Summer 2023

Description

SUMMER 2023 • VOLUME 22, NUMBER 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS

4
Along the Backroads: Farewell to Loving Arms
Hazel Redmon and Arthur Roberts measured their love in lifetimes.
BY DANIEL M. ROPER • FLOYD COUNTY
7
Vanishing Georgia: Our Men, Our Fathers
An old shotgun is a reminder of when a loving family provided all the security a little girl needed.
BY WENDY HARRISON • RANDOLPH COUNTY & STATEWIDE
14
Daddy’s Bird Pie
An old cobbler pan is a memento of a father who knew how to live off the land.
BY DEBBIE BRYANT WILSON • MURRAY COUNTY
16
Catface Fever
Rehabilitating relics from Georgia’s turpentine industry is one man’s passion.
BY MICHELLE Y. HUBBARD • EMANUEL COUNTY
18
Two Men Named Billy
One Tifton Billy gave the comman to open fire in America’s first World War II combat, the other became a prisoner of war in Germany.
BY BONNE DAVIS CELLA • TIFT COUNTY
22
Beatlemania!On a summer evening in 1965, tens of thousands of adoring fans welecomed an iconic British band to Atlanta.

BY DONNIE SUMMERLIN • FULTON COUNTY
27
Heart of a Scoundrel, Instincts of a Fiend
Yellow journalism and muckraking tied Macon society into knots in 1885.
BY MAX LONGLEY • BIBB COUNTY
30
Historic Rural Churches of Georgia: African American Primitive Baptists
The story of a church is only partly told by counting the number of faithful in its pews.
BY CLAYTON H. RAMSEY • STATEWIDE
35
Night of the Willopus Willipus

Some northwest Georgians feared the night-riding Regulators who roamed the area in the 1880s. Others welcome them.

BY SAM GOWIN • WHITFIELD & MURRAY COUNTIES
39
Back in Milly

There’s much to see, do, and taste in Milledgeville, Georgia’s Old Capital City.

BY CHERYL RODEWIG • BALDWIN COUNTY
42
Puss Hortman and the Southern Harmony Boys

Leading an orchestra came with plenty of perks, but it could be hard on family life.

BY BOB HORTMAN • RANDOLPH COUNTY & EUFAULA
45
When Georgia River Running Got Real

A paddling odyssey led Bob Sehlinger and Don Otey to create the state’s first paddling guidebooks.

BY SUZANNE WELANDER • STATEWIDE
46
Slashed, Trashed, Mashed, Bashed

When kayaking, necessity is the mother of invention and sometimes the instigator of ire.

BY RANDALL SAVAGE • MONROE COUNTY
48
The Place of the Frog Wars

The location of a legendary battle now provides visitors with beauty and tranquility.

BY MARLA AYCOCK • FANNIN COUNTY
50
When Bobby Jones Met Ty Cobb

Illustrious Georgians Ty Cobb and Bobby Jones competed against one another in fishing and hunting.

BY BILL BAAB • FRANKLIN & RICHMOND COUNTIES
53
Soul of a Southerner
A southerner fondly writes her memories of growing up and living in the South.
BY MARY ANN ANDERSON • GEORGIA
55
Genuine Georgia Backroads – Newborn to Eatonton

Stone effigies, fabled rabbits, and good history characterize this section of Classic Georgia.

BY DAVID B. JENKINS • MIDDLE GEORGIA
60
Easy Season

On the South Fork of the Jacks River, the end of summer is an easy season.

BY DAN ROPER • FANNIN COUNTY

61
Civil War Portrait

Commander George Sinclair served in both the U.S. and the Confederate States navies.

BY DAVID W. VAUGHAN • CHATHAM COUNTY