GEVA ALEXANDER

The First Woman to Lead the Chamber of Commerce

Being the first woman to serve as President of the Dublin-Laurens Chamber of Commerce came easy to Geva Alexander. In a male dominated business world, all Geva had to do was what her daddy told her to do, be professional and be a woman.

A former Dublin High School teacher, Geva Alexander entered the office supply, machinery, and printing business back in 1964 in Dublin. Geva partnered with her husband Louis, a veteran Dublin businessman. Over the last forty seven years, Mrs. Alexander has worked tirelessly without any self motive other than to help build a better community for her family and friends.

So, in 1989, Geva was elected by the membership of the Dublin-Laurens Commerce as the organization's first female president. Since then Helen Harper, June Moore, and Marcia Christian have served as the female leaders of the 100-year-old league of businesses.

During her term, the chamber became a professional chamber. "It had gotten to be a professional chamber where people are actually trained to do the job a chamber should do," Alexander commented. "My greatest contribution to the chamber was to that point, our chamber directors were frequently retired businessmen," Geva added. In judging the impact of that change, Mrs. Alexander commented, "I think it helped the whole county by making us a fully professional chamber."

Geva Alexander never thought too much about being the first woman to head the Chamber of Commerce. "I truly believe if I was put in a man's world, I had to obey their laws and rules," she contends. It was Geva's sole goal to achieve as a professional. Her father installed one rule in her mind. That rule was "always be a professional and be a lady while you do it."

Just a week ago, Geva and Louis celebrated their 47th year in business in Dublin. Working with her parents is their daughter Nannette. Geva has instilled her father's core beliefs in her own children just like her father did in her.

Geva Alexander accepts no credit or accolades for her election to the presidency of the chamber. "I had lots of friends in high places. I don't flatter myself," she explains, "There are a lot more assertive women who could have done a better job." In summing up her tenure as president, Mrs. Alexander stated, "It is my hope that I planted a seed for professionalism in the business community and in the Chamber of Commerce.

Geva Alexander was the first woman to serve as president of the Dublin-Laurens County Chamber of Commerce. She won't be the last. Whether intentionally, or not, Geva Alexander has set the standard of the professional business woman in our community for generations to come.

DUBLIN SCOUT PRESERVES COUNTY'S HISTORIC PAST

Sam Green had seen it many times while he was paddling down the Oconee River at Blackshear's Ferry, but only when the water was low. He knew what it was, but he couldn't quite figure out how to get it out of the river. Sam thought to himself, why don't I take it out and make it into something for my Eagle Scout project. So, with the aid of his father and several friends, Sam carefully lifted out the visible portion of the old abandoned ferry boat and went to work. When he finished his project, Sam graciously donated his project to the people of Laurens County. Today at the Dublin-Laurens museum, you can see the result of historic preservation at its best.

Sam Green, son of Randy and Pam Green, is busy playing soccer, going to school, and getting ready to graduate from Trinity High School later this month, before attending Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in the fall. He started his project a year ago, but had to wait when his busy schedule caused him to miss the rising waters of the winter. Then on the first day of February earlier this year, Sam was finally able to bring a portion of the old boat ashore for the first time since the county stopped operating the ferry after the use of motor vehicle bridges at Dublin and Ball's Ferry made the service obsolete in the late 1940s.

"The challenge was that the water was deeper than we thought," Sam recalled. "The biggest challenge was fighting the elements," Sam's father Randy said. Finding the boat buried deep in the silty mud, digging it out became an impossible task. Then the Greens enlisted the aid of Mickey Baker, who furnished a pump to literally wash it out of its watery grave. Friends Andrew and Eric Eck lent a hand too.

Sam and his friends were able to secure about twenty boards, some usable and others too far disintegrated to be of any use. