smile for you. You never forget into strong adults.” was the first person I sought for any kind of nobody who’s nice to you.” Frank James can still remember sitting advice when she was alive. She could just For granddaughter Irene Bynum, director put a twist on it and be so wise, get her point behind the counter of his family’s grocery store when Irene would visit to buy supplies. of the Amara Center, the matriarch was a across without seeming like she was telling “They used to come in and buy groceries you what to do.” confidant, advisor and friend. Irene only Ridges & Reflections • July 2015
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Carrie Edwards Dillard works in her garden in this photo from the late 1960s. Everything The Dillard House matriarch cooked was fresh from the farm. Photo/Submitted
The legacy of The Dillard House: Carrie Edwards Dillard births Southern tradition By Megan Studdard, Staff Writer Thousands of hungry tourists travel to Dillard every week for a taste of family-style food and Southern hospitality at The Dillard House. For some, the famous restaurant is considered a culinary mecca. As diners pass around heaping bowls of green beans, fried chicken and biscuits, they enjoy the recipes of one woman who started it all — Carrie Edwards Dillard. Carrie was born in 1888 and lived in Horse Cove, North Carolina, until she met her husband Arthur Dillard. There were livery stables in Dillard and Highlands, North Carolina, and it is said the couple met when Arthur took the 10-hour trek to Highlands from his Rabun County home. The couple married in the early 1910s and Carrie moved to Dillard, where her husband’s family had settled more than 100 years earlier. They were originally going to live with Arthur’s parents, but Carrie had other plans. She needed to cook. “She told him if he didn’t buy her a stove that she was 14
going to leave,” said Louise Dillard, widow of Carrie’s grandson John Dillard who ran the restaurant and hotel for many years. Carrie recalled that story for the Miami Herald for a profile on the family in 1973. “I had money to buy me a stove but I wasn’t a-going to do it. I told him if he didn’t like me well enough to buy me a cookstove I’d just go back home. So he got me one, wholesale, a number eight,” she said. They moved into the rock house, which is located adjacent to the current Dillard House dining room, and turned it into a boarding house. There, Carrie gardened her own vegetables, made sausage and bacon and cured ham. She grew up on a farm and took what she learned to Dillard. Everything she cooked was fresh from the ground. “She was probably the original farm-to-table person in 1917, when that phrase had not been coined. Now, it’s come full-cycle,” Louise said. Ridges & Reflections • July 2015
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According to the article in the Miami Herald, the house, called Oaklawn, originally took overflow guests from relative Zack Dillard’s boarding house. Years later, it became The Dillard House. The couple’s first guest was traveling Methodist minister Henry Byrd. He paid $10 a month for the food and a room and ended up staying for three years. “That fall, Zack came up here and said: ‘Carrie, I got a preacher down there that wants to teach up here this fall. I think he’s a fine man and I want you to take him and keep him, until I get room for him at my place,’” Carrie told the Miami Herald. “Well, I want you to know I looked after that man … I made him the best rolls, the best pies and cakes.” Over the years they saw all kinds of patrons who stopped on their way to Highlands, including Henry Ford. There was no question that Carrie loved to cook. Drawing from the French influences of her hometown in Horse Cove, the matriarch put a twist on Southern cooking that continues today. She and Arthur also used recipes from Mrs. S.R. Dull, a food columnist for the Atlanta Journal who wrote one of the first cookbooks that became a Southern staple. “Grandmother had been exposed to French cooking methods,” John said in an undated Atlanta JournalConstitution article. “She made Béarnaise and Hollandaise sauce and blended French into old Southern style. What people now call ‘new Southern cooking,’ my grandmother was doing in the ’30s and ’40s.” Ridges & Reflections • July 2015
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Carrie Edwards Dillard and her husband, Arthur J. Dillard, ride in a carriage while holding their firstborn son, Jim. The scene inspired The Dillard House’s current logo. Photo/Submitted
In addition to the family boarding house and restaurant, the Dillards also ran a farm and sold produce at the farmer’s market in Atlanta. Carrie wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty and was in charge of gathering the produce to send to the city. As more tourists flocked to the Rabun County mountains, Carrie saw her boarding house transform into a full-scale restaurant with many hotel buildings. Cars became popular and the livery stable drifted into the past. But no matter
how much the world advanced, Carrie stayed true to her Southern cooking roots. Louise remembered the strong-willed soul that was her grandmother-in-law. She said after she married John Dillard, his grandmother expected her to work at the family business. She also remembered how Carrie always watched what was going on, even into her late 80s. “She had a room in the back of the rock house that had two windows in the corner. She laid there in her bed and she saw everybody coming and going into the kitchen. She knew everything that was going on, even at age 83 or 84,” Louise said. “She didn’t miss a beat.” Carrie’s four children — Jim, Louise, Earl and Henry — continued the businesses and Earl’s son John, who had a business degree from the University of Georgia, took over until his death in 2014. Louise said it’s her mission to keep the family legacy alive. When customers enter the dining room today, a portrait of Carrie greets them. Her old rock house still stands, filled with her old antique furniture and memories of a bygone era. Small groups and parties eat there now. “I can still feel her presence there,” Louise said. The Dillard House now continues into the fourth generation, as Carrie’s great-grandchildren John Dillard Jr. and Natalie Dillard Cross, under Louise’s direction, help live out the mission of a woman they never knew. “She was all about hospitality and cooking,” Louise said. “It is important to me to try to keep carrying on the legacy and the tradition of The Dillard House, as it was always meant to be.”
