LES Center: A View From the Mountain Fall 2023

Fall 2023

A View From the Mountain a newsletter from the Lillian E. Smith Center

This Issue 1 William “Bill” Watts 3 Robert Whitten Fitcher 4 Residency Testimonial 5 Giving opportunities

Planned Giving

William “Bill” Watts 1951-2023

By Matthew Teutsch

T

he Lillian E. Smith Center on Screamer Mountain is a spiritual space.

It’s a patch of land with a history deeply connected with the Civil Rights Movement. It’s a space of community and bonding, a space where humanity exists amidst the turmoil and tumult at the bottom of the mountain.

I’ve been at the center for about four years now, and since my arrival, William “Bill” Watts has been a fixture on the hill. He’d be there, striking a mountain-man, Elvis pose with his shirt unbuttoned halfway down, showing his chest and a necklace. He’d be the first person to greet residents or visitors to the center, helping them get settled in, and he’d be there if they ever needed anything.

Bill grew up at the bottom of the hill. His father, Kelton, worked for Lil and her family doing maintenance work and other projects. One photo shows Kelton and Lillian planting ferns on top of the walkway between two of the cabins. Bill walked in Kelton’s footsteps, returning to Screamer Mountain after moving away for a while and working at the center long

Planned gifts are a perfect way to provide fellowships for artists in residence at the Center or scholarship funds for students enrolled in the Lillian E. Smith Scholars Program at Piedmont College.

FOR MORE INFORMATION https://www.piedmont.edu/lillian-e-smithcenter/giving/ Ann Sutton asutton@piedmont.edu or 706-776-0148 DIRECTOR OF LILLIAN E. SMITH CENTER Matthew Teutsch mteutsch@piedmont.edu | 706-894-4204

LES ADVISORY BOARD Matthew Teutsch, Chair Marshall Criser Nannette Curran Nancy Smith Fichter Margaret Rose Gladney Sue Ellen Lovejoy Susan Montgomery Tommye Scanlin John Siegel W. Austin Smith Stewart Smith John H. Templeton

before Piedmont acquired the property. He worked with Lil’s niece Nancy Smith Fichter and her husband Robert when they turned the site of Laurel Falls Camp into an artist residency and retreat.

last remaining remnant of the gym at Laurel Falls Camp. Lil’s favorite spot was the chimney, and she rests beside it. I think they tore the gym down before Bill’s birth, so all he knew was the chimney.

Ever since I met Bill back in 2019 when I arrived at the center, I tried to get him to tell me stories about Lil, Esther, Annie Laurie, Frank, Paula, and what life on the hill was like back when he was growing up in the 1950s and 60s. He’d always fall back on one memory, one story that stuck out in his mind.

He’d tell me about the Christmas parties that Lil hosted for the children in the community, both Black and white. He’d tell me, with fondness in his eyes, about the large Christmas tree she had in the library and the pinecones that Lil would hang from the branches. Lil would tell the children to go and get a small pinecone from the tree, and when they did, they would flip the pinecone over and find a quarter taped to the bottom.

We walked to the chimney and I took a few pictures of him standing there, shirt unbuttoned showing his chest, as he posed next to the chimney. I posted the pictures on our social media, telling people he was struggling with some things and asking people to write postcards to him to show their love and support. A number of people responded wanting to send him cards and letters of encouragement. People he knew and people he didn’t know. I wanted Bill to know how much he meant to so many people. I wanted him to know he mattered.

Bill would always tell this story with joy, and whenever I introduced him to someone new and tried to ask him other questions about life on the hill, he’d always tell that story first, going back in time to a memory that solidified his place on Screamer Mountain and his connection to it. He’d eventually tell me other stories about playing baseball in the field with other kids, about going to Atlanta for inspection after being drafted for Vietnam, about Frank’s exploits, about his wife who passed years before, and a lot more.

As I sit here and type this, I keep thinking about people I need to contact to let them know of his passing. Every time I scroll through my phone or email, a new person arises.

When I reach out, they all say how much he meant to them and how they welcomed them, no matter who they were, to the mountain. While Lil, Esther, Paula, Annie Laurie, and Frank are the mountain for Bill, Bill is the mountain for me. I never met the others in person. I know them through stories and writings. However, I know Bill. He’s not just a tangible connection to the others; he’s an integral part of the community that has been on Screamer Mountain since Calvin Smith started Laurel Falls Camp for Girls in 1920.

A few days before he passed, I sat with Bill in the garden at the center, next to Lil’s grave, and chatted. I shared pictures with him from my recent study travel trip, and we just sat under the shade of the trees and chatted as birds sang around us. I thought about the past few months and seeing him struggle to catch his breath and other things. He caught COVID back in the fall of 2020 and was on death’s door, and since then, he has had oxygen and been in and out of the hospital, all while still working on the patch of land he loved so much.

Bill will forever be tied to that space for me. When I head up there, I’ll expect to see him there. I’ll expect to have him call me once or twice or week to catch up on what’s happening on the hill. I’ll look for him and he won’t physically be there. Yet, he will be there. He will be in the wind that blows through the trees. He will be the dirt beneath my feet as I walk the grounds. He will be there in the birds singing above me. He will be in the mountain laurel that blooms every spring and the blackberries beside the cabins. He will be in that place.

Before I left for my trip, we chatted in a similar manner, near Lil’s grave in the garden. He told me that he needed two surgeries, and he was scared to death about being put under for these surgeries due to his reliance on the oxygen and other factors. He rarely showed this type of fear, but his expression and tone indicated how scared the thought of being anesthetized made him feel. He did so much for others on that hill, taking care of them as they came for their retreats from the world. He meant so much to them, and at that moment, I wanted to do something to show him how much he means to countless people.

