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The best of 2011 Revisiting some of our favorite stories. hg
A TIMES SPECIAL SECTION SUNDAY, JANUARY 22, 2012
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CMYK The Times, Gainesville, Georgia |
Sunday, January 22, 2012
gainesvilletimes com
the best of 2011
The best of 2011 Revisiting some of our favorite stories. hg
A TIMES SPECIAL SECTION SUNDAY, JANUARY 22, 2012
In 2011, The Times devoted considerable time and space to covering the people and events that help shape Northeast Georgia. Our reporters and photographer worked diligently to find interesting stories about your friends and neighbors. Today, as has become an annual tradition, we reprint a few of our favorite stories from the past year, in case you missed them.
Deals movin’ on in Nathan and Sandra Deal started 2011 by moving into the Governor’s Mansion, just a few days before he was sworn in as governor.
4
a century with lessie
5
As she turned 100, Lessie Smithgall, who co-founder The Times with her husband, Charles, can still captivate a room.
slimming down
6
Randy Davenport’s poor eating habits caused him to blow up to 570 pounds. But he’s changing his ways, with a goal of losing 355 pounds.
a timeless tradition For decades, Marvin Orenstein has donated a watch to high school players on all of Gainesville and Hall County’s football teams.
she liked ike
the top of africa
6 9
Flowery Branch resident Robert Smucker raised money for Africa while taking on Mount Kilimanjaro.
‘to honor my mommy’ Zalissa Lomax uses her late mother’s birthday in April as an opportunity to engage in one random act of kindness.
10
Clermont books it Tiny North Hall city opens its own library after county budget cuts forced the library system to close branches.
learning at home More and more Hall County parents are turning to home schooling for their children. But the reasons and styles vary.
10 12
saved by an angel Harold Johnson believes the man who pulled him from his burning home just before Thanksgiving is an angel.
Finally found Three sisters were reunited in October, years after their mother sold the youngest daughter for drugs and money in 1988.
RUIN & REBIRTH
Memorial, memories highlight 75th anniversary of tornado By Tricia L. Nadolny
6
Fran Smith Johnson was one of four secretaries for Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower in Germany during World War II.
published april 7, 2011
12
news@gainesvilletimes.com As the anniversary of Gainesville’s darkest moment passed, a small group gathered in silent memorial. A crisp blue sky stood in stark contrast to the day 75 years ago, April 6, 1936, when the clouds sat low above Gainesville and the air pressed in thick and heavy. On that morning more than 200 lost their lives in the fifth deadliest tornado in U.S. history. “I never realized or thought I’d be here this long,” said Ed Parks, a 79year-old survivor of the storm and a man who often speaks of the harrowing experience with a reserved composure. On Wednesday, tears rested in the corners of his eyes. “After that day, it’s such a great feeling to know that God let you stay here this long on earth.” At 8:27 a.m., the moment the first of three tornadoes hit, the group of about a hundred folded arms or clasped hands or simply closed their eyes. After that silence, the town unveiled a memorial that none could deny was long overdue. “If we don’t do it now, we’re going to lose the chance to let them know how much we appreciate what they went through and how much we care about them and how much they did to rebuild the town,” Mayor Ruth Bruner said. Until April 6, 2011, no public memorial honored the lives lost and the community that moved forward to rebuild the shattered town. “It would have been so easy to simply give up and walk away,” said Glen Kyle, managing director of the Northeast Georgia History Center, which along with Main Street Gainesville created the memorial plaque. “So much death, so much fear and uncertainty. But they did not. They did not. That is the success of today. That is why we’re here 75 years later.” Many in the crowd Wednesday morning had heard the stories of Gainesville’s great storm told by parents and friends. Scattered throughout the group, though, were some who remember the day firsthand. It wasn’t a scheduled part of the
SARA GUEvara | The Times
Main Street Manager Angela Thompson and Northeast Georgia History Center director Glen Kyle unveil a memorial plaque in April for the 75th anniversary of the 1936 tornado in the Gainesville square.
ONLINE ■ Go to gainesvilletimes.com/ tornado to read stories from our coverage of the 75th anniversary of the 1936 tornado. ■ Watch our special, 22-minute documentary, “Ruin to Rebirth,” the story of the tornado through the eyes of people who survived it. ■ See other videos, photo galleries and historic newspaper front pages that commemorate the tornado.
morning’s events, but several decided to share their recollections. “In Pruitt-Barrett Hardware was the fire and everything else was torn down,” said John Jacobs, pointing across the square with memories of the devastation he saw at age 13. “It’s a sight I’ve lived with through the years, and every time a dark cloud comes up through Gainesville, I run the other way.” Some stories of the tornado have been shared so many times throughout the 75 years that they are now a part
14 Photos courtesy fo Hall County Library System
Above: People review damage on Bradford Street near an auto parts store. Right: Fires broke out in several locations immediately following the tornado.
of the town’s collective history. But still, one man came to the podium on Wednesday’s anniversary and shared a memory few had heard before. Phil Gilstrap told the group his father Pierce Gilstrap was 27 and weathered the storm in the Jackson Building. Fortyseven years later, as the two talked one Sunday morning before church, the father reminded his son that it was the anniversary of the ‘36 tornado. “My dad was not a religious guy but he was a very godly man,” Gilstrap said. “And he said ‘Wasn’t God good to me?’ He said ‘I would have never met your mom and I would have never had you kids and the grandkids.’” They spoke for a few more minutes. And then the old man suffered a heart attack and “slipped out into eternity,” his son said. “I’m so thankful to God that he did let him survive that because just a few minutes after he was giving God thanks for that he got to meet his maker face to face and thank him personally for that,” he said. “And that’s a memory that I will hold onto forever.”
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
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the best of 2011
published january 7, 2011
Deals movin’ on in
Gov.-elect celebrates his first night in mansion by writing speeches By Carolyn Crist
news@gainesvilletimes.com
sara guevara | The Times
Above: Gov. Nathan Deal moves some his belongings into the Governor’s Mansion on move-in day at the governor’s mansion on West Paces Ferry in Atlanta. Four days after moving into the mansion, Deal was sworn in as governor of Georgia. Right: Sandra Deal takes some of her belongings from the trunk of a car in January while moving into the Governor’s Mansion on West Paces Ferry Road in Atlanta. Below: A moving truck follows the Deals to the Governor’s Mansion in Atlanta in early January.