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Central Park in New York City was the backdrop for this photo of Eleanor Deal Law, taken on a cold Sunday afternoon in December 1956. Photo/Submitted
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Eleanor Deal Law took on NYC, Rabun pharmacy By Megan Studdard, Staff Writer
A young Rabun County woman pinned a dark red rose to her blouse and took a deep breath. It was 1956, and this girl from the mountains was living her dream in one of New York’s most prestigious department stores. In walked Jacqueline Kennedy. As she led the future first lady around the store, she embarked on a journey that started with fashion and would end with her becoming the county’s first female pharmacist. 18
Eleanor Deal Law was born and raised on Valley Street in Clayton, but at the age of 21 she headed to the Big Apple to become the youngest assistant buyer at Lord & Taylor. Eleanor graduated from Wesleyan College in 1956 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in fashion illustration and dress design. She was one of four students in the program, and to this day still has hundreds of designs from her college days. Eleanor said her class was
the last to graduate from the program at Wesleyan. “They said it was too commercial, too business-like and not lady-like,” she said. Fresh off a four-month trip to Europe after graduation, Eleanor went through New York City and marched up to Lord & Taylor on Fifth Avenue to apply for a job. She spent her college education admiring the work of Hood, who illustrated Lord & Taylor clothing ads for The New York Times. Ridges & Reflections • July 2015
Eleanor Deal Law shows off one of her designs in her Clayton home from when she was a fashion illustration and dress design student at Wesleyan College. Law later landed a job as an assistant buyer at Lord & Taylor in New York City. Photo/Submitted
Eleanor had no portfolio with her and had only her degree to back her up. That was enough to win over the company and she was hired on the spot. “I just came back home and packed my suitcases and moved to New York City,” she said. Eleanor started as a part of Lord & Taylor’s executive training program, in which she was moved around to different departments in the store. She ended up as an assistant buyer in the coat department, the youngest in company history at 21. She spent her days scouting the markets in New York City and did the buying for seven of Lord & Taylor’s suburban stores. “Of course, you had to work on a budget,” she said. “What was exciting about it was after you did the buying to see that it sells and hoping you picked the right things.” Her relationship with companies allowed Eleanor to get free tickets to Yankees games and Broadway plays, where she made some of her fondest memories. Adjusting to city life from the mountains of Rabun County was easier than people might think, Eleanor Ridges & Reflections • July 2015
said. However, she had to give up some Southern hospitality. “I was used to walking down the street and smiling and speaking to everyone that you pass. Everybody kind of looked at you like you were crazy,” she said. “I soon learned not to try speaking to everybody in New York.” Eleanor lived in a coined building with other young women until she married her eighth-grade sweetheart, Albert Law, at age 23. The couple made their home in New York for several years. One of the country-turned-city girl’s most exciting duties behind the desk at Lord & Taylor was shopping for celebrities. Eleanor shopped for Kennedy several times. Some of her other famous clients were Harry Belafonte and Audrey Hepburn. “(Jacqueline Kennedy) was just as sweet as she could be. On one of her trips to the store, she bought a bath robe for a woman in France. She had us take the tags off so the lady in France wouldn’t have to pay in customs on it,” Eleanor said. It wouldn’t be the last time Eleanor would run into a celebrity. More than a
decade later, she found Burt Reynolds’ keys left on the counter of her pharmacy in downtown Clayton. After six and a half years in the fashion industry, she made a drastic career change. Eleanor decided to come home so she could continue the family legacy started by her father in 1915 — operating Deal’s Drug Store. The fashionista moved to Atlanta with her husband Albert and their one daughter in 1968. Eleanor headed back to the classroom to become a pharmacist and was one of two women in her class at the Mercer School of Pharmacy. Without any science education, Eleanor said starting pharmacy school seemed a daunting task. She had never taken a chemistry or biology class, but that didn’t stop her. The excellent student finished both her careers at Wesleyan and Rabun County High School in three years instead of four. True to form, she emerged from pharmacy school with a perfect 4.0 grade point average. Eleanor had a distinct way of studying. “She never stayed up past 10 o’clock before a test,” Albert said. “I had a knack for listening very 19
Eleanor Deal Law stands beside a display at Deal’s Drug Store in this photo from 2005. Law was the first female pharmacist in Rabun County. Photo/Rabun County Historical Society