It’s fitting, for many reasons, that Bill’s favorite spot on the hill is the chimney. That space holds special significance, not the least of which because Lil rests directly beside it. The inscription from The Journey on Lil’s headstone epitomizes the fact that Bill remains with us on the hill. Her headstone reads, “Death can kill a man, that is all it can do to him. It cannot end his life because of memory.”

I asked him if I could take a picture of him at his favorite spot at the center and share it through the center’s social media accounts. He was a little leery because I didn’t tell him why I wanted to take the picture and share it. I just told him I had something in mind. His favorite spot was by the chimney, the

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Robert Whitten Ficther 1939-2023

By Nanette Curran

R

obert Whitten Fichter, co-founder of the Lillian E. Smith Center, died on June 10, 2023 at his home in Tallahassee, Florida. Robert was made Professor Emeritus when he retired from Florida State University in 2006. During his tenure as a professor at FSU and at UCLA he received many awards for his photographic innovations and career as an image maker.

Robert was an experimental photographer whose work was shown in over 40 solo exhibitions. His final show, an exhibition of works created between 1962 and 2006, was held at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, the institution that holds Robert’s archives.

Florida State University College of Fine Arts published the following in Robert Fichter’s memory: In the last decades of his life, he worked with his wife Nancy, in the development and direction of the Lillian E. Smith Center, a campus of Piedmont University, in north Georgia. The LES Center extends the legacy of civil rights activist and writer, Lillian E. Smith, and serves to support and expand the arts and social justice through its residency program and other initiatives.

After Nancy and Robert donated the Center to Piedmont University, they continued to visit their home on Screamer Mountain, known as the Director’s Cottage and Library, and to give support in many ways to the life of the Center while there. Evidence of Robert’s presence is found everywhere on the 180 acres of the Center. He, with the help of Bill Watts and the naturalist Jack Johnson, created hiking paths and installed native plants. Robert designed and built a studio on the campus.

He often helped Bill with maintenance problems that occurred at the cottages.

To those of us who were fortunate enough to be with Robert when he and Nancy were at the Center in Clayton, one thing was clear—Robert loved the Center, its grounds, and its purpose.

The Lillian E Smith Center won’t be the same without Bill, but the center is what it is because of him, and he will forever be a part of it.

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Residency Testimonial Mär Martinez I had the pleasure of being an artist in residence at the Lillian E. Smith center. The support and camaraderie provided at the residency was unparalleled, and the scenic location and historic atmosphere provided the space away from everyday life to tap into creative energy. I attended with my partner and artistic collaborator, Leo Cordovi, and it was a stand out residency experience.

LES Chimney Garden The Lillian E. Smith Center has always been a place where people from Lillian, Paula, Esther, Annie Laurie, and others planted gardens. The chimney garden is one of those spaces, and over the past year, thanks to a generous donation from John Templeton and John Siegel we have resurrected the chimney garden, creating a space of reflection and contemplation, a space to commune with Lillian and those who came before. Here are a few images of the chimney garden, one from Joan Titus who constructed the chimney garden in the late 1960s and one from today. If you’d like to donate to help support the upkeep of the garden and expansion of these spaces at the center, you can do so at https://www.piedmont.edu/lillian-e-smith-center/giving/.

The location itself was like stepping into a time capsule of history and charm. Surrounded by the breathtaking beauty of nature, I found inspiration at every turn. The staff was incredible and made us feel welcome immediately. The serene environment allowed us to disengage from the stressors of our daily routine, and I was able to focus on creating my body of work. While at the LES residency, I made crucial headway on a series of paintings inspired by rugs my family brought when fleeing Syria to escape religious persecution. The work I created at the residency culminated into an exhibition with Leo Cordovi, IN BETWEEN: Painting the Post Immigration Experience, at the Art and History Museums Maitland. This exhibition would not have been possible without the time and space to develop these concepts provided by the LES Center.

This residency has been the catalyst for my artistic growth, and I hope to return soon. I am forever grateful to the Lillian E. Smith Residency for this life-changing opportunity and to all of you for your unwavering support on this remarkable journey.

A beautiful view of the garden from the late 1960s PHOTO// Joan Titus

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The Chimney Garden today PHOTO// Matthew Teutsch

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Opportunity to Support Our Work at the LES Center Over the past few years, we at the Lillian E. Smith Center have erected a historical marker honoring Lillian E. Smith, developed and maintained the chimney garden, partnered with local organizations on programming such as a weeklong professional development program for Georgia educators, provided programming for students and faculty at Piedmont University, and more.

We could not do any of this without your continued support. This year, we have multiple goals to make the LES Center a refuge and educational center for the community. To do this, we need to increase access to areas such as the common room. This requires the construction of access ramps and other infrastructure.

Along with this, we envision creating outdoor learning spaces to host various groups who visit the center. Our first plan to convert the foundation of Lillian’s cabin, which burned in the 1950s, into an outdoor learning classroom.

Along with these physical projects, we also seek to endow our four residency awards so we can maintain them in perpetuity. We need $25,000 to endow each award separately and $100,000 to endow all four at one time. Doing this would initially provide each award recipient with a $500 honorarium, a $500 travel allowance, and a two-week stay at the center. If the endowments surpass these numbers, then we can provide more to the award winners.

For more information on how to help support our ongoing work here at LES, contact Dr. Matthew Teutsch at mteutsch@piedmont.edu or donate on our website: https://www.piedmont.edu/lillian-e-smith-center/giving/

piedmont.edu/lillian-smith-center P.O. Box 10 | Demorest, GA 30535 706-894-4204