The Governor’s Mansion was ready for the Deals to arrive Thursday afternoon, with all the furniture in place and everything squeaky clean. The only things missing? The Deals’ favorite recliners. “We brought the recliners, so we’re in business,” Deal said with a laugh. “Those chairs inside looked straight up. I didn’t try them out yet.” The Deals and the governor-elect’s personal assistant Tom Willis drove through the West Paces Ferry Road gate in a black Dodge Charger, followed by an Adams Transfer and Storage truck and more helping hands in a new black Chevrolet Tahoe. “We’re not bringing too much. It’s already furnished, and we’re looking forward to getting our stuff loaded in,” Deal said after he got out of the car and opened his wife Sandra’s door. “It’s an exciting experience. I told one of my staffers this morning that this is one of those days we’ve been waiting for.” The mansion is a three-story, 30-room Greek Revival style home built in 1967 that sits on about 18 acres of land. Designed by Georgia architect Thomas Bradbury, it officially opened on Jan. 1, 1968, for former Gov. Lester Maddox. The home, which covers 24,000 square feet and boasts 30 Doric columns around the porches, feels like a museum with endless detailed lamps, ceiling moldings and curtains. The main floor, complete with a marbled foyer, Georgia state seal and grand staircase, features two sitting rooms, a formal office, a formal dining room, a small dining room and a large kitchen. The second floor contains seven bedrooms and the Deals’ personal office. The bottom floor holds a large ballroom with a piano and paintings of past governors. The home includes an elevator and books and paintings from one of what is considered the finest Federal Period collections in the nation, which were acquired by a 70-member fine arts committee when the mansion was constructed. “(Sandra) put more in here than I thought,” Deal said with a smile as he pulled boxes out of the Charger’s trunk to carry into the house. The couple brought sandwiches from Gainesville’s Inn Between The Delictsn to eat for their first meal in the new home. “It’s going to take some getting used to having extra people in the house all the time, but we’ll adjust. A house is a house,” Sandra Deal said as she started to unload. “I brought a lot of papers with me, including articles to put in scrapbooks. Of course a woman takes far more when she moves, and sometimes it’s easier to take everything and decide later what you need. We brought memorabilia from his mother to make it homey, and we hope it will become home for us very soon.” Tonight’s celebration in the new home? Writing speeches. “I’ve got to work on speeches, and that’s not uncommon for me. We’ve lived that kind of public life,” Deal said. “We always joke about the fact that when Mary Emily was delivered, I had to write speeches for the National Jaycee speaking competition, and Sandra was telling me to go home and write as she was coming out of anesthesia.” After unpacking the trunk of the Charger, the Deals took a few minutes to rest before getting back to work. “This is a great opportunity, though it’s a little confining. You can’t go anywhere without somebody with you, which takes a little getting used to having as part of your daily regimen,” Deal said. “It’s a very beautiful facility here that the state of Georgia owns. It is the people’s house, and we will treat it that way.” As the family unpacked, executive chef Holly Chute was busy at work, already preparing the couple’s first dinner - pork loin tenderloin, sweet potatoes and asparagus. Chute began working at the mansion when George Busbee became governor in 1975 and left for a period during Joel Frank Harris’ tenure of 1983-1991 before returning again. “I’ve watched how the preferences have changed over time. Busbee really enjoyed Southern food with fried chicken and peas,” said Chute, who is writing a book about how to make healthy cooking interesting. “I think Nathan will be a meat and potatoes kind of guy who enjoys simple and healthy food.” When each new governor moves in, she asks the family to fill out a spreadsheet and then hones in on their favorites as she get to know them. “I like to send lunch with the governor, too, because even when he goes to lunch meetings, sometimes he doesn’t get a chance to eat,” she said. “This is the best job. You get to see a different side of the governor than the staff sees at the Capitol because he’s relaxed. That’s our job. When he comes home, he needs to feel at home.” The kitchen features a mix of residential and commercial features, which helps the state’s first family feel comfortable but also lets Chute create and coordinate large meals. “Some people have approached me to ask the governor for things, but I always say it’s off limits. You become a part of the family when you spend four to eight years with them,” she said. “I would never take advantage of that. It’s emotional to say goodbye when they move out. You create lifelong friendships, and I still talk to all the families.” As the Atlanta neighborhood welcomes new neighbors, some Gainesville residents had to wave farewell to theirs Thursday morning. “We all walked up to the house two nights ago. You talk about the definition of mixed emotion,” said Hall County Schools Superintendent Will Schofield. “We’re losing the best next-door neighbor, but it’s time to share him with the rest of Georgia. Today we walked across the field to the Deals’ house for the last time, and we’re going to miss them, but we’re hopeful for Georgia.”
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
How to help To offer a donation to the Smithgall Woodland Garden, write to Smithgall Woodland Garden, 351 Lakehill Drive, Gainesville, GA 30501.
published march 27, 2011
Gainesville’s Golden Girl
scott rogers | The Times
Lessie Smithgall, co-founder of The Times, turns 100 By Melissa Weinman
news@gainesvilletimes.com Lessie Smithgall keeps an antique clock on the mantle in her living room. It’s large and black with an ivory face that her mother used to oil with a chicken feather dipped in kerosene. She recently had the 90-year-old clock reworked and said it now keeps time perfectly. When it chimes, she pauses and smiles. “I like it not only because I remember it but because it’s a sweet sound,” Smithgall said. Celestia Bailey Smithgall is a woman who seems to defy time. On April 1, she will turn 100. But to talk to her, you wouldn’t know it. She has the sharp wit of a much younger woman and has retained the ability to captivate a room. She seems to have waltzed her way to 100 gracefully, bearing just one false tooth and an elbow replacement as battle scars. “I’ve got my hair, I’ve got my teeth and about half my brain,” she joked. “It’s really something to get to be 100 years old. I’m so blessed because of so many blessings I have.” Smithgall knows exactly what she wants for her centennial birthday — for people to donate money to help complete her dream, the Smithgall Woodland Garden. “I would like for the Smithgall Woodland Garden to be further developed,” she said, lighting up as she talked about the proposed park on the property surrounding her Gainesville home. “That’s really going to be a great attraction. It’s what Charlie wanted, too.” Smithgall and her late husband, Charles, already have left a legacy for nature lovers in North Georgia. The couple donated more than 5,600 acres near Helen, known as Smithgall Woods, to the state of Georgia. Smithgall hopes to leave another gift for the people of Gainesville: a nature preserve within the city limits. The Smithgall Woodland Garden will sit on 185 acres around her home. Plans for the garden include children’s playgrounds, walking trails and a botanical garden. “I was a city girl but I loved to be out in the woods,” Smithgall said. Fundraising is well under way for the garden, which supporters say will be a one-ofkind facility. Located in the heart of the growing city, the garden will be a destination for those who enjoy botanical gardens. Lessie and Charles Smithgall were a dynamic pair. Always partners, they left their mark on media, art and philanthropy throughout the region. Their love story, though, did not have a smooth start. The day after she graduated from the Uni-
versity of Georgia’s journalism school in 1933, Smithgall interviewed for a job as a continuity writer at radio station WGST in Atlanta. “That’s where I met Charlie. To apply for the job, they put me down at this typewriter and told me to write some copy. He sat down next to me and practiced his announcing out loud the whole time I was trying to concentrate on this job interview,” Smithgall said. “I could have killed him. I didn’t like him for a long time.” Eventually she changed her tune. Charles Smithgall was a charmer and had a sterling sense of humor just like his future wife. “He was pretty attractive and he endeared himself to me,” Smithgall reminisced about their courtship. “And he didn’t do anything bad like practice his announcing when I was trying to concentrate.” Charles and Lessie Smithgall were married on Oct. 27, 1934. The couple went on to work together in radio for WSB in Atlanta, Charles as an announcer and Lessie as a copy writer. When a radio station and weekly newspaper in Gainesville became available, he purchased the media outlets and moved his family to Hall County. The couple had four children: Bay, now deceased, Charles Jr., John and Thurmond. “It was exciting to move up here. I’d lived in Atlanta all my life,” Smithgall said. The Smithgalls decided that Gainesville needed a daily newspaper, and founded what was then known as The Gainesville Daily Times. The paper’s first edition rolled off the presses on Jan. 26, 1947. It was modest at first, starting out with just four pages. “One of the carriers was telling his circulation boss, ‘I asked this lady if she wouldn’t take The Times. She said I’ve seen that little paper, but I just have to have more newspaper than that. I have to wrap things in it, I have to start fires’ ... I can still laugh about that,” Smithgall said. The Smithgalls recruited a varsity team to lead the fledgling newspaper. Charles Smithgall called Sylvan Meyer up on his honeymoon in Florida to become the editor of the paper. Lou Fockele, who was working for another newspaper at the time, was brought in as publisher. Smithgall recalls her years starting The Times with Charles as some of the best in her life. “The sign that hangs outside of The Times building reads, ‘mindful of the constitutional principle of the people’s right to know, we dedicate this building to the enlightenment and freedom of the people of Northeast Georgia.’ And that was his philosophy and mine, too. It was signed by us, Charles and Lessie Smithgall.” In her own right, Lessie is a titan of Georgia’s media world.
