CLAUDE HARVARD

CLAUDE HARVARD

Genius Has No Color

For more than half of his life, Claude Harvard fought to overcome the obstacles in his life. He was a mathematical genius. But before you think he was carried a slide rule with him and was some sort of prosperous preppie prodigy attending a major university, think again. Claude Harvard was born almost as poor as poor can be. He was the son of a South Georgia black sharecropper in the years when cotton abdicated its crown as the King of the South.

Claude Harvard was born on March 11, 1911 in Dublin, Georgia. He attended Telfair School, which was then located on Pritchett Street. His teacher and school principal Susie White Dasher was more than proud of Claude. Mrs. Dasher related that he was a mathematical wizard and was always at the top of his class.

Claude’s interest in science and technology was aroused around 1921when he read a magazine article about owning your own wireless radio set. The first radio station in the country, KDKA in Pittsburgh, went on the air in November 1920. Georgia wouldn’t have its own station until 1922 when WSB began broadcasting from Atlanta. Claude was determined to own his own radio. He saved his pennies and sold salve to raise the money.

By 1922, it became impossible for many black tenant farmer families to survive in the boll weevil ridden cotton fields of Georgia. The Harvard family moved to Detroit, Michigan with hopes of a newfound prosperity. With his most priceless possession in hand, Claude left the relative tranquility of Dublin for the bright lights of big city life.

Claude enrolled in a machine shop class in high school. His teacher observed his talent and recommended him for admission to The Henry Ford Trade School in 1926. Auto magnate Henry Ford established the School in 1916 to train orphaned children to become workers for his auto plants. Despite the fact that he was not an orphan, Claude was accepted in the school because of his impressive talents in machining and metal work. The cards were stacked against Claude at the school where blacks seldom graduated because of the rule against fighting. The principal figured that Claude wouldn’t make it at the school because there was no way he could finish his classes without getting into a fight with the white kids. Claude kept his temper and avoided any scrapes. He excelled in every course at the school. He was elected president of the radio club at the school. Ten students in the club took a test to become a certified amateur operator. Claude, the only one of the group to pass the test, became the first African-American in Michigan to receive an amateur radio license. Harvard, known as "The African Pounder," worked at the school radio station WARC. Upon completion of his courses at the Henry Ford Trade School, Claude Harvard was at the top of his class.

Despite the fact that Claude had reached the pinnacle of success at the school, he was denied the automatic right to a union card because of his race. Harvard later found out later that all of his applications for Union membership had been discarded in the trash can. But Harvard’s talents couldn’t be discarded. The Ford Motor Company hired him anyway and assigned him as the head of the radio department.

In 1934 at the age of twenty-three, Claude was personally selected by Henry Ford to display his ground breaking invention of a piston pin inspection machine at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. Harvard’s most well known invention allowed workers to clean the surfaces of auto pistons to one 1/10,000 of an inch. His machine determined the proper hardness of pistons and checked the length and diameter of its grooves, rejecting any defective parts in the sorting phase. Claude Harvard never forgot the pride he felt at the Exposition. He was deeply honored by Ford’s confidence in him as well as the pride he felt when other black attendees came to his booth.

Impressed with Harvard’s remarkable abilities, Henry Ford asked Claude to speak on behalf of the company at Tuskegee Institute. With only one day to prepare the speech, Harvard rapidly researched his topic and presented to Ford by the end of the day. The Institute’s iconic scientist George Washington Carver in welcomed Claude to the school and issued a rare personal invitation to tour his personal laboratory. As a token of his gratitude, Carver presented Harvard samples of his work and an autographed picture of himself. Carver remained fond of Harvard and his work and often inquired of him in conversations with Ford. In 1937, Harvard was again honored by Ford when he appeared in an advertisement in Popular Science Monthly.

While at Ford Motor Company, Claude Harvard patented twenty-nine inventions for the manufacture of Ford automobiles, though he reaped none of the royalties and profits of his genius, all in accordance with a company policy, which required employees to relinquish their inventions to the company. One invention was sold for a quarter of a million dollars to U.S. Steel. He left the company to establish his own business, the Exact Tool & Die Company. The initially successful business failed when white employees of customer companies found out they were doing business with a black businessman. Claude went to work for the Federal government but soon discovered that he was discriminated against in his pay scale. An old friend from the Ford Trade School suggested that he take an employment test at the Detroit Arsenal. Claude quickly solved a trigonometry problem and passed a subsequent civil service exam. Harvard worked at the Arsenal until his retirement.

Harvard came out of retirement when he began teaching at HOPE Machinist Training Institute in Detroit in the early 1980s. The school was organized to teach hands on training for minority youths. After two years, Harvard became an unpaid volunteer at the school. He designed implements and guides to facilitate the production of metal parts. Harvard maintained that it was the vast experience of himself and other instructors which contributed to better teaching of young students. Though machine work was controlled by computers, Harvard maintained that the process was still basically the same as it was in the 1930s. He encouraged his students and all children to study math and to put as much effort into learning as they do into sports. In a 1997 interview with Otha R. Sullivan Harvard offered these words of advice, "Have you noticed how kids exercise, play sports and learn dances? If they treated their brains the way they treat their bodies, they would be great. If you gave your brains half the exercise you give your muscles, you’d be very smart. Kids shouldn’t be afraid of mathematics and science. The subjects aren’t as hard as they look. I especially recommend that young people tackle mathematics. It really isn’t that difficult. Apparently, the teachers just make it seem that way."

Claude Harvard died in 1999 in adopted hometown of Detroit. The young Dublin boy who once dreamed of owning his own radio has been heralded as one the greatest African American inventors of the 20th Century.

Harvard was philosophical about the impediments of racism in America and encouraged others to aspire to his goals. In a 1937 interview, Harvard said "The Negro boy who is complaining about the breaks against him should stop squawking and do as this black boy did and make the grade in spite of being black. I must make the grade." In chronicling the early successes of the young inventor, Herbert H. "Hub" Dudley, Dublin’s leading black businessman and a columnist for the Dublin Courier Herald wrote, "Genius knows no color or creed. The World loves a contributor to civilization."

HERBERT HORATIO "HUB" DUDLEY



    “Hub” Dudley was a credit to his race, the human race.  In an era when it seemed that the frayed chain  of humanity was going to explode into a mass of broken fragments, Dudley, a Dublin businessman, was the indestructible center link which bound the two races of Dublin and Laurens County together in the calm of a maelstrom which swirled about the country.

Herbert Horatio “Hub” Dudley was born in Cordele, Georgia in 1897.  “Hub” came to Dublin with his parents, Clayton D. Dudley and Katie Ford Dudley.  The Dudleys came here for a new beginning, a beginning which  led to a dream which still lives on today almost twelve decades later.

Clayton Dudley set out to build a business empire to meet the needs of African-Americans, who were not being completely served.   “Hub” adopted that same philosophy.

