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Changing the reins LINE CREEK FEED AND TACK CHANGES OWNERS By CLAY NEELY clay@newnan.com
After 41 years in business, John and Diane Osborne are retiring from running Line Creek Feed & Tack. The small shop, located directly on the Coweta/Spalding County line, has been a fixture in the community for decades. “We just figured it was time,” Di a ne sa id . “ It ’s be en a re a l adventure, though.” John and Diane married in 1962 and lived in College Park. John was working at the ticket counter for Delta at the time. Diane’s lifelong passion for horses prompted them to f ind some property in the country where she would no longer need to board her horse. The couple found a beautiful five-acre parcel of land that abutted Line Creek on the county line. At the time, word was that a dam was set to be constructed on Sprewell Bluff, just west of Thomaston, and it would have backed up the water. “With that dam, we would have been sitting on the largest lake south of Atlanta, so we wanted that water frontage,” John said. “We saw a golden opportunity to open a marina – selling fish bait and renting boats. “However, Governor Ca r ter
killed the bill and so we decided we’d take care of people in the country who owned animals.” John and Diane figured that if they were keeping their horses on the property, they should open an establishment – “since we just couldn’t leave a horse in the woods by itself,” Diane recalled. “Having a place down here would help pay the cost of all the riding back and forth to College Park.” The couple eventually built the original Line Creek Tack & Feed in 1973 and opened for business the following year. In the beginning, they only carried feed and a few used saddles. The original store was a modest-sized building constructed with masonry block. One day, while John was worki ng , a sa le sm a n f rom P u r i n a dropped in and asked the couple if they wanted to carry feed, and that’s how things got started for the Osbornes. “Eventually, we found dealers like Big Horn, and were focused on Western tack – not English,” Diane said. “Twenty years ago, we started carrying English tack and now it’s more popular now than ever.” For the next 25 years, John and Diane commuted from College Park to the store.
PHOTO BY CLAY NEELY
Diane and John Osborne stand next to their horse Menawa, who will turn 35 years old next month. “Even though we live only a hundred yards from the store, it still feels like we’re going to miss saying goodbye to someone,” Diane said.
After working the early bird shift at the Delta ticket counter, John would leave the airport at 1:30 p.m., grab a bite at home before making the drive to the store where he and Diane would finish their day, working from 3
to 7 p.m. This schedule continued until 1990, when the couple f ina lly built their home behind the store where they still reside. O ver t he yea rs , t he store underwent several expansions
and the businesses allowed John and Diane to get to know most of their neighbors in an otherwise rural setting.
REINS, page 3
Fundraiser for adoption coincides with Mother’s Day Cinnamon Rolls with Caramel Glaze
Mentor knows best
Cel ebrating Mothers FAMILY FEATURES Whether she’s your mom or a “like-a-mother” mentor, chances are you’ve got a lot to thank her for this Mother’s Day. It’s a time for celebrating your biggest supporters, number one fans and best friends. In life, we’re lucky to form relationships with women we can learn from and grow with. Beth Somers, Elizabet h Nelson a nd E m i ly Tatak from the Wilton Test K itchen consider t hemselves lucky. Beth Somers, Director of Creative Content Development, owes her start to her former boss Milette Raz. Raz is trained in the Wilton
Method of Cake Decorating TM and taught Somers how to decorate. But Somers thinks of Raz as so much more — calling her a mentor, her second mother and her friend. Years after working together, the duo teamed up for Cupcake Wars on the Food Network, returning home as champions of season six with winning recipes like Tropical Getaway Cupcakes. Elizabeth Nelson, Assistant Culinary Specialist, attributes her love of baking to her grandma Ann, learning
MOTHERS, page 5
By BRADLEY HARTSELL bradley@newnan.com
The process of adopting a child is often an arduous and, in some cases, an expensive one. But for families like the Prestons, being given the opportunity to love and cherish a child is worth every effort. The Prestons’ third-annual RACE for the Orphans scheduled for May 9 at the Coweta Cou nt y Fa i rg rou nds w i l l again present a grant to two families who are in the adoption process. Jason and Kelly Preston first began the 5K RACE (Raising Awareness, Compassion and Education) as a fundraiser for their family as they were working to bring two-and-a-half year old Jenna home from China. Even raising just a few thousand dollars helps a family – like the Prestons – alleviate the signif icant costs of adoption. Following an 18-month process, in November 2013, they were able to bring Jenna home. “The average cost of adop-
tion is $30,000, and we didn’t have that money, but felt from the bottom of our hearts God was leading us to this,” said Kelly Preston. “He led us to west China and to Jenna.” Preston said “99 percent” of the adopting families she knows have to do fundraisers of some sort – from concerts to cakewalks – in order to raise enough money to bring their little one home. Her and Jason’s passion, who both ran cross country and track while attending Samford University, happened to be running, so RACE for the Orphans was an easy decision. “Our first year [of RACE], we had 350-plus people – family, friends and complete strangers – who showed up. We were and have been blown away by the support from the community,” Preston said. After the successful first year that helped bring Jenna home to their three other children, the Prestons wanted to make the race an annual event because “we didn’t want finances to come between a
On the cutting edge of, “Grandpa’s here!” CanCer InstItute
The Preston family: Kelly, Nathan, Andrew, Jenna, Shelby and Jason.
family and their adoption,” she said. Last year, the race allowed the Prestons to present two $4,500 grants, one to a family still waiting on their son from Ethiopia and the other to a family who brought home their daughter from China last July. Preston says people asked her after the first two RACE events why they weren’t benefitting families who were adopting domestically. “I tell them we do but no one applied. A lot of people just don’t want to go through the foster process, unfortunately,” Preston said. This year, however, one
of the families – Wade and Brooke Williams from Fayetteville – will bring home a daughter from Florida. They are set to finalize on May 12, but still have significant loans to pay. The other family receiving a grant is Mark and Tiffany Jordan. Mark Jordan is the pastor of Coke’s Chapel United Methodist Church, and they are in the process of adopting Mia from China. T houg h la st yea r ’s grants were $4,500 apiece, P re ston s ay s t h i s ye a r ’s amount is dependent on the
FUNDRAISER, page 3