Mary Ann Lipscomb Mary Ann Rutherford Lipscomb’s life was based on the philosophy that education was the key to a successful and productive future. Born in Athens in 1848, Lipscomb worked tirelessly in the decades after the Civil War to ensure that education was available to all of Georgia’s children. She challenged the state’s mill owners to free children from the long, dangerous hours of mill work and was instrumental in the passage of child labor laws. Lipscomb’s husband died after only five years of marriage leaving her with three young children, yet she dedicated her life to the protection and education of Georgia’s children. In the early 1900s Lipscomb’s family had a summer cottage in Tallulah Falls. She became burdened over the lack of formal education in the beautiful but isolated area. She began to tutor many of the local children but realized much more needed to be done. In 1904 Lipscomb began her campaign to establish a local school, and with the help of the Georgia Federation of Women’s Clubs, Tallulah Falls School was established in 1909. Mary Ann Lipscomb was recognized by the Georgia Women of Achievement Program in 2010 for her triumphant life and meaningful accomplishments. 20
carefully to the professor. You could just tell when the professor emphasized something. I would underscore them in my notes, and every time those would be the questions on the test,” Eleanor said of her methods. After graduating from pharmacy school in 1968, Eleanor returned to Clayton and took over her father’s pharmacy until 2006. She was the first female pharmacist in Rabun County. “There wasn’t anything hard about it. I didn’t think about (being a woman pharmacist) at all. Everybody seemed to accept me and the other pharmacists did, too,” she said. Eleanor said people often still call her to ask about medications even though she’s been retired for eight years. Before the pharmacy was sold to U-Save-It, it underwent an expansion and was even the only store in the area to offer Lancome cosmetics. Sitting beside Albert in her Valley Street home, Eleanor reminisced about days spent behind both a department store and pharmacy counter. The walls of the couple’s home hold memories from their international travels and the 10 exchange students they’ve hosted over the years. Donning a polished polka-dot shirt with a pop of red lipstick, Eleanor described her love of fashion as she scanned over old illustrations. For her, it was all about following a dream. “I would just advise anybody, if they can, to go on to college and follow their dreams,” she said. “It’s possible to be from a small town and get a job in a city.”
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Jo Kinman Brewer brought health care to Rabun County By Klark Byrd, News Editor
Happiness and satisfaction exude from Jo Kinman (Brewer) as she visits with Mrs. Rufus English and baby Betty at County Maternity home, which she helped establish. Photo/Rabun County Historical Society
Josephine Kinman Brewer, few in Rabun County have not at least heard her name. It even adorns the Rabun County Health Department building on South Main Street, a fitting honor considering her lifelong passion for advancing health care practices in Rabun County. When Jo, as she was so often called, became the county’s first full-time public health nurse on July 1, 1939, she had aspirations of helping her fellow Rabunites stay in good health. But the impact of her life’s work forever altered the county and touched more lives than anyone could have imagined. 22
Jo’s extensive career proved she was the epitome of nursing and service. The Clayton Tribune writer Scooter MacMillan feared in a Feb. 1, 1996, feature article about Jo that “something will get left out. Any attempt to list what this woman has done for the health of Rabun County will be inadequate.” Whether aiding in the birth of Rabun’s children, providing them vaccinations against the harmful diseases of the day or serving on a board dedicated to building a new library, Jo had a determination and drive to see that she left Rabun County in better shape than what she had found it. Ridges & Reflections • July 2015
An article written by her on the health department in “Rabun County, Georgia and Its People Vol. 1,” discusses the establishment of the Rabun County Maternity home. It states that she and Dr. James A. Green, whose focus was not on obstetrics but who served as the county’s leading obstetrician, discovered they both desired a central location for expecting mothers to visit so they could birth their children in a safe environment near medical attention. “In 1941, Dr. Green and I decided that the best thing to do was for me to become educated as a Maternal Nurse Specialist,” Jo wrote. “So I did go to learn to be a Certified Nurse-Midwife.” The idea of a maternity home did not sit well with Green’s partner, Dr. J.C. Dover, who did not believe that women would leave their homes to give birth. Undaunted, Jo rehired Lula Smith, who had worked in Rabun County briefly in 1936, Nurse Jo Kinman (Brewer) of the Rabun County Health Department gives a polio