“Hub's philosophy on life was to build businesses and offer what was needed by the black community," his niece,  Thomaseanor Pearson, remarked. "Whatever we had, we had because it was needed," Mrs. Pearson told Theresa Harvard of the Courier Herald in a 1996 interview.

Herbert Dudley married Mayme Ford, a Washington, D.C. school teacher.  Her sister, Jenny Ford, was the mother of Thomaseanor Pearson.  He and Mayme  virtually adopted Jenny’s daughter, Mayme Thomaseanor, who would marry Alfred Pearson, Sr. to become the matriarch and patriarch of the Pearson family in Dublin.

The Dudleys opened a meat market and grocery store in 1922  in the building now occupied by Dudley Funeral Home.  Over the next two decades, the father and son team built an empire along East Jackson Street and the Five Points area of downtown.

There was a savings and loan, a restaurant, The Dudley Motel (modernized in 1958,) the Laborers-Mechanics Realty and Investment Company (a savings and loan association),  a shoe shop, a saw mill, a roller skating rink, a drug store, a poolroom, a barbershop, a guest house, The Laurens Casket Company, Dudley's Funeral Home, and in September 1936, the Amoco # 2 service station.   Dudley established a beauty shop and named it for his foster daughter, Thomaseanor, who was never a beautician.  The Dudleys also developed “Dudley’s Retreat” in the rear of the service station as a gathering place for the community. During World War II, Dudley worked to establish a USO for black servicemen on South Lawrence Street.

Dudley Funeral Home 

Dudley, a home schooled student and an aspiring student of the law, was  hired by W.H. Lovett, owner of the Courier Herald, to write a column relating to the activities of African Americans in the community.  Dudley called his column, Of Interest to Colored People.  It ran from November 11, 1935 through the end of 1936.  Before and after then beginning in June 1930 and  until September 18, 1968, the section was called Colored News.

Dudley Service Station

Dudley, always known to pour his heart into each task he took on, hoped to obtain a thousand subscriptions from his readers to justify a whole page “colored section.”

For most of his adult life, “Hub” Dudley was known as a healer, a mediator and a man of impeccable honesty and trustworthiness.  Thomaseanor Pearson once told the story that her “Duddy” convinced Dr.  Martin Luther King, Jr. from staging  a massive demonstration in Dublin over unfair labor practices.  King stayed at Dudley’s motel on East Jackson Street, then the major east-west traffic artery through Georgia.  She also remembered the night he stayed at the Dudley Motel.  Pearson, who was initially scared because of the fear that King was being tracked, met the American icon in person and fondly recalled the night she stayed up “all night” talking to the civil rights champion.  Mrs. Pearson also remembered another Civil rights advocate,  Atlanta Mayor and U.N.
Ambassador, Andrew Young, stopping into their business.

Retreat Cafe

“Hub” Dudley was a born giver. In fact, he was the “Colored Chairman” of the multi racial United Givers Fund in the 1960s.   A long time supporter of the American Red Cross, Dudley helped to lead War Bond drives during World War II and the establishment of a public housing project for African Americans, which was named for his mother Katie Dudley.  A life long member and leader of St. Paul A.M.E. Church, Dudley helped to enlarge and modernize the Colored 4H Camp of Georgia on the current grounds of Riverview Golf Course.

In his early years, Dudley remained loyal to the Republican party, the party of Abraham Lincoln.   Dudley organized a Voter’s League in the mid 1950s.  Later, he became the essential keystone for candidates seeking political offices.  During the 1940s and 1950s, Hub was often courted by the members of the Herschel Lovett and Sheriff Carlus Gay factions for his critical endorsement.

Known by many important African American figures of his day, “Hub” was a  friend of George Washington Carver and composer W.C. Handy.

Courier Herald columnist and former minor league baseball pitcher, “Bo” Whaley, came to admire Dudley, who took in, boarded and mentored Sammy Buell and Bill Causion, the Dublin team’s first black players.

Hub Dudley’s wonderful life ended on June 4, 1965.  Long time friend, Herman Wiggs, commented, “The twinkle in his eye symbolized inspiration for everyone who knew him. In a day when our race still is in need of advertisement as human beings, Mr. Dudley, in my book, was about the finest public relations man Dublin has ever had. He was kind, clean cut and gracious.”

An anonymous friend wrote in an opinion letter to the Courier Herald, “He was a great man and a  misunderstood one in many instances. He loved people, all people, regardless of race. He always had a conversation for anyone he met and was known by all as being talkative. He helped so many people, at one time he was on as much as $445,000 worth of notes for other people. There are so many ways he helped people. Your paper wouldn't hold it all.”

Dudley was buried in the family plot on the summit of the hill along the main drive of the cemetery which he and his father established in the Scottsville neighborhood of Northeast Dublin next to his parents and beside his beloved Mayme, who was most likely I suspect,  the real tie that bound the Dudley family and our community.

In summing up “Hub” Dudleys life, let’s look to his own words when he commented on the outstanding work of Dublin native and Ford Motor Company inventor, Claude Harvard. Dudley proclaimed, “Genius knows no color or creed.  And, the world loves a contributor to civilization”   And therein lines the reason why this great man was so loved by nearly all of the people he ever helped along his highway to heaven.

Home of H.H. & Mayme Dudley 

BERT GREENE

BERT GREENE
The Rise and Fall of a Middle Georgia Golfer

Bert Greene was a pretty fair golfer in his day.  At the age of eight, he was beating some of the duffers at the Dublin Country Club.  Forty years ago Greene was in his prime as one the leading collegiate golfers of the Southeastern Conference. Ten years later his PGA career vanished as a result of a freak career ending injury.

Charles “Bert” Greene was born in Gray, Georgia on February 11, 1944.    He took up golf at the age of four.  In 1950, Bert’s father, Herb Greene, was hired to be the club pro at the Dublin Country Club.  Growing up around golf and being the son of a pretty good golfer, Bert was destined to excel on the links.  In his days in Dublin the elementary school student outscored several grown men when he finished atop the 2nd flight.   The Greenes left Dublin for Jacksonville, Florida for a short time before returning to the Middle Georgia area where Herb worked on golf courses in Eastman, Douglas and Cochran.  Bert’s sister Barbara also followed in their father’s footsteps and played for a time on the LPGA tour.

In 1961, Bert, playing for Dodge County High School,  won the Georgia AA state championship by nine strokes with a two straight sub-par round total of 136. Later that summer, he captured the Georgia Jaycee’s Jr. Championship.  The following year, the Dodge County golfer won the 17-18 year old bracket of the Future Masters of Golf with a three round score of 210.  Greene was awarded a full scholarship to play for the University of Tennessee golf team in 1963. That same year Bert was the Tennessee Amateur Golf champion.  In 1964, Bert won the individual championship in the Southeastern Conference and garnered All American honors that year as well as his junior season in 1965.     Bert played as an amateur in his first U.S. Open in June 1965, but failed to make the cut.