She is considered to be one of the founders of the Peabody Awards, though she denies any credit. While working at WSB, Smithgall was talking with the station’s general manager Lambdin Kay, who had been tasked with creating an award for the radio industry. Smithgall, then a recent University of Georgia graduate, offered to introduce Kay to John Drewry, the dean of the journalism school. “That conversation led to the creation of the Peabody Awards,” said Horace Newcombe, director of the Peabody Awards. “One way to think about it is that without Lessie Smithgall’s presence in Mr. Kay’s office on a coffee break, we might not have had the Peabody awards at the University of Georgia.” The Smithgalls continued to support the Peabody Awards thereafter. “Later, her other major contribution with her husband was the endowment of the Lambdin Kay chair for the Peabodys, which is the endowed chair at the university that I now hold,” Newcombe said. “She is considered one of the leading graduates of the Grady College. Her career with her husband in newspapers and radio is impressive in itself and of course the family’s philanthropy throughout the state is massive.” Until recently, Smithgall attended the Peabody Awards in New York every year. One year, she had the opportunity to meet CBS news anchorman Walter Cronkite. She even challenged him to a game of tennis, a game she started playing as a teenager and that she played religiously until she was 89. “I told him ‘I’ve always admired you so much. For one thing, you’ve still got such a good head of hair. Then, you’re still playing tennis. And you are a good broadcaster,’” Smithgall said of Cronkite. Cronkite was intrigued by his encounter with Smithgall and joked about their plans publicly. “He said ‘By the way, this lady has challenged me to a game. She’s 89 years old and I understand she’s just taken up the game,’” Smithgall said. When she was at WSB radio, Smithgall encountered another soon-to-be-famous newsman, Douglas Edwards, who preceded Cronkite as the CBS news anchor. Edwards was a newsman at WSB. When he left to join CBS in New York, he swapped his typewriter for Charles Smithgall’s overcoat. Lessie Smithgall used that typewriter for years, including when she wrote a column for The Times three times a week. The Times began with a staff of 17. As it grew, the Smithgalls moved it to an office on Spring Street, then later, to its current location at 345 Green St. The Smithgalls sold The Times to Gannett Co. in 1981. Gannett, one of the nation’s largest media companies and publisher of USA
Today, owned the paper until 2004, when it was acquired by Savannah-based Morris Multimedia. Charles Smithgall died in 2002. New York was just one of many places Smithgall visited over the years. She loved to travel and went all over the world with her family and a group of friends she dubbed “the Cabelleros.” The group, formed out of a love of theater and travel, was named for Ed Cabell, former director of Gainesville State College’s theater program. The arts were very important to Smithgall, who founded The Arts Council in Gainesville. Over the years, she has rubbed elbows with some of the most famous names in the arts. She and Charles were close friends with Robert Shaw, the former director of the Atlanta Symphony, and his wife, Caroline. She spent time with Placido Domingo, the Spanish tenor, backstage at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1995. But it was her trips with the Cabelleros that were especially important to Smithgall. “Back in the early ‘80s (Cabell) started a travel group for people who were involved with Theatre Wings, the support organization for the Gainesville Theatre Alliance,” said LeTrell Simpson, a member of the travel group. “They were Santa Claus trips. We went in December and actually dressed up in Santa Claus suits. We would leave here knowing we would either visit an orphanage or a facility for the elderly and we would bring Christmas presents and do a little singing concert.” Among Smithgall’s favorite trips were a journey to Cairo with the Cabelleros and a safari with her late daughter Bay, an anthropologist. She and Bay trekked up a mountain in Rwanda and observed mountain gorillas in their natural habitat. Simpson lives just a few blocks from Smithgall and still visits her regularly. She said she always leaves Smithgall’s home feeling more positive than when she came. “She has the most wonderful sense of humor and she’s just so real,” Simpson said. “I think she is a strong woman in the most positive sense of the word.” Smithgall is surrounded by reminders of her 100 years: a hallway jam-packed with family photos of her four children, the tennis courts outside where she spent many happy days and the dainty watch on her wrist that was a gift from her late husband. The inscription on the back of the watch reads, “To Lessie: 4/1/39.” It was a gift for her birthday in 1939. Charles later told her, “I wouldn’t put my name on it because if we break up, you can still keep it.” They were married for 63 years. “It still keeps time, too,” Smithgall said.
CMYK
CMYK The Times, Gainesville, Georgia |
Sunday, January 22, 2012
gainesvilletimes com
the best of 2011
published November 16, 2011
Former athlete starts journey to lose 355 pounds By Dallas Duncan
dduncan@gainesvilletimes.com The Rev. Randy Davenport wants to get his swagger back. The last time the former athlete stood on a scale, he weighed 485 pounds. That’s nearly 100 less than he weighed in January 2010, when he was 570 pounds. It’s all part of his journey to reclaim the life he almost lost. When his journey began last year, Davenport had high blood pressure. His joints could not support his weight. His mobility “shut down to only a crawl.” “When you’ve been athletic and are used to eating and then you stop sports ... obesity is inevitable,” he said. “You have totally lost any kind of perspective on portion control. I just didn’t even care anymore.” Davenport started playing football with the Cedar Town Bulldogs in Cedar Town. He later went on to play left tackle at the University of Georgia from 1983 to 1986, and his career culminated with two years on the Scott rogers | The Times Cincinnati Bengals National Foot- Randy Davenport is on a mission to lose weight. The former UGA and NFL football player gained a lot of weight ball League team. after his retirement, but with a new attitude and workout regiment has lost about 100 pounds so far. But though his football days effect it had on his family. He was working out. you’re doing on land but in water ended, his habits did not. He had a membership to the because it’s lower impact on your “A lineman is not subject to eat- sick of being sick and tired, and he Georgia Mountains YMCA, but Dav- knees and your joints,” Davenport ing in moderation or eating salads. wanted to live. “Either I’m going to eat my way enport let it sit around for a while. said. “You’re able to be mobile and They want them to be big and massive so you can move the fort,” Dav- into an early grave, or I’m going to The day he finally went last year, he get around. ... You’re not sweating do something about it,” Davenport intended to sit on a bench for a few profusely, but you’re sweating.” enport said. hours, come home and tell his wife It didn’t take long for Davenport “My reckless eating habits caught said. It took him a little while to fig- he just didn’t like working out. to realize this was exactly what he up with me. I found myself after Instead, Davenport met Reesa needed. football tipping the scale a decade ure out exactly what to do about it. He was considering gastric bypass Dawkins, a personal trainer. “When I got out here and got later at over 500 pounds.” “She introduced me to water into it, my athletic instinct kicked What finally changed his mind surgery partially because he didn’t about weight loss was seeing the want to face the intimidation of aerobics. It’s basically everything in. I started noticing I could get up,
move a little easier,” he said. Davenport’s weight gain, and subsequent weight loss, is not rare among athletes, said Amy Roark, a registered dietitian and diabetes educator at the Northeast Georgia Diagnostic Center. “We lose 2 percent of our resting metabolic rate every decade. We need less and less calories as we age,” Roark said. “Athletes often require a lot of calories, 3,000 to 4,000 in season. They get so accustomed to eating these large amounts of food, it’s hard to scale back.” Davenport struggled with that, too. He went from eating proteinpacked meals — a breakfast of six eggs, bacon, four pieces of toast, grits and a quart of juice, for example — to eating about 2,000 calories a day. “To go form that to a small bowl of oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, for lunch a salad without dressing and dinner of a piece of meat that fits in my hand, Brussels sprouts and a small baked sweet potato, the first few weeks withdrawals were so bad,” Davenport said. Davenport said his health has already improved. His blood pressure is stable and his sleep apnea, a result of his obesity, is becoming less of a problem. He wants to lose 100 pounds in full by Thanksgiving and thinks he’ll be at his goal weight in a year. “I want to be down to 215 (pounds),” Davenport said. “I’ve only been that weight once, when I was in high school in the ninth grade. ... The doctor said 200, but I need a little skin on my bones.”
published may 30, 2011
She liked Ike
North Hall woman recalls her time as Eisenhower secretary By Jeff Gill
jgill@gainesvilletimes.com
SARA GUEVARA | The Times
Marvin Orenstein, 90, owner of Gem Jewelry in Gainesville, has been giving a timepiece to a selected football player in the Gainesville and Hall County school systems since 1946.