after she went to school to learn vaccination to Ouida Henslee while her sister Renata looks on. The Health Department nurse midwifery. building was constructed on South Main Street in Clayton just north of the newly opened With the assistance of the hospital in 1952. It was previously located on Highway 76 West across from the Rabun then director of the State Health County Courthouse. Photo/Rabun County Historical Society Department in Atlanta, Jo and Jo was named the Ninth District Nurse program conducted while mothers were Green started a home-delivery program of the Year in 1973. A May 3 Tribune there.” in March 1942 to teach midwives best article reported that in her presentation, Within a year of its opening, 73 women practices for their job. Dotson said of Jo: “What she has had left their mountain homes to give “Then we decided the time was right accomplished during her lifetime will birth at the maternity home, disproving to open our County Maternity home, have a good influence for generations in Dover’s assumptions. which we did on November 20, 1942,” Jo Rabun County.” “After that, they came from wrote. And what were Jo’s accomplishments everywhere,” Jo told MacMillan. As Jo slid into her new role as home and recognitions? There was, of course, “Sometimes we’d deliver 33 babies a director and nurse-in-charge, earning the founding of the maternity home. month.” a salary paid by the State Health There also was a 1946 commendation for From 1946-56, Jo left Rabun County Department, Dover decided to go along her “splendid service” in the Red Cross and served as a Georgia Department of with the project. Maternity home staff after the Winecoff Hotel fire. Public Health state nursing consultant, greatly depended on assistance from Jo was chosen in 1948 as one of the working with industrial nurses to better Green, who though unpaid, “virtually six most distinguished women in eight the health of industrial employees. She served as the Medical Director until his Southeastern states by the Southeastern returned in 1956 as the senior public death in 1948,” Jo wrote. health nurse and became district director Women’s Exposition. In 1958, the Atlanta MacMillan’s 1996 article states the Constitution Magazine ran a feature in 1958. It was a role she vacated in 1960 Rabun County Maternity Home “was when her mother’s health took a turn for cover article on her titled “She Carries the first maternity home in the country, Health to Folks in the Mountains.” And the worse. maybe the world, to operate” on funding Jo returned to work as Rabun County’s recent to the Nurse of the Year award, with local and state dollars. Jo noted it Jo gave “untiring efforts in obtaining a was the “only such facility ever organized public health nurse later in the ’60s, at Multipurpose Center for Rabun County,” which time she also produced a health under a local-state public health nurse, the article stated. column for The Tribune and a weekly nurse-midwife combined.” In 1992, Jo was honored with the radio program co-produced with Jo Jo said, “That fact made it unique, as Distinguished Nursing Achievement Dotson of Clayton. well as the patient preventive teaching Ridges & Reflections • July 2015
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Award by Emory University, one of many she attended. Jo also studied nursing at Mt. Sinai Hospital School of Nursing in New York City, Peabody College in Nashville, Frontier Nursing Service in Kentucky and the Royal College of Nursing in London. With service as the chairwoman of the Rabun County Board of Health, a role in which she began serving in 1987, and as the chairwoman of the board of trustees that worked to build a library in 1980, Jo showed that her commitment to the betterment of Rabun County ran deep. But, even in 1973, Dotson was careful to say that “these are only the highlights” and “the little everyday things she … does go unwritten, but not unnoticed by her fellow citizens.” Josephine Kinman Brewer passed away March 1, 1999.
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The Atlanta Journal and Constitution Magazine featured Public Health Nurse Jo Kinman Brewer about her efforts to improve health in Rabun County on its cover and a two-page article in November 1958. Photo/File
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Kathy Long Blalock Kathy Long Blalock is a native if Rabun County and a graduate of Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School and North Georgia Technical College. She owns Tallulah Falls Wedding Chapel and is a Wedding Planner and Events Coordinator. Kathy volunteers for various organizations throughout the county for fundraising events. “It’s a gift God has given me to organize and give back to our community,” she said. In previous years of business, Kathy was a Costumer for the major Film Industry with Universal Studios, Warner Brothers and other filmmakers. Kathy was also owner of a Ladies Clothing Store for four years. “I have returned to my love of clothing business as a member of the Doncaster Team in downtown Clayton,” she said. “Please stop in or give me a call for any of your business needs.”