Greene’s first appearance in the Master’s Golf Tournament in Augusta came as an amateur thirty-nine years ago this week in 1966.  He qualified for the tournament by finishing in the top eight of the previous year’s national amateur tournament.  In his first practice round,  he posted a 71 with birdies on 13, 14 and 16 with a 20 foot eagle birdie put on the 15th hole.  Bert missed the cut after decent opening rounds of 80 and 77.  In the fall of 1966, Bert decided to turn pro.  He attended a tour school but needed a sponsor to pay the bills of entrance fees, travel expenses and lodging.  Two men in the beverage business signed on to sponsor the up and coming golfer.    Greene started out strong in the opening round of 1967 Los Angeles open.  He was among the third round leaders of the ‘67 Tuscon Open but fell back to a distant and even par behind Arnold Palmer, the tournament winner. But after a disappointing rookie year when he brought home only $1,702.57 in winnings, Bert was left without a sponsor.

Buck White, a former golf pro, saw a lot of potential in the tall, slim and blonde fellow Tennessee golfer.  He convinced an eclectic group of investors to sponsor Bert for the 1968 seasons.  The group included a Florida housewife, a lawyer, dean of a Quaker school in Garden City, N.Y., a toy merchandiser and a mysterious man with a funny sounding name.  In March 1968, Greene once again soared to the top of the 3rd round leader board.  Following an outstanding start, Greene was in 8th place, seven strokes off the lead, six ahead of Jack Nicklaus and nine strokes ahead of Lee Trevino.   In The Dural Open, just as he had done a year earlier in Tuscon, Greene fell off the leader board following a poor fourth round.   A highlight of the year 1968 came in Minnesota when Bert, listed as playing out of Union Point, Ga., scored a hole in one in the Minnesota Golf Classic.

Bert’s fortunes turned for the better in 1969.    After participating in the U.S. Open, Bert finished 11th in the Kaiser Open ahead of golfing legends Hale Irwin and Sam Snead.  He was an early leader in the American Golf Classic and the Buick Open.  His best tournament of the year came in the Western Open, the world’s richest tournament.  After blistering rounds in the 2nd and 3rd rounds, Greene drew within one stroke of the leader in the final round.  Going for the green in two, his ball found the trap.  Still in contention, he missed a putt, which cost him $20,000.00 and his first tour victory.    Bert had a great outing when he finished 4th in the Greater Hartford Open on Labor Day weekend.  He finished the year 23rd on the money list with $56,878.00 in winnings.

Bert returned to Augusta National in 1970 on an ominous note.  During the practice round, one errant shot landed in an empty lunch box.    He finished 12th in the tournament with a highly respectable even par four round total of 288.  Two weeks later, Bert finished 5th in the Tallahassee Open. He continued to play well during the spring, finishing 3rd in the Houston Championship and 13th in the Atlantic Golf Classic.   In one of his first professional victories, Bert captured the Brazilian Open title in June.  Fighting bursitis throughout the summer, the lanky power golfer was the first round leader of the Green Island tournament before falling to an 8th place final finish.

Greene got off to a good early start when he placed atop the leader board in the 1971 Glen Campbell Open.  A second victory on foreign soil came in the Lagostas in Bogota, Columbia in February.    For the second straight year, he finished 12th in the Masters.  Among his better tournaments that year were the Atlanta Golf Classic and the Kemper and Colonial Opens where he was  among the early leaders.  His best finish came in the Western Open when he placed 6th.  

The year 1972 proved to be a turning point for Bert.  He only managed to finish 32nd in the Masters, though he finished ahead of Arnold Palmer and Lee Trevino.  His best finish came with  top ten finishes in the Houston and Greater Milwaukee Opens and a sixth place finish in the Colonial. His career nearly came to an end in the fall  when during a round of golf, Bert became frustrated with a bad shot, slammed his club into his golf bag, and caused a pistol inside his bag to discharge.  The bullet struck Greene in the foot nearly ending his golf career.

Six years of traveling all over the country playing hundreds of rounds of golf finally paid off for Bert Greene in 1973.  Bert finished 5th in the Byron Nelson Tournament in April and the BC Open. In September, he finished 12th in the Heritage Golf Classic.  But in was in Raleigh, North Carolina when finally Bert won his first PGA Tournament.   After four rounds of regulation play, Bert was in first place in the L&M Open with a score of 68-73-67-70 (278) when on the last hole, Miller Barber sunk a 40 foot putt to force a playoff.  On the 5th playoff hole, Bert sunk a twenty-foot twenty-thousand dollar putt to cinch his first tour victory. Back at home in Dexter, Georgia, where his father was the golf pro at Green Acres Country Club,  his parents Bert and Kathryn were ecstatic.    Just before the tournament, Bert spent a few days for rest and relaxation.   “For the first time in his pro career, the pressure is off,” his father said.

But things didn’t get better for Bert.  A wrist injury signaled the end of his once promising career.  He finished last in the first round of ‘74 Masters and missed the cut.  Two weeks later he rebounded  with a 21st place finish in the Tournament of Champions.  His one highlight came when he shot a 67 and was one stroke off the lead of the World Golf Open at Pinehurst in September.    In that same tournament a year later, he finished 53rd and took home only $476.00 in prize money.    It was one of his last tournaments as a touring professional.

After leaving the tour, Bert Greene became a Mississippi state trooper.  For nearly two decades Bert Greene almost abandoned the game which brought him fame and enjoyment, playing an average of only three rounds a year.    He was the first PGA tour victor ever to regain his amateur status.  At the age of fifty, Bert attempted to join the Senior Tour.  He missed the cut and decided to permanently
retire to enjoy the things he loved the most, his family and fishing.  When asked if he had any regrets, he told a reporter, “ I have no regrets.  I knock on wood because I have two great kids and a grand boy, Jacob.”

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ELISHA L. KING

Shaper of Music


You may have never heard of Elisha James King or his brother,  Elisha Lafayette King.  The King brothers, along with their cohort, Benjamin Franklin White, were among the most prolific  composers of "shaped note hymns" which they  compiled into the legendary hymnal, "The Sacred Harp."   Many musicologists proclaim that Sacred Harp music is the oldest form of purely American music.

Click to hear modern day Sacred Harp singing. 

Shaped notes were designed to make it easier for church congregations and untrained singers to readily understand pitch, scales and key signatures.  Instead of the more common dark ovals, shaped notes are squares, triangles, ovals and diamonds,  filled or not filled with black ink.  The practice of using shapes began in the early years of the 19th Century in New England and spread to the South.

Elijah James King was born in 1821 in Wilkinson County, Georgia to John King and his bride, Elizabeth Dubose.  The Kings moved to Talbott County in western Georgia in 1828.

In 1840, one Benjamin White moved to the adjoining Harris County, where he would later serve as the Mayor of Hamilton, Georgia, the Clerk of the Inferior Court of Harris County, and a major of the local militia.

King joined with Benjamin Franklin White, left  of Union County, South Carolina, to compile the "Sacred Harp" in 1844 when King was more than half the age of White when the widely popular hymnal of shaped notes was first printed in book form.  It has been said that it was White who mentored King.