published october 29, 2011
Gem Jewelry owner keeps watch tradition By Patrick Stoker
pstoker@gainesvilletimes.com For 65 years, Marvin Orenstein hasn’t missed a single Gainesville High School football awards banquet. And each of those year’s the 75-year owner of Gem Jewelry in Gainesville has donated a timepiece to a selected football player from the school. Over the years, Orenstein’s donation has grown to include seven high school football players every year — each from a different county school. Orenstein’s father-in-law opened Gem Jewelry in 1936 shortly after the famed tornado devastated the city. “When I came to Gainesville, (my father-in-law) ... would go down to the University of Georgia and go down to (Georgia) Tech and get all the equipment they were going to dispose of and bring it back to the Gainesville High School team,” Orenstein said. Right in the middle of the Great Depression and immediately following the tornado, many people were short of money including the football program. “At that time, things were rough. People in the mills here were making $15 to $18 a week,” Orenstein said. Following the death of his fatherin-law in 1946, Orenstein approached Gainesville High School requesting to set up an award in his memory. Orenstein’s idea was to present a player, selected by coaches, with a brand-new watch. And not a cheap one. The awarded timepiece is usually worth in the area of $300 to $400. “It’s not just a watch,” Orenstein said. “It’s something they can be proud to wear.” Following the consolidation of the county schools in the 1950s, Orenstein was asked by East Hall High School if he could help motivate the football players. “I got a call telling me that the boys are used to playing basketball and
they’re having a hard time getting them to come out to practice, and they don’t realize how much time you have to put into the football program,” he said. School officials and coaches felt if players had something to work toward they would put forth the extra effort. “I said ‘If you think it’s going to build your program, you’ve got it,’” Orenstein said. Each public school in the county with a football program is given a watch provided by Gem Jewelry to present to the player it feels is most deserving. “I give a watch to every school whenever they call me and tell who the most valuable player is,” Orenstein said. “They invite me to the banquet, and I’ll make the presentation,” he added. Occasionally different high schools will have a banquet on the same night. In that case, one of his daughters will present the timepiece at one banquet, while he will attend the other. Because of Orenstein’s involvement with Gainesville High School, he was awarded with an honorary certificate during a graduation ceremony two years ago. Orenstein said he was proud to be honored and he’s proud of the tradition he’s carried on after his father-in-law began it so many years ago. “I did it in honor of what my fatherin-law did to Gainesville High School, but it’s branched off to county schools,” he said. The long-living tradition has been supported by the county high schools and people involved with the football programs, and Orenstein said it’s grown beyond what he imagined. “To be honest with you, I never dreamed that it would create that much attention,” he said. “I didn’t know I was that smart. It’s turned out to be that the people respect me for it.” “It’s turned out to be one of the greatest things I’ve done in my life — the most important thing I’ve done in my life.”
The war had passed her by, but a young Frances Smith got to spend the months following World War II working for one of the most prominent military figures in the world — Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower. As a member of the Women’s Army Corps, she worked with three other secretaries in his office from June 1945, when Eisenhower was in Germany, until her discharge in May 1946, when her boss was Army chief of staff at the Pentagon in Washington. The now 87-year-old Fran Johnson, who will ride in today’s Memorial Day parade in Gainesville as a guest of the Northeast Georgia History Center, talked Sunday about those days, recounting several fine details, down to the layout of offices at Eisenhower’s Frankfurt headquarters. Memories of working for Eisenhower — who had directed the D-Day invasion of Normandy in June 1944 — are still fresh. “It was the easiest thing in the whole world and the most enjoyable,” said Johnson in an interview at her home. For a man with his accomplishments, he didn’t have a conceited bone in his body. He was the same to everybody and he brought people together.” Johnson said she believes the war was won because Eisenhower “was able to make peace among all these various countries.” Eisenhower, who served as U.S. president from 1953-61 and died in March 1969, also had a knack for dealing with obstinate military leaders, including Gen. George S. Patton, whose face graces an autographed photo in Johnson’s memorabilia. The two were friends, even though Eisenhower had to reprimand Patton over an incident in which he slapped a soldier. Patton died while Eisenhower was at the Pentagon. Johnson recalled getting a phone call with the news from Patton’s son, George Jr. Johnson had to relay the message. “That was the hardest thing I ever had to do,” she said. Johnson hadn’t imagined being so close to such history when she entered the Women’s Army Corps in September 1944. She grew up in New York, spending the last two years of high school in St. Petersburg, Fla. A couple of her friends wanted to join the Army, but
sara guevara | The Times
Fran Smith Johnson, 87, served as one of four secretaries for Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1944-1945 in Frankfurt, Germany. Johnson continued working for Eisenhower at the Pentagon until 1946.
‘For a man with his accomplishments, he didn’t have a conceited bone in his body. He was the same to everybody and he brought people together.’ Fran Johnson they wanted for Johnson to graduate. After high school, Johnson worked for a short while with McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. in New York City. “My father was very disappointed when I said I wanted to go in the service,” Johnson recalled. He relented, however, giving permission so his 20-year-old daughter could enlist. Johnson said she was disappointed the war was over by the time she arrived in Germany in the spring of 1945. “The war threatened our shores,” Johnson said, explaining her emotions. “... Our land was attacked, our ships were
attacked and our people were killed in Pearl Harbor. If they did that damage ... they could keep going and do more. “And Hitler was raising all kinds of bad things over in Europe and it wouldn’t be long before they were over on our shores.” After the war Johnson got married and raised six children. She later did volunteer and social work around Washington, D.C., where she also worked as director of development, public relations and alumni affairs at St. Albans School. Johnson moved to Florida, working for a school there and later retiring. In weighing her future, she decided to move to the Hall County area to be near a lifelong friend who had settled in Dahlonega. The friend later moved to Lanier Village Estates in North Hall and Johnson eventually followed. Johnson, a widow by this time, then met John Hunt, and the two have been married for five years. Reflecting over her life, Memorial Day stirs thoughts of being back in Europe and working for Eisenhower in the months following World War II. “It was a wonderful moment on the stage, a small amount of time that looms large in the memory,” she said.
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A SPECIAL SECTION SUNDAY, JANUARY 22, 2012 Page 9
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published August 14, 2011
JOURNEY TO
THE TOP OF AFRICA S. Hall man raises money while taking on Mount Kilimanjaro BY JEFF GILL
jgill@gainesvilletimes.com
L
OAKWOOD ook at the skies today. If there are clouds, chances are they are at 9,000 to 11,000 feet above sea level, which is about average for Georgia. Now consider this: Using his feet and determination to raise money for an African charity, Robert Smucker of Flowery Branch climbed about 8,000 feet beyond that elevation, or nearly a mile and a half, to reach the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in East Africa. Smucker, 55, led the hike on June 2125 as part of a fundraiser for a nonprofit Christian organization’s efforts to develop 2,500 acres in Swaziland for large-scale farming, fisheries, poultry houses and a dairy farm. Altogether, about 100 people hiking eight mountains in five countries on three continents reached their respective summits June 25, raising about $100,000 for Heart for Africa’s Project Canaan. Smucker, an engineer with Ciba Vision in Duluth, led seven other people up Kilimanjaro, which at 19,340 feet is the tallest free-standing mountain in the world. Known for its spectacular, snow-capped peaks above the clouds, Kilimanjaro actually is a cluster of three volcanic cones: Kibo, Mawenzi and Shira. “My enjoyment wasn’t necessarily climbing to the top as it was getting (the others) to the top,” Smucker said during an interview last week at Gainesville State College. Smucker had climbed Kilimanjaro before as part of a previous Heart for Africa fundraiser. The rest of the group was made up of young hikers making their first trek up the mountain. The group started the hike at 7,000 feet in an area of rainforest. The hikers ventured through three other climates on their way to the summit: desert, a barren sort of “moonscape” and, finally, arctic. “When we climbed the summit, (guides and support staff) woke us up at 11 p.m. and we started our climb at midnight,” Smucker said. “It was six or seven hours to get to the summit. “That’s the hardest part of the whole climb. You walk 10 feet and you stop and rest, then walk another four or five steps and rest. That’s how you’ve got to do it.” Months of training and preparation paid off for Smucker’s group, which made it to the top intact.