Patsy Holcomb Mitcham Hillside Orchard Farms
Country Store & Farm
WHOLESOME FAMILY FUN!
Fritters! Fried Pies! Ice Cream!
“Little Mitcham’s Gem Mine” “Grandpa’s Barnyard” Locally made... JAMS • JELLIES • PICKLES • RELISH SAUCES • DRESSINGS SALSAS • HOT SAUCES • RUBS • FRUIT CIDERS • BREAD • FRITTERS BUTTERS • ICE CREAM • SLUSHIE'S • FRIED PIES • FUDGE GIFT ITEMS AND COLLECTIBLES
1-800-2mayhaw (262-9429) 18 Sorghum Mill Drive, Lakemont, GA 7 miles south of Clayton on Old 441 www.hillsideorchard.com
706-782-2776
Patsy Holcomb Mitcham and her husband Robert Mitcham Sr. started Hillside Orchard Farms in 1983 with a small jelly kitchen in the backyard of her home. Through the years, the business has grown into a main production plant that produces more than 700 varieties of Jam, Jelly, Pickles, Relish, Ciders,
Sauces and more. At Hillside, you will also find a bakery, Honey House and Country Store where you can find animals, gem mining, apples, blackberries and other activities. Patsy is a native of Tiger in Rabun County, a graduate of Rabun County High School and attended Young Harris College. Most of Patsy and Robert’s children and grandchildren still reside in Rabun County and work in the business. Patsy and her family attend Clayton First United Methodist Church. She is a past president of the Junior Woman’s Club, and before beginning Hillside Orchard Farms, Patsy worked in the office at South Rabun Elementary School, where she had attended as a child. 25
Maude York Fisher: A life of service By Klark Byrd, News Editor
Maude York Fisher, center, is joined by Frank Scruggs, Bill Fisher, Hillyer Fisher, Mary Alice Fisher and her husband Harry C. Fisher beside their car. Maude was the first woman in Rabun County to own and drive her own car. Photo/Submitted
Maude Lucille York Fisher was born in Burton on Aug. 3, 1893. During the following 88 years, the Rabun County spitfire bent the world to her will utilizing her education, experience and large heart. Maude was one of 13 children born to William Hillyer York of Persimmon and Sarah Malinda Dickerson of Wolffork. At the time of her birth, an entry was made on a page of a “very old, yellowed, badly worn Bible,” as noted on her delayed birth certificate issued by the Georgia Department of Public Health on Sept. 22, 1961. The girl destined to become the first home demonstration agent in Rabun County sought an education in the Ninth District Agricultural school in Clarkesville, graduating in 1913 with honors. In the fall of that year, she became a sophomore at the Georgia Normal and Industrial College in Milledgeville. Although Maude spent the Christmas season of 1915 at the school, she did not forget her beloved Rabun County 26
people. She penned a letter Dec. 19 that was published in The Clayton Tribune. It began: “It wasn’t until last night after I had retired that I thought about writing this letter and having it published in the Tribune so all of you could read it. At first I thought how much I should like to send each of you a card of Christmas greetings, then I remembered this was an age of economy, and as the only alternative, I send this letter.” The letter goes on to read much like a conversation between friends, with Maude telling of her activities at the school after the other students left on Christmas break. In the letter, Maude notes her interest in agriculture. She said learning how to improve farm crops was “one of the most important things I have learned.” It was in her senior year at GNIC Maude was appointed by the U.S. and state governments as home demonstration agent for her native county. She left the school “two months before the close of the school year to take up the extension work among her
Maude York Fisher is photographed prior to 1919, the year she married Harry C. Fisher in Rabun County. Photo/Submitted
own people,” stated an article appearing in The Clayton Tribune. Maude traversed Rabun County on horseback year round to teach and lecture on theory in winter and to provide practical demonstrations in the summer. “One day my ‘school’ may be the back porch with one pupil in attendance, some girl or woman who seeks to know how to store away the wonderful largesse of summer that there may be no want in winter, while the next day school will be held perhaps in a pretentious parlor, where are gathered a group as eager to learn as I am to teach,” she once told the Tribune. And teach she did. As a home demonstration agent, Maude discussed with and showed anyone thirsting to know the processes of conserving food — canning, preserving and drying. She also gave lessons on how to cook and on the “economical conduct” of the home. Eventually Maude gave up the horse, bought a car and became the first woman in Rabun County to own and Ridges & Reflections • July 2015
BETHEL&CO.