King, who farmed and taught singing and music for a living, collaborated with White on nearly two dozen songs as a composer or arranger.

Sadly at the zenith of his life and musical career Elijah King died on August 21, 1844 at the age of twenty-three.  His father and a niece died a few days later.  More deaths in the King family made the year 1844 one of triumph and despair.

Music historian David Steel describes King as having a distinctive musical style and three of his songs, "Bound for Canaan," "Sweet Canaan," and "Fulfilment" as "classics." Steel theorized that King was the "money man" of the duo.

Stepping right in after the death of Elijah King, was Elias Lafayette King, his  supposed younger brother and  eight years his junior.  The younger King  strived to replace his brother in the publishing of Sacred Harp music.  He contributed approximately a half dozen songs to the 1850 revised edition, including:  "The Bower of Care," "The Frozen Heart," "Dull Care," "Reverential Anthem," and "The Dying Christian."

The teaching of singing syllables in order to teach the young singer has generally been credited to Guido d'Arezzo, who used a six syllable system.  English teachers reduced the number to four, fa, sol la and mi.

Sacred Harp music is performed a cappella by singers sitting in a square with the treble, alto, tenor and bass singers on each side with the center of the group being a hollow square.  Often the group does not have a director. Instead numerous directors stand in the middle of the square.

There are three basic type songs, regular traditional hymns with traditional four bar phrases, fugues, and anthems.

"The Sacred Harp," with more than five hundred songs written in four parts, was used by the vast majority of old line church choirs and singing school teachers in Georgia and the Deep South.

There is little documentation of the practice of singing shape notes in Laurens County. Primarily used in the Primitive Baptist and Nazarene churches, the practice enjoyed a revival in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  Sacred Harp music is more common along the Georgia-Alabama border and northward into the mountain states of the Southeast.

Most people, primarily children, learned shaped notes from teachers of singing schools. The most famous of the Laurens County singing school teachers was long time  and legendary Blackshear ferryman, Rawls Watson.

Singing schools were held in every little church and school throughout the county for the first six decades of the 20th Century.    One of the last occurred at the East Dublin Baptist Church in 1963.  The classes lasted sometimes for hours, sometimes for days and sometimes all week long.  In 1954 and 1955 , C.C. Gay conducted  10-night singing schools at the Telfair Street Church of God.

Once the singing school sessions were completed, "singing conventions" featured choirs from around the county and around the East Central Georgia area.  One of the largest was the convention at Idylwild, a former W&T Railroad resort of the Ohoopee River, south west of Wrightsville.  Managed by Grady Sumner, the event attracted thousands of people  and lasted until the 1960s.

Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church

The singing of shape notes in praising the Lord God is a Southern Christian tradition which has almost  faded into obscurity like many other old, grand traditions.   Today, Sacred Harp music is experiencing a comeback with younger people around the country, even those whose religious beliefs are not as deep as the original singers of shape note music.

The memory of shape note music still resonates in the mind of the Rev. Don Hicks, the minister of the First Church of the Nazarene Church in Dublin.  Hicks, also the musical leader of his church, fondly remembers his attraction to Sacred Harp singing, primarily in the days of his youth he spent at singing conventions at Sand Mountain, Alabama. "It was a good learning tool to teach me how to sing," Hicks added.


And now you know, that a musical tradition which has lasted for more than a century, has its roots in a little boy born in Wilkinson County, Georgia nearly 200 years ago.

For more information see:

http://southernspaces.org/2010/hoboken-style-meaning-and-change-okefenokee-sacred-harp-singing


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWQDl6cyj2Y

JORDAN HAMPTON

JORDAN HAMPTON
Bound for Success

Look out New York, Jordan is coming!  With her portfolio in one hand and her bag in the other, Jordan Hampton of Dublin is headed for the Big Apple.   This seventeen-year-old model, with a classic model figure, is determined to be a successful model through hard work, determination, and the support of her family and a vast network of hometown friends, whom she graciously acknowledges and appreciates.

For all of her walking years, Jordan has loved to dance.  She still dances four to six times a week as a way of staying in shape for her modeling career.    Her diet usually includes chicken, fish, fruits and vegetables in moderate amounts.  Though she will occasionally eats some junk food, Jordan typically prefers fruits to fries and chips.

Jordan’s dancing career began at the age of two at the Fancy Dancer School in Dublin.  Her dancing skills have led to her being more graceful as a model and having her a more athletic body, which helped her to recover faster than normal after a recent surgery on her knee.

“She is a ham, like her Daddy,” her mother says.  “When she is on stage, she lights up!” Both of her parents are singers.  Jordan actually has a good voice, but she never took up signing. She also inherited her father’s ability to pick out a tune on a piano.

As a young girl, Hampton never aspired to be a model.  At the age of thirteen, Jordan was attending a beauty pageant in Atlanta, when a representative of the Elite Modeling Agency approached Jordan and her mother and asked her if she was interested in a career in modeling. The Hamptons were skeptical at first, but when they learned that the Elite Agency was one of the top three agencies in the world, the offer seemed not only interesting, but extremely  exciting.  It was then that Jordan and Hamptons were introduced to Victoria Duruh, of Elite, who ever since then has been very helpful to Jordan, almost as if she were her big sister.  Just before her fourteenth birthday, Jordan signed a contract with the New York Elite Agency. During her four-year career, she has worked with the agency in Atlanta, New York, Miami, Chicago, and Barcelona, Spain.

During the last four years, Jordan has traveled around the world.  She spent ten weeks in Singapore, Malaysia and five more weeks in Paris, France.  Her brief stay in the French capital, one of the world capitals of modeling, was as a major stepping stone in her young career.  Another highlight was working on eleven shoots in a single year as one of the “New Faces” of models around the world.

“I travel with Jordan everywhere she goes,” her mother said.  As her “traveling buddy,” Roxanne Hampton helped her daughter meet the not only her rigorous work schedule, but kept her on track in her high school studies.  Through the aid of online courses and home schooling,   Jordan could have easily taken the bare minimum courses required for graduation.  But instead, she chose to take as many honor courses as she could, including extensive foreign language courses.  Despite her demanding course  and work schedule, Jordan finished high school in three years and with a 4.0 grade point average - an accomplishment to be applauded for any high school student.

As she prepares to move her home to New York, Jordan is financially set to work as a model without the need of a second job to pay the bills.  Thanks to careful financial planning by her father, Dr. Derrick Hampton, who encouraged her to put aside a large portion of her earnings early on, so that her savings would support her in a career once she got out on her own.

Modeling is hard work, more than just posing and smiling.  Jordan often works from eight to nine o’clock in the morning to seven o’clock in the evening.   All day long, Monday through Friday, Jordan, when she is not on shoot,  goes through castings with interviews, sometimes with six models and sometimes with two hundred all competing against each other.  Sometimes when the photographer needs a background in a busy metropolitan areas, Jordan has been called upon the pose for pictures in the middle of the night, from the rooftops of skyscrapers to the deserted predawn streets of Times Square in New York.   Feeling bad or being sick is rarely an excuse to miss work.  She once had to be a work with a temperature of 102 degrees.