“They all did great,” he said of his group. “... I’m so proud of them.” Other hikers aren’t so fortunate when climbing Kilimanjaro. Altitude sickness, caused by a lack of oxygen at high elevations, befalls many. And the only way to get better is to go back down the mountain. However, reaching the summit doesn’t mean you can camp out there and maybe spend an hour or so drinking in the awesome views. “You can only stay at the top about 15 minutes,” Smucker said. “We made the mistake of ... being up there nearly 40 minutes. ... Everyone was getting sick. Also, the weather starts getting bad up there.” The trip down the mountain goes at a much quicker clip. “We were almost at the point of actually skiing,” Smucker said. “We went from 19,000 (feet) to 12,000 in four hours. ... You’re fighting gravity and there’s a real strain on your knees.” Smucker has done work with Heart for Africa for six years, serving on the organization’s land advisory committee. He said he felt a spiritual calling to do such work, largely inspired also by his parents, who served as missionaries during and after World War II. “I grew up hearing all the stories about what they did in the Philippines,” said Smucker, whose mother is Filipino and whose father was American. “I have always felt the need to go serve.” Heart for Africa particularly reaches out to children in AIDS-ravaged Africa, building orphanages in Kenya, Swaziland and Malawi. “It’s a pretty sobering experience when you go to these places,” said Smucker, who also has served with Conscience International and just returned with that group from the Horn of Africa, which has been struck by a devastating famine. The Kilimanjaro experience came about because Smucker was looking for a fundraiser to benefit Africa and he wanted it “to have something to do with Africa.” “On my flights from Kenya to South Africa or Swaziland, we’d always pass by (the mountain), and I’d always see it,” he said. “So, it was always in the back of my mind that that would be something good to do.” Finally, in 2008, he decided “to go for it” and climb Kilimanjaro for the first time. As for a third trip beyond the clouds, he shakes his head. “Two times is enough,” he said.
SCOTT ROGERS | The Times
Flowery Branch resident Robert Smucker led a climb of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in East Africa to raise money for international humanitarian work.
Mount Kilimanjaro Africa’s tallest mountain is located on the border of Kenya in the United Republic of Tanzania Mt. Kilimanjaro
For The Times For The Times
The hikers work their way toward the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.
Robert Smucker, left, with the hiking group in the rain forest portion of the hike at the 7,000-foot level.
Photo by Associated Press
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published august 13, 2011
Girls donate their hair to make wig for another By Lindsey Robinson
news@gainesvilletimes.com Zalissa Lomax, 7, and Olivia Martin, 10, have been inseparable this summer. They wear similar outfits, ride the same bus to Sardis Enrichment School and spend most of their time at each other’s houses. They also have matching chin-length haircuts, thanks to one enormous act of kindness. Last week, Zalissa and Olivia gave a wig made of their own hair to Zalissa’s cousin, 10year-old Sawyer Diaz. Sawyer has alopecia, a condition that caused all of her hair to fall out last year. Sawyer traveled with her family to Gainesville last week and spent four days with the Zalissa and Olivia. They splashed at LanierWorld at Lake Lanier Islands and hiked at Stone Mountain. “We just bonded,” Sawyer said. Zalissa had never cut her waist-length hair, and she had never met Sawyer, who lives in Texas. But that didn’t matter. For Zalissa, the gift wasn’t just a selfless act — it was in memory of the family she lost as a baby and her own miraculous survival. Zalissa’s mother, father and sister were killed years ago in a collision with an 18wheeler going 110 miles per hour. Baby Zalissa was in the car, and wound up covered in glass but perfectly safe. “They didn’t know she survived until they heard her cry,” said Claudia Lomax, Zalissa’s grandmother. Claudia and grandfather Bob Lomax adopted Zalissa when she was 13 months old. Zalissa is still learning to grasp her family’s loss, but she understands how to turn a trag-
edy into a gift for others. Last year, Zalissa started using her mother’s birthday in April as an opportunity to engage in one random act of kindness. “I do it to honor my mommy,” Zalissa said. Zalissa’s mother was Lomax’s youngest daughter. “She was a very sweet, spiritual, giving kind of person,” Lomax said. For her first kind act, Zalissa donated boxes of toiletries to a Guatemalan mission. This year, with April fast approaching, Zalissa wasn’t sure what she would do for her mother’s birthday. Then Lomax found out about Sawyer. Sawyer developed alopecia areata, a condition that causes partial or complete hair loss, after her last booster shots. In less than a year, all of Sawyer’s hair, including her eyebrows and eyelashes, was gone. “I was kind of scared, but I knew I could trust in God that everything was going to be OK,” Sawyer said. Sawyer had tried inexpensive synthetic wigs, but they were hot and itchy in Texas summers and drew comments from other children. So Lomax snipped 12 inches off her granddaughter’s mane. They sent the hair to a wig company, but it wasn’t enough. Then Zalissa’s best friend Olivia agreed to donate her hair, too — 15 inches’ worth. “I was excited when I was getting my haircut. I had no idea how short I was getting it,” Olivia said. The night before Sawyer’s visit, Lomax tried to curl the wig with rollers, but it wouldn’t hold. “I said, ‘This is like trying to curl Zalissa’s
For The Times
Olivia Martin, left, and Zalissa Lomax with Sawyer Diaz. Olivia and Zalissa donated their own hair so a wig could be made for Sawyer, who has alopecia.
hair.’ Then I realized it was Zalissa’s hair,” Lomax said with a laugh. Lomax was close with Sawyer’s mother Cheryl Diaz when the two were children, but they hadn’t seen each other in 20 years. As the family gathered in Lomax’s home, Zalissa and Olivia’s gift created an impromptu family reunion. Sawyer, whose natural hair was dark and fell to her shoulders, said she looked like her cousin once she tried on the “butterscotch-
colored” wig. Zalissa, Sawyer and Olivia have sent letters and chatted on the phone since Sawyer flew back to Texas last Saturday. “Whenever I put it on, I think about how I miss them so much,” she said. Sawyer will start her school year later this month, in a new middle school. With Zalissa and Olivia’s gift, she’s not afraid of getting teased. “I love it. I’m going to wear it to church and school and if we go shopping,” she said.
published October 27, 2011
Clermont books it
North Hall city creates library of its own after spending cuts By Ashley Fielding
afielding@gainesvilletimes.com Somebody had to do it. Abandoned in a staggering round of spending reductions earlier this year, Clermont residents have taken it upon themselves to create what the Hall County government has deemed fiscally impractical - a lending library inside the town limits. A room inside the Clermont Gym — now called The Historic Clermont Dip — is already lined with books for the townspeople to browse and borrow. Some are already taking advantage of the almost completely volunteer effort. The finishing touches aren’t quite there, however. The books are all donated. Some still sit in boxes. But in the future, the room full of books promises to have a computerized lending system that allows volunteers to check books in and out of the library. “It’s not perfect,” said Sandra Cantrell, president of the Clermont Historical Society, the group behind the library effort. The town’s county-funded library branch closed in July after the members of the Hall County Board of Commissioners learned county revenues would likely come in some $11.5 million below the cost of operations. Instead of raising taxes to preserve the status quo, the commission chose a number of cuts that included closing two county library branches. Facilities in East Hall and Clermont were chosen simply because the others — located in the county’s population centers — were used by more people. Cantrell, who steered Clermont’s volunteer library effort, is also a member of the Hall County Library Board. When the time came to make a budget recommendation to the commission in June, she was one of two people who voted against the decision to close Clermont’s library. The other votes — the ones in favor of closing Clermont’s library branch — came from outside Clermont and were supported by the commission. July’s closure of the tiny Clermont library branch wasn’t the first time town residents felt let down by the commission’s fiscal decisions. “We’re kind of positioned geographically where we’re not part of White County, but we’re usually the red-headed stepchild of Hall County,” Cantrell said. “It seems that way, because it’s such a distance geographically ... “ “There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just that it’s hard for the government entities to serve all the people, which is what they’re charged to do, but it’s just hard to do that when you’ve got such a diverse group.” The town sued the county over its right to have a library branch in April 2010 after the commission voted to use special purpose local
Photos by Scott rogers | The Times
Hannah Sartain, 10, performs school work inside a room of the old Clermont Park gymnasium in October where residents of the North Hall city plan to locate a library using donated books. Recent budget woes have forced the closing of the original library.