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— ESTABLISHED 1975 — Tax Return Preparation TAX RETURN PREPARATION ACCOUNTING SERVICES Bookkeeping Accounting Services Business Check Writing Elizabeth S. Bethel Budgeting
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Payroll Services Financial Statement Preparation Tax Counseling Valdosta State University 2003 BBA Proan Advisor Drop in at 66 N. Church Street, Clayton, GA orQuickBooks call to make appointment.
P.O. Box 1056 Clayton, GA 30525 ACCOUNTING SERVICES Elizabeth S. Bethel Phone: 706-782-4531 • Fax: 706-782-2277 • www.bethelco.com Bookkeeping Accountant Check Writing Graham C. Bethel Budgeting Payroll Services Accountant Valdosta State University 2003 BBA Financial Statement Preparation QuickBooks ProUniversity Advisor Tax Counseling Florida State 1970 BS
Drop in at 66 N. Church Street, Clayton, GA or call to make an appointment. P.O. Box 1056 Clayton, GA 30525 www.bethelco.com
We look forward to serving you now and in the future.
Graham C. Bethel Accountant
Florida State University 1970 BS
We look forward to serving you now and in the future.
drive her own car. Maude’s strong will and stubborn nature was never more evident than in a letter she wrote to the Baptist Church of Clayton after she was kicked out for dancing. She wrote the church to say, “I shall heed my own counsel, for a man is not a man that listens to filthy gossip of envious people. Be there every one of this church who can look at their fellow man and know you are better than they.” After the start of World War I, Maude joined an infant chapter of the Red Cross in Rabun County. By November 1918 as the war was ending, Maude was elected to the Junior Red Cross officer position at the organization’s annual meeting. It was in that same month that Maude wrote a letter to her “honey dear,” Harry C. Fisher, who had gone off to fight in the war. Maude married Harry in Rabun County on June 7, 1919. Together they raised three children, William Clifton “Bill” Fisher, James Hillyer Fisher and Mary Alice Fisher. Maude and Harry carried on with their lives over the years. Harry was elected Rabun County Tax Commissioner in a landslide vote in 1921. He retained the position until 1944. By the early 1930s, Maude again felt the call to feed her fellow Rabunites. She opened the Green Shutter Restaurant and later when the downstairs was completed, Maude opened The Green Shutter Tea Room which, as noted in “Rabun County, Georgia and It’s People Vol. 1,” offered low-cholesterol foods in an era before the dangers of high cholesterol were Ridges & Reflections • July 2015
KINGWOOD Country Club & Resort
Spa & Fitness Center
Memberships Available
706-212-4125
Massages Scrubs Sea Mud Wraps Manicures Pedicure Hair Salon Fitness Center Sauna Steam Room Hot Tub Indoor Pool Outdoor Pool
401 Country Club Drive • Clayton, GA
www.kingwoodresort.com
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Maude York Fisher is seen with her husband Harry C. Fisher, who became Rabun County Tax Commissioner in 1921. He held the position until 1944. During that time, Maude started The Green Shutter Tea Room. Photo/Submitted
Drop in at 66 N. Church Street, Clayton or call to make an appointment. P.O. Box 1056 Clayton, GA 30525 Phone: 706-782-4531 • Fax: 706-782-2277 www.bethelco.com 062614-88004
Maude York Fisher is pictured later in life after many years of operating The Green Shutter Tea Room. At one time, Maude had been a home demonstration agent in Rabun County. Photo/Submitted
known. She operated the business for nearly 50 years. “The Tea Room was fun,” granddaughter Frances Moore said. “She was big into club meetings down there,” added Moore’s sister, Nancy Patton. Both granddaughters recall working in their grandmother’s Tea Room as youth, adding they were frequently on dish duty. “She cooked on a wood stove,” Patton added. “I would go over there and she would just put a piece of country ham on the wood stove and cook it. “She taught us how to set the table correctly.” “She would cook bunches and she had a big, huge buffet table and it would just be piled and you would just pay and you would eat as much as you like,” Moore said. Maude’s strong desire to help her fellow man was carried for her entire life. When World War II broke out, she didn’t hesitate in picking up a role again with the Red Cross. Maude was appointed to the Home Service office and was charged with assisting servicemen and ex-servicemen. On Dec. 12, 1946, she was elected Home Service chairwoman. Maude York Fisher spent her life weaving herself into the tapestry that is Rabun County’s history. On Aug. 7, 1981, just four days after her 88th birthday, Maude passed away. She outlived her husband and her oldest son. She instilled in her children and her childrens’ children the importance of getting an education. She had fed the hungry, clothed the poor and sheltered the indigent. And she refused to sit still until her day of rest began back at her husband’s side in Tiger’s Jones Cemetery.