The agency has high expectations for Jordan.  Many who see her photographs think that she looks exotic and that she couldn’t be a good ole’ country girl from Georgia.  Her grandmother sometimes doesn’t recognize and refuses to believe that the girl in the pictures is Jordan, but Roxanne affirms that it is, because she was there with her daughter on every shoot.

Jordan possesses a natural ability as a model, she is comfortable in front of the camera, and photogenic. She sees modeling as her calling.   With all of the confidence in the world, confidence that she will need to succeed in the highly competitive world of modeling, Jordan said, “ I  intend to take New York by storm and I want to be the next super model.”  Another requirement to become successful in the business is a strong work ethic, and Jordan possesses just that.  Each night, she plans and schedules all of her activities for the next day, and then thoroughly exhausted, she  goes to bed.
.

 Realizing that the average career of a model is a mere ten years, Jordan is already busy planning her career after her modeling days are over.  After the day long shoots are over,  she wants to go into the modeling business, perhaps in design or in management, or maybe, just maybe, she might try her hand as a gourmet pastry chef.   She also wants to go to college and take a few dance classes, but not as long as it interferes with her modeling career.

Her last year has been a difficult one, trying to graduate.  Being between a junior and senior model - which involves a whole different world of clothing and poses, Jordan has struggled to persevere.  But she stands tall in stature and tall in her determination to succeed.    Confident and secure that she will be ready to move away from the comforts of home and go to the fifth largest city in the world, Jordan warns all New Yorkers, “ I hope y’all are ready, here I come!”

DR. ANELLA BROWN

DR. ANNELLA BROWN
Connoisseur of the Exquisite

Annella Brown, according to some, was well ahead of her time.   From her earliest days, Annella knew that she wanted a career in medicine.  The problem was that in her day, most doctors were men and very few women in the country were doctors.  Obviously, there were rarely any women doctors in Georgia.  Still, Annella achieved her goal and more.  In her later life, her success as a physician allowed her to  pursue her perpetual passion for art, jewelry and antiques, especially the rare and exquisite.

Annella Brown, the oldest child of Moody Brown and Eunice P. Brown, was born in Dublin, Georgia on September 13, 1919.    Annella first lived in her parents home at 109 Columbia Street and later at 210 Ramsey Street.   Annella was determined to become a doctor.  She entered high school at the age of eleven and took college preparatory classes in lieu of the normal business and domestic classes usually reserved for the young girls.   The young miss  graduated from Dublin High School in 1935 before she was sixteen years old.  Despite her heavy load of honors classes, Annella finished college in three years and graduated from Georgia College for Women in 1938.  Thirteen years later, she would be the first alumnus to win the college's Distinguished Alumni Award.   She won the award for the second time in 1975, making her the only graduate to win the prestigious award on two occasions.


Annella had to delay her entrance into medical school because of the minimum age requirement of twenty-one.  To keep her mind sharp and to pay the bills, Annella taught English and math in a high school.    Miss Brown began her medical studies at the University of Georgia Medical School in 1941.  Two years later, she transferred to the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania.    Annella's dogged determination paid off in 1944, when she became Annella Brown, M.D.  Not only did Annella achieve her goal, but she achieved it with distinction, being one of only two graduates to graduate Summa Cum Laude.

After graduation came the normal practice of interning at a hospital.  Annella chose to do her internship at Philadelphia General Hospital, where she scored the highest grade among her colleagues on the surgery test given by the National Board of Examiners.  After three years of residency as the first woman surgeon  in the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Brown came back to Philadelphia General to practice medicine. Her dream came true.  But, bigger and better things were in store for the young physician.

At the age of thirty, Annella was recruited by and signed by the New England Hospital where she served as Surgical Educational Director in charge of training surgical residents, a high honor considering that she had herself recently been a resident in training.  In 1950, Dr. Brown was named the hospital's Surgeon-in Chief, a position which she held for a decade.       During her tenure, Dr. Brown reversed the hospital's long standing policy of female leadership and the service of only women and children to a practice of serving all patients with both male and female physicians.

Dr. Brown's brilliant surgical skills led her to become only the nation's fifth female certified surgeon and the first woman surgeon to be accredited by the American Surgical Board in the states of New England. While in Boston, Dr. Brown was a fellow in the American College of Surgeons, an Assistant Surgeon at Massachusetts Memorial Hospital, and Instructor of Surgery at Boston University as well as a published author of medical journal articles.

After a relatively brief career in Boston, Dr. Brown left the Bay State to practice in Pennsylvania at  the Milton Hospital in 1961.    For nearly three decades, Dr. Brown served on the staff of the Hospital, where she was President of the Medical Staff from 1985 to 1986.  She specialized in cancer surgery of the breast, colon and thyroid.   Dr. Brown was one of the first surgeons to use the practice of chemotherapy in treating her patients.

In an obituary written by her niece, who also contributed much of the information about Dr. Brown's life to the Laurens County Historical Society, Deborah Travers wrote "Throughout her life, Dr. Brown pursued both knowledge and beauty."    Annella seemed to be enchanted with poetry, history, art, antique furniture and fine jewelry.

Poetry was an early love.  Annella's poetry was published in the Modern Yearbook of Poetry and she was an author of several songs.    But her prime passion was art and antique furniture, especially 18th Century French furniture and pieces from the Art Deco era.   Travers stated, "She also possessed a keen eye for design, quality and the extraordinary pieces." Her extensive knowledge of art led to her invitation as a guest lecturer at Harvard University.

Auction houses loved Annella Brown.  She rarely failed to frequent the sales of fine antiques and art.  "By nature, she was a self made competitive woman," her niece Deborah remembered.  In explaining her passion for collecting, Brown was once quoted as saying of herself, "I want what I want when I want it.  I'm known for standing in the aisle with my paddle up until I get it."

Dr. Brown's captivation for having the most exquisite items for her home and collection was never more apparent than in 1977, when she arrived in a helicopter to attend the auction of the estate of the Earl of Rosebury in Mentmore, England.

Eventually, Annella developed a enchantment for jewelry, which "came in part from her attraction to jewelry boxes," her niece stated.  Though she rarely wore any of her best jewelry,  she amassed a fortune in  some of the world's most exquisite items, including her favorite Cartier necklace, which she sold and bought three times.  Her collection of Art Deco jewelry was reputed to be one of the finest in the nation.

Dr. Brown's loves extended to architecture.  She restored three homes in the Dordogne Valley of France and  an 1859 sixteen-horse stall barn in Sherborn, Massachusetts, which she converted into a ten-room colonial home.  Her collection of restored homes included five houses in Beacon Hill and a Boston town house.   In 1980, Dr. Brown discovered an Art Deco home in Miami Beach.  Though it was not for sale, Dr. Brown got what she wanted and began the lengthy, detailed and expensive process of restoring the 1935 house to its original grandeur.