‘It’s what you make it ... We’re hoping what we’re laying foundationally will be here for a long time — no matter what happens with the library.’ Sandra Cantrell President of the Clermont Historical Society option sales tax funds to build a park and library branch on Nopone Road. Clermont residents were outraged, claiming they had voted in favor of the sales tax because they were promised a new library branch would come from the revenues. A judge ruled in the commission’s favor. The ballot for the tax vote only promised a North Hall library branch and never specified a location. Two new commissioners who came to the board in January joined sophomore Commissioner Ashley Bell in a vote to rekindle Clermont residents’ hopes for a new county library branch in their town. As soon as they were elected, the new commissioners promised Clermont would get its library in addition to the park and technology center under construction on Nopone Road. Four acres within walking distance of The Historic Clermont Dip have been set aside as the future county library site. But no one
Home schooled student Josie Collinson, 12, reads inside the Clermont library inside the old gymnasium at Clermont Park Wednesday afternoon. In the wake of county budget cuts that closed the Clermont library.
knows when the property will develop into a promise kept. Already, lagging county revenues have officials unsure if there will be enough money to open the Nopone Road facilities when construction is complete in January.
Hall County Library Director Adrian Mixson said the hope is that the operating funds will be there by next fiscal year, which begins July 2012. Until then, Mixson said, “it will sit there.”
And a county-funded library in the town limits of Clermont is even further off. For Mixson, it’s not even in the foreseeable future. “I have no idea when they will build a library in Clermont,” Mixson said. “I do not know if anybody can even begin to speculate ... I’m going to be gone by then.” Until then, Clermont will take care of Clermont. In July, the town council arranged to lease 40 acres of property the county had purchased for a park but had no money to develop. And minutes from Clermont’s Town Council meetings and Clermont Historical Society newsletters show the town was looking to create its own library as far back as April. Mayor James Nix, who is Cantrell’s father, suggested to the rest of the council in an April meeting that the town use a classroom in the gym for a future Clermont library and allow the historical society to use another classroom in the gym for an office. Cantrell, too, in her historical society newsletter, announced plans for the Dip, which she said would offer “quality programs” in the community, including a library, an art gallery and a museum. But Cantrell and Nix say it wasn’t until the county library branch closed near city hall, that the effort for a library at the Dip really picked up steam. Cantrell asked for book donations and Nix got to work on building shelves. Perfectly whitewashed, “the pretty shelves” (Cantrell’s words) Nix built are surrounded by standard second-hand metal shelves from the old county library branch. “That’s what the county was throwing away,” Nix said, when asked about the shelves he didn’t build. The volunteer library is already open on Monday and Wednesday afternoons, though Cantrell said the effort to catalogue the books — spearheaded by a local school librarian — hasn’t been completed. They don’t know how many books have been donated. If they do, they’re not willing to say, anyway. “There’s no telling,” Cantrell said. “The bookshelves are getting full is all I can tell you,” Nix said. Who brought them? The community members who felt it was important to have a Clermont library, Nix said. And though Cantrell concedes that the library isn’t perfect — the bookshelves don’t all match and the volunteers will come and go — it’s something that belongs to Clermont. No county commission or fiscal crisis can take it away. “It’s what you make it ... “ Cantrell said. “We’re hoping what we’re laying foundationally will be here for a long time — no matter what happens with the library.”
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published July 24, 2011
Stay-at-home students Practice of home schooling gaining popularity, but reasons for it vary By Dallas Duncan
dduncan@gainesvilletimes.com Fifth-grader Morgan Lomax, 10, goes to class at 8 a.m. each day. She sits at a desk with her name tag on it, ready to learn reading, writing, arithmetic, science and history. Sometimes she writes letters to pen-pals to practice her penmanship; other days she practices typing on computer software. She enjoys art class, painting mountain landscapes, beach scenes and pictures of her kitten, Springs. Her favorite excursions include field trips to Publix and the Mayfield Dairy, and her extracurricular schedule is full of ballet, tap and piano lessons as well as church programs. Morgan, in other words, is just like most fifth-graders in Hall County — with one exception. Her classroom is a converted sun room at the back of the Lomax family’s home in Gainesville. “She did attend a private Christian school when she was 3, 4 and 5. After that point we had to make a decision as to what we wanted to try,” said Sheila Lomax, Morgan’s mother. “I’m a stay-at-home parent anyway, so we thought, ‘Let’s try home schooling.’” Neither Sheila nor her husband had any experience in home schooling before they decided to try it with Morgan. Sheila, a Brenau University graduate, did teach for a year at Morgan’s Christian school. “The favorite things I like about home schooling is we incorporate the Bible,” Sheila said. “It helps us to focus on what God wants us to do versus what society wants us to do. It helps her and us as a family to remember that’s what we’re here for.” Sheila said many families she knows are home schooling because of religious reasons, but the rationale behind it varies by children and their needs. “When the youngest of our three children came along, I had already done the public school life with our two oldest: room mother, fundraisers, bus schedules ... I couldn’t fathom doing it all over again,” said Melissa Tingle, a Chestnut Mountain resident who serves as secretary for the Hall County Home Educators home school group. “Besides, we had become long-distance caregivers for my husband’s elderly mother. We needed the ability to leave at a moment’s notice. Although flexibility was our initial reason for home schooling, the close relationship we gained with the youngest was an unexpected blessing, thus becoming the primary reason.” The home-school curriculum is as varied as the reasons behind it, Tingle said. She said curricula may be based on religion, traditional classroom learning or essentially anything parents felt their children should learn. “Confident parents may choose to use everyday life experiences to teach their children rather than use any textbooks at all. Less confident parents may enroll their students
SCOTT rogers | The Times
Sheila Lomax and daughter Morgan, 10, work on a math problem in July during class time at their East Hall home.
in classes or co-op style programs in which the students attend two or three days a week, then study at home the rest of the week under the supervision of the parents,” Tingle wrote in an email to The Times. “In all cases, the parents are directly responsible for the education of their children. The parents set the standards, the parents choose the methods, the parents decide if their goals are achieved.” The method chosen by former teacher Reeva Forrester of Hoschton was to enroll her daughter, 10-year-old Faith, in the Georgia Cyber Academy. “I can work at my own pace and there’s not a whole lot of people and noise,” Faith said. “We do it on the computer. We do math and science and stuff like that.” Georgia Cyber Academy uses live online sessions with teachers so students can interact with them as if they are in a regular classroom setting. Reeva said one of the things she likes most about Georgia Cyber Academy is that there are no failing grades. If students do not understand a lesson, they can redo it and retake
the test. She said when Faith transferred schools last year, she became more easily distracted and was not performing to her potential. Faith was withdrawn from public school in December so her parents could find a more suitable learning style. “I started to do traditional home schooling, but I had to come up with the lessons,” she said. “I’m amazed at the time it takes us to complete assignments online. They shipped us science experiments and all of our books. The only things we might have to get is outside novels.” The Lomax family also uses outside materials for home schooling. Sheila purchases DVDs and materials through A Beka Academy, an accredited distance-learning program based out of Pensacola, Fla. In order to home-school, parents must file a declaration of intent with the local school board and turn in monthly attendance reports. It’s a practice Tingle said is becoming more and more common. “A decade or so ago we were compelled
to have our children carry copies of our completed ‘Declaration of Intent to Utilize a Home Study Program’ forms, just in case truant officers questioned them,” she said. “Not any longer.” Still, home schooling can be met with disdain. Reeva said many people she talks to fear home schooling limits a child’s ability to socialize. She counters that with Faith’s involvement in the North Georgia Star Twirlers. “There are people who don’t understand home school and they’re just not aware of what we do,” Sheila said. “They have comments sometimes that just, if they could only see what we do and how we do it, those comments wouldn’t be made.” Sheila stressed Morgan had the opportunities to do extracurricular activities with other home-school groups, such as the Hall County Home Educators and families in Hoschton they meet with monthly. Essentially, she said, home-schooled students have a public school experience — they just each have their own classroom.