C l r i nic e g i T
Felichia Owens Office Manager
Dr. Guy Gober Urology
Dr. Stephen Jarrard
General Surgery and General Medicine
19 English Street • Tiger, GA 30576
706-782-3572
We salute the women who serve the patients of Rabun County! 28
Ridges & Reflections • July 2015
hunter
d d Funeral Home
Club of Clayton
We arrange cremations
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Warwoman Rd., Clayton, GA 706-782-4243
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Fine Jewelry for All Ages •Gold •Diamond •Silver •Gemstones •Jewelry Repair •Jewelry Design •Layaways •Watch Batteries
Best Jewelry Store 2 years in a row
to all the men and
Women of Rabun County since 1948 www.claytonrotary.com
104 Market Center (across from new Walmart) • Cornelia, GA • 706-778-0245 • Hours: Tues thru Sat 10-6
Fran Rogers defines Reeves Furniture & Gifts
Reflect your Mountain Lifestyle
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16 S MainHunter St. Douglas 16 S Main St., Clayton, GA Clayton, GA Treatments Window M-F 8:30-5:30 Sat. 8:30-5:00 Reeves Furniture & Interiors
706-782-4253
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16 S Main St. 706-782-4253 GA M-F 8:30-5:30; Sat. Clayton, 8:30-5:00 M-F 8:30-5:30 reeveshomefurnishings.hdspd.com Sat. 8:30-5:00
reeveshomefurnishings.hdspd.com 706-782-4253 FURNITURE & GIFTS
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Custom Bedding Reeves Furniture & Interiors Reeves Furniture & Interiors
Fran Reeves Rogers is the friendly face customers of Reeves Furniture & Gifts have grown to know and trust for the last 40 years. The store bears her stamp. Educated at the University of Georgia and New York School of Interior Design, Fran returned to Clayton in 1963 and continued to work in the family business while raising three children, two of whom also work with Reeves, Vaughan and Preston. Daughter Natalie is a teacher in Habersham County. Fran has been manager of Reeves’ furniture and gift departments since 1976. She is active in her church and a number of Rabun County civic organizations. Fran feels blessed to live in Rabun County and be part of the Reeves Family Business.
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www.hunterfuneralhome.com
Index of Advertisers Adams & Associates.................................................................. 17 Adams Hearing Aid Specialists................................................. 21 Amara Center............................................................................... 3 Bethel & Co................................................................................ 27 Blalock Meat............................................................................... 15 Bo’s Mountain Cleaning............................................................ 10 CannonWood Village................................................................. 30 Carolyn’s Fine Jewelry.............................................................. 29 Country Boy Sports................................................................... 24 Deal’s Appliance Service........................................................... 11 Development Authority of Rabun County............................... 17 Foxfire Museum & Heritage Center........................................ 31 Gillespie’s Cabinet Shop............................................................ 16 Hillside Orchard Farms............................................................ 25 Hunter Funeral Home............................................................... 29 Insuring America....................................................................... 10 Joel A. Wise................................................................................ 30 Kathy L. Blalock & Associates.................................................. 25 Kingwood Resort & Country Club........................................... 27 Nails One...................................................................................... 9 Oconee Federal Savings & Loan.............................................. 21 Rabun County Board of Education............................................. 2 Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School.............................................. 7, 32 Reeves Ace Hardware................................................................ 11 Reeves Furniture & Gifts.......................................................... 29 Rotary Club of Clayton.............................................................. 29 Smitty’s Spirits............................................................................ 17 Star Equipment & Rental............................................................ 9 Tallulah Falls School.................................................................. 20 Tiger Clinic................................................................................. 28 Vicki’s Restaurant...................................................................... 24 Wild Bill’s Army-Navy Store..................................................... 15 Woodmen Life Insurance.......................................................... 15
Sherryl Major inspiration for CannonWood “My inspiration in starting a business, whether it be CannonWood or the Tiger Drive In, has always started with my wife, Sherryl Wilson Major, one of the finest ladies that has ever been produced in Tiger, Georgia.” So says husband and entrepreneur Tom Major. “She simply comes up with a wonderful business idea and leaves it to me to execute,” he added. Tom said Sherryl is an absolute perfectionist and drops in frequently to help make improvements and adjustments along the way. “A perfect example is how CannonWood came into existence. It started with a call from my bank that a check had cleared my account that had a signature that did not look like mine. A quick call to Sherryl confirmed that she had bought her grandfather’s house where her mother and seven other siblings were raised. “She suggested I look into putting a retirement living home there. I toured every facility within 50 miles to incorporate the best of each one into the design and operation of CannonWood. “As you step through the front door you can see her talent in transforming her grandparents’ home into a warm and inviting retirement home.” 30
Member AICPA Member GSCPA email: jwise@windstream.net
Joel A. Wise Certified Public Accountant
66 Oak Crescent Circle (Off Main Street) P.O. Box 482 Clayton, GA 30525
W
he
ving i l e r
Phone: (706) 782-7538 Fax: (706) 782-7762 073015-175428
well com es f rst .