A few years before her death, Dr. Brown's collection of art, jewelry, furniture and an eclectic amalgamation of the elegant was sold by Skinner Auction Company. At the age of 88, Dr. Brown died of heart failure at her home in Miami on April 13, 2008.  Those who knew her would say that , "She loved laughter, singing, originality, challenges, meeting new people, and learning something new."  Her niece simply said, "She was a Renaissance woman."

ED WHITE

ED WHITE
"The End of a Long Voyage"

Every day as Ed White goes to work, he is reminded of all of the lives given in service to our country.  As he passes by the Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Commander White imagines what happened there on December 7, 1941.  He envisions the terror of the defenseless sailors aboard their ships as the Japanese zeros came diving toward them, streaking through the smoke filled skies, and igniting the world around them.  His emotions are mixed.  He grieves for the lives of the lost and their families, but at the same time remains proud knowing that in his own way, he and others have taken over where they left off in the honorable service of our country.

Commander Ed White, his friends still call him "Ed," remembers first learning about Pearl Harbor in his textbooks at Moore Street School, a block or so down the street from his Mimosa Street home.  His first true experience with the infamy of that fateful December Sunday morning  sixty seven years ago came while he was standing on the bridge of the USS Holland as she passed by the various memorials.  His desire to find out what really happened that notorious day drove White to study what happened, why it happened and the lessons he and others can learn from the attack.  "Once into port, I toured just about every memorial, and each has their own story to tell. Although tragic, this event united Americans, as did the 9-11 attacks," said White as he complimented the American people for their ability to navigate through the bad times with the help of God to serve his purpose.

Every morning as he drives down the Kamehameha Highway from his McGrew Point home, he observes bus loads of tourists, who come from all over the world and stand in line for hours, just to pay homage to the crew of the USS Arizona and the more than 3000 souls who lost their lives on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu.

As a young boy in Dublin, Ed White loved to play basketball - being taller than most of the boys in his class helped a lot.  After he graduated from Dublin High School in 1977, Ed had planned a career in the grocery and dry goods business, much like his paternal grandfather of the same name.  While working and going to college in Brunswick, Ed began to notice the big ships as they appeared and disappeared over the horizon near St. Simons and Jekyll Islands.  He wondered to himself, "What is beyond the horizon?"  He remembered visiting with his uncle Sibley White, an old navy man.  "Uncle Sibley used to show me pictures of the exotic places he had visited while he was in the Navy.  I can remember sitting with him on the white sandy beaches as a child and looking out over the water," White fondly remembered as he thought about those days and what the people aboard those ships were going to see after they disappeared below the sky.

Suddenly the thought of selling groceries drifted out of his head and Ed found himself enlisting in the U.S. Navy.  "I started out as a Seaman Recruit, at the bottom of the totem pole in 1977, " Ed commented.     Over the next dozen years, White, the youngest son of Judge William H. White and his bride, the former Melrose Coleman of Dexter, climbed the ladder in rank up to Senior Chief Petty Officer.  In 1990, he was commissioned an ensign.  Over the last eighteen years, White has risen in the ranks up to the position of Commander.  He credits his success as an officer to his time as an enlisted man and learning how they think and how they tick. "I feel it has made me a better leader as an officer," the Commander said.

As an enlisted officer, Ed served aboard the USS Mount Whitney and the USS Edison. He lived around the country in such places as Norfolk, Austin, Nashville, Newport and Galveston.  His first assignment as an officer came when he served aboard the USS Holland as the ship's Secretary, Personnel Officer and Administrative Officer.  His next post was aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, which saw duty in the Mediterranean Sea.  After a three-year stint as Operations Coordinator for the U.S. Defense Attache Office in Australia, White returned to the states as Personnel Officer at Pensacola, Florida.  From July 2000 to June 2003, Ed served as the Executive Officer of the U.S. Navy Personnel Support activity for the Far East/Pacific.  While serving as Administrative Department Head aboard the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis, White was awarded the Stennis Straight Furrow Leadership Award for 2004.  In March 2005, White was once again honored by being given the position of Executive Officer of the Naval base at San Diego, California, the largest of its kind in the Pacific and the Navy's second largest around the world.

Today, White serves as Staff Enlisted Personnel and Fleet Personnel Distribution Officer for the Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet under the command of Admiral Bob Willard.  Among the numerous medals ribbons which enhance his uniform are the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, two Navy Meritorious Service Medals, six Navy Commendation Medals, three Navy Achievement Awards, along with campaign medals from Southwest Asia (bronze star,) Armed Forces Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal, three Sea Service Deployment Ribbons, six Overseas Service Awards, and the Kuwait Liberation Medal.

Now, just three months shy of his scheduled retirement after thirty-one years of service, Commander White is preparing to pull into port for the last time in his naval career, giving up a sure promotion to Captain and even a possible one to Admiral.  He is retiring, not because he is tired of being in the Navy.  "The Navy has meant everything to me.  It has helped me to mature and given me opportunities that would I have never received, especially my education,"  White, the holder of a Master's Degree in Human Relations from the University of Oklahoma,  remarked. He will miss talking with the President, congressmen, and ambassadors.  He will miss conversing with celebrities and sports stars before they perform.  And he will miss visiting the exotic places he saw in his uncle's photo album.  He will always remember the thrill of piloting several of the Navy's largest ships as some kid stares as them with his mouth wide open.

No, the real reason Ed White will never go to work again in his blue uniform is some things he doesn't want to miss.  For thirty years, Ed's wife Kim has supported him.  "I feel it's time to settle  down.  I am away from home for up to a year and I have constantly moved from place to place," White lamented.  "Now it is time for me to support and be there for her now that the kids are out on their own." His eldest child, William Douglas White, has just graduated from Wake Forest University.  His youngest, Meredith Lynn White, is a freshman at the state university in San Diego, California, the place where White hopes he can retire, perhaps as a civilian worker while maintaining his ties with the Navy.  He wants to be there when his daughter graduates.  He wants to be there for the birth of his grandchildren. He simply wants to be home when he wants to be home.

When he came into the Navy, Ed White never thought he would have the honor of serving at a place like Pearl Harbor with its roots deep in Naval history.  Ed, like many others, joined the Navy for the travel around the world, the free education and a new life.  It didn't take but a few moments after he first stepped into Boot Camp and later aboard his first ship, for Ed to realize that it was his purpose in life to serve his country.

"I have many people to thank, starting with God above, for what He has provided.   I 've been truly blessed, and I couldn't think of a better place to close my Naval career than here in Pearl Harbor."  Commander White's retirement ceremony, scheduled for next February,  will be aboard the Battleship USS Missouri, the same ship on which the Japanese surrender was signed. "Pearl Harbor will always have a special place in my heart," Commander White concluded.