published november 23, 2011
20-year-old who rescues man from fire is ‘angel’ By Aaron Hale
ahale@gainesvilletimes.com Harold Johnson Jr. and his family know what they’re thankful for this Thanksgiving. His name is Tray Ross. Ross pulled Johnson, a 76year-old Gainesville resident who is blind, from his burning home at 1190 Purina Drive early Monday morning. His rescuer, a line supervisor at a chicken plant, gave up on a dream to become a firefighter so he could support his family. That didn’t stop the 20year-old Ross from using his training and an apparent instinctual bravery to enter a burning home and save a man’s life. While Johnson is still recovering at Northeast Georgia Medical Center, his daughter, Janet Williams, said the family is glad their father is still alive. “We’re truly blessed,” Williams told the Times on Tuesday. “There is a God, and Tray was an angel.” Ross and Johnson were both treated for smoke inhalation. Johnson, now stable, was in the intensive care unit until Tuesday morning, Williams said. Doctors do not expect him to be released from the hospital this week, she said. Ross was released from care Monday and is already working again at the Fieldale chicken plant near the scene of the fire. The cause of the fire is still under investigation by the Gainesville Fire Department. Johnson, who lives alone
TOM REED | The Times
Tray Ross rescued a blind man from the house in the background in November as the house was gutted by fire.
with assistance from a nurse, told his daughter that he thought he felt heat and smelled smoke earlier that day, she said. He knew there was trouble when he started hearing the windows pop. Unable to escape, Johnson hunkered down on the kitchen floor, Williams said. Meanwhile, Ross was on break with co-workers at the chicken plant when they noticed a lot of smoke coming from Johnson’s house, he recalled to The Times.
While co-workers called 911, Ross said he took off his jacket and ran on the porch of the house. He described a glow coming from a back room that he knew was a fire. When Ross called inside, he said he heard a voice yelling “Help me. There’s someone inside. Help me.” Ross, who had served as a volunteer firefighter in Blairsville, said he knew the dangers but also knew he had to help.
“It’s a person in there,” he said. “He’s got family just as well as I do.” The door was unlocked, Ross said, so he entered and dropped down to his stomach to navigate through the thick smoke. “It felt like forever,” said Ross, who estimated he was in the house for five minutes. “Where you at?” Ross said he yelled to Johnson, who guided him through the house to the kitchen.
“I’m going to get you outta here,” Ross said he told Johnson, who responded, “That sounds great.” It wasn’t until later that Ross realized Johnson was blind. By the time the two were out, paramedics were on scene to assist both men, Ross said. On Monday, Gainesville Fire Chief Jon Canada credited Ross with saving the man’s life, with the caveat that he doesn’t encourage
residents to enter burning buildings. Ross said he agrees with the sentiment but felt comfortable enough with his fire training to handle the task. Ross’ dream as a child was to be a firefighter, he said. He graduated from fire school and has his firefighter license but has never found work beyond the role of volunteer. When his wife got pregnant, he said, getting a fulltime job became the first priority. Ross said he is not actively looking for another job but still hopes to be a paid firefighter in the future. “I wouldn’t mind it,” he said, “if the situation works out.” Ross may not be a full-time firefighter now, but he’s certainly a hero to Johnson’s family. Williams said she has already visited Ross at the chicken plant to thank him personally. While Johnson remains in the hospital, his family is trying to figure out where he will live next with his home burned beyond repair. Williams said that she and her brother will have to figure out living arrangements, but that will have to come after Thanksgiving dinner. Doctors are telling Johnson’s family that he won’t be out for weeks, which means he won’t be home for the holiday. Instead, Williams said she’s cooking dinner to bring to the hospital. “We’re just glad to have him here,” Williams said. “And we’ll take Thanksgiving to him.”
CMYK the best of 2011
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia |
gainesvilletimes com
Sunday, January 22, 2012
13
CMYK 14
CMYK
Sunday, January 22, 2012
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia |
gainesvilletimes com
the best of 2011
published October 23, 2011
‘I really think, honestly, that God had his hand on us. I really do.’
together again Sisters reunite after baby sold for drugs in 1988 By Shannon Casas
scasas@gainesvilletimes.com There were no words at first. Just one embrace between three sisters. And a powerful emotional release after 22 years of confusion, anger and longing. Tiera Rice grew up with a different name. A different family. Until, with the help of a private investigator, she learned the truth. In 1988, her mother, Wanda Gee, sold her to strangers in exchange for drugs. Now, she was home. With family. And Crystal Smith and Teesha Jenkins, both of Clermont, finally set eyes on the little sister they hadn’t seen since she was 3 months old. Their mother, Wanda Gee, was addicted to cocaine. She wasn’t afraid to admit it, but she couldn’t stop using, either, said Smith, who was 12 when her little sister went missing. She remembers a childhood in which it was routine for her mother to tell her she was going down to the corner to get a fix. It was routine for strangers to come in and out of the house. It was routine, but embarrassing, to tell friends and teachers that, no, she didn’t get anything for Christmas and, no, her mother didn’t have a job. You’d come home, get off the bus, and there’d be a house full of people,” she said. “... and just crashing there, and you’d wake up and there’d be people all over the floor in the middle of the night.” Extended family helped provide for the children. Smith said her great aunt made sure they had food and clothes. And Smith said her mother always told visitors not to touch her girls. From what she remembers, those visitors listened. “I really think, honestly, that God had his hand on us. I really do,” Smith said “And I’ve always thought that, because you wouldn’t get through the things that we’ve been through sane and unharmed.” When she was pregnant with her third child, Gee went to a Christian rehabilitation center, Smith said. “I remember when Mama was in rehab we would visit her on Christmas,” Jenkins said “And she was big and waddly with the baby.” Jenkins went with her grandmother to the hospital to pick up her baby sister. She remembers she was sick at the time and looked at her in the carrier but couldn’t touch her. Gee and her baby went to live with Gee’s sister, Joan Gee. “She didn’t have nowhere to go,” Joan Gee said. “So I had my own apartment and I brought her and the baby to my house.” Smith and Jenkins stayed with their grandparents. “I went over there to see the baby and I saw her maybe three times,” Smith said. “And then I went back another time and she was gone.” Wanda Gee lived with her sister three weeks before moving in with another sister. Joan Gee doesn’t know what happened after that. “All I know is Wanda came back from Gwinnett County and said that they had ... sold her baby for money, black market,” Joan Gee said. She took her sister to the sheriff’s department but from what Joan Gee heard, the drug dealer involved with the sale had already been there. He told the deputies Wanda
Photos by SARA GUEVARA | The Times
Above: Teesha Jenkins, right, and Crystal Smith, center, embrace younger sister Tiera Rice Wednesday after meeting her for the first time. Jenkins and Smith were separated from Rice after their mother sold the younger sister drugs and money in 1988. At top: Tiera Rice as a baby.