CannonWood Village Rabun County’s Finest Independent Living & Personal Care Home Apartments 2834 Old US Hwy 441 • Tiger, GA 30576 706-782-6570 • cannonwoodvillage.com
Foxfire Foxfire
Home of the Museum & Heritage Center Foxfire in the incredible Northeast Georgia Mountains books Home of the
Museum & Heritage Center
Just over 45 years ago, a group high school students Georgia took a genuine interest Foxfire Books in theofincredible Northeast Mountains in their mountain heritage and worked to preserve a truly unique American Over 49 years group oflegacy high school a genuine interestfriends, culture. Visit ago, the aphysical they students createdtook in honor of their in their heritage worked to preserve unique mountain culture. neighbors, and and families while creatingtheir thetruly Foxfire magazines and books—a Visit the physical legacyofthey created and in honor of their mountainside collection authentic salvaged logfriends, cabinsneighbors, gathered to house and families while creating the Foxfire magazines and books—a mountainside the tools, the trades, and the memories of Southern Appalachia’s storied past. collection of authentic and salvaged log cabins gathered to house the Take US 441 to Mountain City, GA. tools, the trades, and the memories of Southern storied past. Parkway. Turn Appalachia’ onto BlacksRock Mountain
About one mile up, follow the brown signs. Take US 441 to Mountain City, GA. Monday–Saturday, 8:30am–4:30pm Turn onto Blackwww.foxfire.org Rock Mountain Parkway. • 706 -746-5828 About one mile up, follow the brown signs. Mon-Sat, 8:30am - 4:30pm www.foxfire.org • (706) 746-5828 Join us for The Foxfire Mountaineer Festival
olk On The ountain
October 3, 2015 July
5–6
Rabun Co. Civic Center, Clayton, GA
A Celebration of Folk Art & Music
Ann Moore leads Foxfire Rabun County native Ann Henslee Moore, joined Foxfire’s staff in May 1976 at the age of 18 as Director of Finance. She held that position until 2000, when she was appointed President and Executive Director. Growing up in the Dillard/Rabun Gap area, Ann has deep Appalachian roots. As Foxfire’s President, she moved the organizational offices from Highway 441 back to Foxfire’s original location on Black Rock Mountain. This led to the creation of a public museum that provides a gift shop of locally-made items, self-guided and guided educational tours by Museum Curator Barry Stiles and events like Living History Days, Children’s Heritage Days, and Folk on the Mountain with volunteer coordinators, Michelle Bourlet and Kip Ramey. Plans are currently underway to upgrade walking trails and facilities, with the creation of a museum membership and even more heritage education programs.
Ridges & Reflections • July 2015
31
LEAD THE WAY the journey begins here
RABUN GAP
%
ENROLLS OVER
400 BACKGROUNDS STUDENTS FROM DIFFERENT
CULTURES
AND PLACES IN
THE WORLD
OF STUDENTS ARE ACCEPTED
TO COLLEGE AND ON AVERAGE
15% COLLEGE STUDENTS
ARE FIRST GENERATION
ADMISSION OPEN HOUSE Sunday, October 11th Sunday, April 17th 2016
MIDDLE SCHOOL DISCOVERY DAYS APPROXIMATELY
• College Preparatory • Boarding & Day School • Serving Grades 5-12 • Bus Service from Highlands, Franklin & Clarkesville • Limited Space Available
FINANCIAL AID GRANTS TOTALLING
$5 MILLION
visit us at
www.rabungap.org Rabun Gap–Nacoochee School 339 Nacoochee Drive | Rabun Gap, Georgia 30568 800.543.7467 | 706.746.7467 | FAX 706.746.2594
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Monday, October 12th Wednesday, November 11th Monday, January 18th 2016 Monday, February 15th 2016
70%
OF RABUN GAP STUDENTS RECEIVE