Commander White sees the Navy's role as a peace keeper through a strong presence around the world.  He adds that the Navy is always training to fight when called upon, not only on the seas, but in the air and on the ground in support of the Global War Against Terrorism.  As a military man and an American, White believes that it is important to support our new leaders, despite what differences you may have with them.  White asks everyone to "Pray that God will guide them while they hold the most important positions in the world."   He adds, "I encourage all the people of Dublin and Laurens County to take the time to pray for our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines and their families." Lastly, to all his friends and family, his mother Melrose and his brothers Herschel White (left)  and Bill Fennell back home in Dublin and his sister Lavonne Ennis in Talbotton, Ed wishes "a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year."

The new year will bring a new life and new opportunities for Ed, Kim and their family.  Just for a change, Ed and Kim can then take a stroll through the neighborhood or a long drive through the country and see the wonders of this side of the horizon.   As you cast your anchors aweigh and sail at the break of day, and until you reach the shore, may we  all wish you a happy voyage home.

@2008

CAPTAIN ROBERT C. HENRY

ROBERT C. HENRY
Captain of the Oconee River

Capt. Robert C. Henry, a native of North Carolina, could rightly be called the father of river boating in Laurens County.  Capt. Henry served in Company A of the Third North Carolina Cavalry during the Civil War.  At the age of forty, Captain Henry, for some unknown reason, left his North Carolina home for Dublin in 1878.

  He brought "The Colville" and fellow captain, Samuel Skinner, along with him.  With the aid of Col. John Stubbs, Capt. Henry almost singlehandedly rejuvenated river transportation along the Oconee, albeit only for a quarter of a century.

River transportation lived and died with the rain. The wet season usually ran from mid-fall to mid-spring.  The Colville, named for its builder John Colville,  set out for Raoul Station in June of 1878.  Its return depended on the amount of rainfall in the Oconee Basin. The owners of The Colville went to great expense in clearing the river upstream.  The dangers of the river were never more apparent than on November 20, 1878. The Colville set out for Raoul Station on the Central of Georgia Railroad with a load of cotton.  Three miles above Dublin the boat struck rocks which cut seven holes in her hull causing her to sink in five feet of water.  The boat hands set the cotton off on the banks and worked three days to set the damaged boat afloat.  Capt. Henry brought his boat back to Dublin to repair the remaining damage.

Captain Henry joined forces with Dublin lawyer and newspaper owner, Col. John M. Stubbs (left) to form the Oconee River Steamboat Company.  The Company purchased a site for their wharf from Hayden Hughes for $35.00 on February 5, 1879.  The one acre tract was located along the northern margin of Town Branch where it empties into the Oconee River.  The company secured an ideal site within a few feet of the Dublin Ferry. Today the site is just a few hundred feet north of Riverwalk Park in Dublin.  The Colville once again was grounded in the water with a cargo of 200 barrels of rosin in July of 1879. Captain Henry secured a flat boat, The Cyclone, to accompany his boat and to carry heavy loads of guano fertilizer.

Unfortunately the flat boat sunk on February 20, 1880 with twenty tons of T.H. Rowe's guano on board.   Captain Henry took advantage of the lull in business and went back home to marry his sweetheart Louisa. The company was granted a charter to navigate along the Oconee River by the Georgia legislature on September 17, 1879. Other founders of the company were local merchants, William H. Tillery and William Burch.  Captain Skinner remained with the company only a few years before returning to Wilmington.

With no railroad within 25 miles, river traffic was flourishing.  Henry, much to the dismay of Dubliners, was banned by federal regulations  from carrying kerosene on The Colville in 1882.  With Dock Anderson at the wheel, a round trip to Raoul Station still took the better part of a day.  Captain Henry began work on a new steamer in April of 1883.  The 100-foot gunnel boat was powered by two Crockett engines built in Macon.  A new flat was constructed to hold the bulk of the freight. Henry's company put its second boat, The Laurens, on the river in August of 1883.

R.L. Hicks, a Dublin school teacher, a partner in the firm of Hicks, Peacock, and Hicks, and rival newspaper editor, launched the William M. Wadley in August of 1883.  The boat was named for the president of the Central of Georgia Railroad. The boat made only a few trips during its first six months of operation.  The Wadley soon became the fastest boat on the river, easily beating the fast Cumberland in a 111-mile race from Gray's Landing to Doctortown. In  March of 1884,  The Wadley brought a 150-ton load of groceries, hardware, cloth, and supplies into Dublin.  It was, at that time, the largest load ever brought here.   In one year of service, The Wadley, after lying idle for three months, made 62 round trips covering twenty thousand miles.  She carried twelve million pounds of freight without a single accident.  Unlike many other boats, The Wadley only needed five dollars in repairs in her first year.  The Dublin Times, edited by Mr. Hicks often made snide remarks about The Colville, calling her "that North Carolina Tub."  Hicks cried foul about the Oconee River Steamboat Company's exclusive contract to haul freight to and from the Central Georgia Railroad.  When The Colville sunk in shallow water on September 19, 1883, Hicks lamented her return and regretted that she failed to commit suicide. The sinking was a mystery which resulted in the loss of three to four hundred dollars to the freight and furniture on the boat.  The Cyclone was tied to the Colville and soon met a similar fate.

Competition for the hauling of freight escalated.  The Dublin and Wrightsville Railroad was being constructed from Wrightsville to Dublin. Capt. Henry built a 16 by 80 foot barge to haul 100 bales of cotton during low water.  The railroad reached Dublin in September of 1886.  The Dublin and Wrightsville Railroad, which later merged with the Wrightsville and Tennille Railroad, was owned by the Central of Georgia.  The use of Raoul Station on the Central was no longer necessary.  The railroad entered into an agreement with the Oconee River Steamboat Company that allowed the river boats to use the rail facilities in Dublin in exchange for agreeing to haul goods between Dublin and Mt. Vernon only.   When the W&T built its railroad bridge and the county its passenger bridge, the bridges were built to turn their center spans to allow the steamers to pass through. Boat landings were established at the present site of Riverwalk Park, the railroad bridge, and a block below the railroad bridge.

"The Louisa" named in honor of Mrs. R.C. (Louisa) Henry

Changes were being made in the Oconee River Steamboat Company.  Captain Henry was succeeded by Jeff D. Roberson, who was followed by T.B. Hicks, George B. Pope and A.B. Jones. The Laurens sunk after a collision with a log raft  at a double bend in the river on June 9, 1887.  The company suffered a complete loss of $10,000.

Engineer John Graham and pilot Norman McCall were carrying 185 barrels of rosin. Norman McCall, minister of the First African Baptist Church, was known to be a giant of a man.  McCall anchored a pole in the river and managed to save 150 barrels by retrieving the barrels and swimming to the surface while holding on to the pole. The company temporarily secured a new boat. But, with the sale of the Colville and her transfer to the  Ocmulgee River, The Oconee River Steamboat Company went out of business, selling its wharf to Foster and McMillan, brick manufacturers, on July 15, 1887.