Gee was on drugs and hallucinating. They dropped the case because it wasn’t their jurisdiction, Joan Gee said. She didn’t have any idea who the baby was sold to. Smith and Jenkins heard she’d been sold in North Carolina. No one knew for sure what had happened. But she was gone. Smith and Jenkins knew they’d lost their sister, but there was little they could do. “I had so much going on in my life that I really didn’t know what to do and I didn’t know what to think,” Smith said. “And I was really just trying to make it.” Less than a year later, Wanda Gee was charged with murdering a cab driver. She was convicted, along with another man, and sentenced to two life terms. Both sisters know their mother’s drug problem is what took her away from them. “What it all boils down to is what drugs really does to a family and how many different aspects of everybody’s life - how much it affected us,” Jenkins said. When their mother went to prison, Smith was 12 and Jenkins 6. Smith went to live with her father. Jenkins lived with their grandmother. “I didn’t really know my dad all that good and his wife hated my guts, beyond hated my guts,” Smith said. Her father was an alcoholic and her stepmother physically abused her, she said. She’d go to school with black eyes, but she doesn’t remember anyone asking questions. Jenkins never knew her father except for pictures of a muscular Japanese man sitting with her beautiful mother. But her life with her grandmother was relatively normal. When Smith was 14, she ran away to live with her great aunt. A friend came and loaded her stuff, and Smith never went back. Sometimes she lived with friends, sometimes with extended family. All the while, she’d visit Jenkins when she could. And both visited their mother in prison once a month. At first they rode with their grandmother to the Hall County Jail. Then Wanda Gee was transferred to Washington State Prison in East Georgia. They still visited; sometimes their pastor drove them. “When she was in the prison she turned her life
Tiera Rice, left, takes in the sights Wednesday at her sister’s, Crystal Smith, right, North Hall home. The meeting marked the first time Rice met her two biological sisters in person. In 1988, their mother sold Rice for drugs and money. In the last year, Rice learned her identity and, through a private investigator, found her sisters.
over to God and everything,” Smith said. “She witnessed. She had a big impact on the people there.” Once she was in jail and sober, she began telling her daughters what she had done, urging them to find their baby sister. When Smith was 18, she began earnestly looking. She talked with local investigators and the Georgia Bureau of Investigations but was told she’d have to hire a private investigator. She couldn’t afford that. And it may not have helped. “The whole time I’m searching for Tiera, and there was no Tiera,” Smith said. “She wasn’t enrolled in school by that name. She had never used that name for anything.” Tiera Rice didn’t know to search for her sisters. She didn’t know she was lost. She grew up in Madison County as Candice Flores. Her father was Hispanic and her mother white. When she was about 12 or 13, she found a medical bracelet with her birth date and a different name. She thought maybe she had a twin. But she couldn’t get any answers. “They would say it’s not something I need to discuss with you, or don’t worry about it, or you need to go ask your mom,” Rice said. It wasn’t until the woman she knew as her mother died that she learned the truth. “When I was 15, my mother overdosed and she died. And they said that they were sorry to tell me, but my mom had died and that my dad wasn’t
my dad and that she wasn’t my mother and that I’m not Candice Flores.” Those whom she had known as family told her she didn’t need to contact her biological family, that they were bad people. But she left the family who had bought her. “I just wiped all of them off the face of my earth after that, and I went on my own and tried to find myself ...” she said. She ran away from home and got pregnant at 16. But she finished high school after moving, along with her boyfriend, to North Carolina. With no legal identification, though, she struggled to provide for her child. “I wanted to go to school just like normal people. I wanted to drive a car like normal people. Support my son,” she said. She eventually moved back to Georgia and made a living as an exotic dancer, though she said she’s not proud of where she had to turn to survive. She continued searching for her identity, contacting legal services, churches, lawyers, the Social Security administration. But she didn’t have enough information. “I went to the DMV one more time, trying to make them understand. And they sent me out and I just exploded. And I just got on the Internet and typed in private investigators of Atlanta and stopped on the first one, which happened to be Tim McWhirter.” McWhirter’s starting point
was the medical bracelet and a small photo of a girl who looked a bit like his client, with the name Teesha Rice on the back. At first he ran into a lot of dead ends. He searched the name Tiera Rice. He searched the name Teesha Rice. Finally he found the name Wanda Gee/Rice and determined that she had gone to prison and died in 2004. Then he found a residence where Wanda Gee had lived a long time ago. He thought it was probably another dead end. “When I ran out of anything else to dig into I called that current resident ... and a guy answered the phone,” McWhirter said. “I explained to him what I was trying to accomplish and asking him if he knew Wanda. And he said, ‘Yeah, that was my sister. So I ended up talking to Tiera’s uncle.” Gary Gee had inherited the house where Wanda Gee lived. He still had the same phone number from years ago. McWhirter learned of Smith and Jenkins and left his number with Gary Gee. Jenkins was in Walmart with all four of her kids when her uncle called with the news. “My heart just kind of sunk - and I was like, ‘really?’” Jenkins said She immediately went to get Rice’s birth certificate. Gary Gee then took it to Rice on his way to Atlanta. “(Rice) was very lucky in that there was something out there that we could stumble
across,” he said. “Most of them don’t end that well ... or that complete.” McWhirter said many cases he works on can stretch on for years. Jenkins talked with her little sister first. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, you sound just like Mama. I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I was just like, ‘Keep talking where I can hear your voice.’ It was amazing.” When Smith tried to call her sister, she’d get choked up before she even picked up the phone. She looked at pictures and, after three days of crying, she made the call. “I finally got the nerve up and then it was just like, ‘Hey.’ ‘Hey,’” Smith said. Since then they’ve texted, talked and swapped lots of photos. Rice calls Jenkins about some things and Smith about others. She’s already figured out the “sister thing,” Smith said. On Wednesday, Rice had to stop to smoke a cigarette on her way from Smyrna to Clermont. Smith and Jenkins waited nervously in the living room. Then she walked in. They embraced. “Oh my goodness, I don’t even know what to say,” Rice told her sisters. “It feels like I’ve missed you guys already.” They quickly moved to the couch to pore over family photos. “Oh, I do look like her — in the face,” Rice said as she shuffled through old snapshots. After questions about family and lots of photos, the sisters took a break. Rice’s oldest sister made her a sandwich and then she toured her house. Then the three sat down and Rice read her mother’s will. “I wish for my two children, Crystal Garrison and Teesha Jenkins, to continue the search for my youngest baby daughter to be found,” the hand-written will reads. “Her name is Teairra LaShae, who was adopted out illegally. ... I want Teairra to know she has two sisters that love her. And that her birth mother loved her as well.” A poem by her mother was included with the will, and Rice said she writes poetry, too. She still questions why her mother did what she did. “I’ve never been addicted to drugs. I don’t know how that feels. I don’t know how it feels to be that needy for something to give up your child,” she said. “It hurts me, but it is what it is. And what I’ve been through makes me who I am. And I’m still a good person.” She’s trying to forgive. “I know God says forgive people not for them but for yourself,” she said. “So I’m trying to tell myself that. And it’s slowly coming.” And slowly, she’s getting used to the idea of being Tiera Rice. “I don’t want to be called Candice because I feel like it’s a big lie. So Jayla is who I may be for right now,” Rice said of a name her friends call her. “I feel like I’m still writing that signature on papers, Tiera Rice, I’m thinking ‘yeah, right.’ But it is right. That’s me now.” Rice met her nieces and nephews as they filed in the house. The sisters are planning one big family Thanksgiving. “It used to not bother me to be lonely,” Rice said. “But now that I know I have someone who wants me there, I don’t want to be lonely.” “We need her, and she needs us,” Smith said.
CMYK the best of 2011
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia  |
gainesvilletimes com
Sunday, January 22, 2012
15
We’re ACTS because of our qualities, and we’re quality because of ACTS.
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CMYK 16
CMYK
Sunday, January 22, 2012
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia |
gainesvilletimes com
the best of 2011
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