Captain Henry turned his interests to timber and banking in the late 1880s. In 1892, he  became the founding president of Dublin's first bank, The Dublin Banking Company.  Five years later he built an elegant two story building at 101 West Jackson Street in Dublin. The Henry Building  became the home to the bank, when it received its state charter in 1898.  Captain Henry and his wife, the former Miss Louisa Gibbs, were founding and faithful members of the Dublin Presbyterian Church. Captain Henry was chosen as a director of the Dublin Cotton Mill in 1897. Robert C. Henry died in 1900 and was buried in the old City Cemetery.

 Years after   his death his body was re-interred in the Burgaw Cemetery in North Carolina near his home.  In 1902, the members of the Dublin Presbyterian Church voted to change the name of their church to the Henry Memorial Presbyterian Church in honor of Captain Robert Henry. For years after Captain Henry's death, Louisa Henry was a faithful and ardent supporter of the church.

With the coming of the railroads and the automobile, river transportation eventually died.  But for a quarter of a century, Captain Henry and his colleagues and competitors kept  our local economy going as their boats chugged up and down the Oconee River.

Henry Memorial Presbyterian Church, ca. 1905

FREDDY CRAFTON

FREDDY TAKES A TRIP
A Dream Trip to a Dream World

Freddy Crafton had already seen a little bit of the world.  As a young boy, he lived through the depression in Wrightsville and Vidalia, where his father worked as a  linotype operator.  So it seemed that Freddy would have be destined to have newsprint  in his blood and on his hands.

 After he graduated from high school, Freddy joined the Army.  He was still in the Army, but worked during the week as a newspaper delivery boy.  When he submitted his name in a contest to win a trip to Ireland, he won.  And off to Dublin he went, not Dublin, Georgia, but her sister city and namesake of Dublin, Ireland.  He won the trip with along with other newspaper boys, though this newspaper boy was a grown man of thirty-one years of age.

In the early 1960s, Parade magazine and the Macon Telegraph sponsored the Young Columbus V "Anglo Gaelic Adventure," for newspaper boys to visit the British Isles.  The lucky winners were flown aboard what was then called a luxurious TWA Jetstream airliner.

Though several accounts of the trip described Freddy as a young man, Freddy, son of Mary W. Crafton of 100 West Moore Street in Dublin, had served in active duty with the  Army from 1949 to 1950.   At the time of the trip, Freddy was a Specialist Fourth Class with the 988th Ordinance Company under the command of John D. Adams.  During his spare time, Freddy loved to read historical and religious books, when he wasn't bowling.  He loved photography, which he would later take up as a profession.

Freddy, who had always dreamed of going to  England,  told a reporter for the Macon Telegraph, "I am looking forward to visiting London.  I've always wanted to see England."  "When we are there," Freddy said, "I want to look up an old friend I have been writing."  "I'd also like to see Buckingham Palace," Freddy concluded.

"I've felt like I have been in orbit ever since I won the contest," Freddy exclaimed.  He racked up 130 new subscribers to the Macon Telegraph and Macon News to win the spot reserved for subscribers outside the Macon metropolitan area.

The newsboys from around the country left Idewild Airport in New York on the evening of March 31, 1961, arriving the next morning at Shannon Airport in Ireland.  The first stop on the trip was the fabled Bunratty Castle and the Lakes of Killarney before a  rickety jaunt through the ten thousand acre Muckross National Park.  After the day trip, the boys were treated to the hospitality of Irish colleens and Gaelic dances.  Most impressive were the Irish colleens themselves, who danced and danced for hours, going from traditional Irish jigs to modern rock 'n' roll dances. Freddy's colleague Bill Parsons, of Macon, remarked, "They can dance forever. They wore us out just watching them dance."

Freddy Crafton had a wee bit of an advantage on the other boys.  Besides being more than a dozen years older than the rest of the boys, Freddy was appointed by J. Felton Pierce, Mayor of Dublin, Georgia, as the city's official ambassador in a letter of introduction to the Right Honorable Maurice E. Dockrell, Lord Mayor of Dublin, Ireland.    Crafton presented Mayor Dockrell with a golden key to his native home, personalized directly to the Lord Mayor himself, and a letter of friendship, which the Mayor graciously accepted as his bright Irish green eyes smiled.

Along the way, Freddy was greeted by John R. Beitz, a member of the staff of the United States Embassy in Dublin.  Mrs. Beitz began to make small talk with Freddy and asked him "Where are you from?"  Freddy proudly proclaimed, "I am from Dublin, Georgia!"  Much to his dismay, Mrs. Beitz equally pronounced, "So am I!"  They stood there in a long moment of absolute amazement.  You see, Mrs. Beitz, before her marriage was Ernestine Graub, daughter of Mrs. Dena Campbell Graub and granddaughter of Mrs. E.C. Campbell, a long time school teacher in Dublin.

After meeting with the U.S. Ambassador to Ireland, the boys played a friendly game of baseball with a group of young Irishmen, who introduced Freddy and his group to the game of hurley, the Irish forerunner of hockey.

The boys were treated to a visit to Leprechaun Forest near Dublin. Impressing Freddy and his buddies the most was the curious and most fascinating growth of shrubbery, said to be the true home of real life leprechauns.  After that, the boys kissed the Blarney Stone at the Blarney Castle in hopes of receiving the legendary gift of a golden tongue.

Freddy had always heard about Irish stew.  He got a chance to swallow some of the real stuff, which lived up to its advanced billing, though he cared not too much for the Irish coffee, commenting that he could never get use to that strong stuff. Moreover, he was confounded to find that the Irish heat their cream to warm their cool coffee instead of cooling off their hot coffee with cool cream.

The carrier boys got the chance to tour London, England, a place which many of them had only read about or seen in the movies.  Freddy was amazed by the music he heard in a British YMCA dance hall.  Commenting on the music Freddy said, "The English jazz band played such numbers as Birth of the Blues and St. Louis Blues as good as the best in the United States."  Before the dance, the boys shopped for souvenirs and saw the sights  in London's West End and Westminster Abbey.     At the urging of the literature buffs in the crowd, the boys attended a play in Stratford-on-Avon, the home of the legendary playwright, William Shakespeare.

The last day of the ten-day trip began with free time in the streets and shops of London on a Sunday morning.  The boys stopped off to visit the royal ones in Windsor Castle on their way to the London Airport for a banquet, complete with awards and the finest in English cuisine.

Freddy and the boys had a good time in the Old Country.  They didn't get into any mischief, at least none that their chaperones knew about.  Just to prove it to Mrs. Crafton and his sponsors at the Telegraph  how good Freddy was, his escort wrote, "Freddy conducted himself like gentlemen (which he actually was at the age of thirty-one) throughout the trip.  He was very cooperative and enthusiastic with his counselors and escorts." Maybe that's because he had been a member of the U.S. Army for the last ten years or so.

And so, the dream trip to the land of his ancestors was over.  Freddy came back to Dublin and opened a photography studio in his home on West Moore Street. Freddy never forgot his trip to Ireland and England.  And to prove it, I have his scrapbook filled with clippings and photos of the near fortnight when  Freddy went back in time to the land of the kings, knights and castles of Merry Ol' England and the Emerald Isle.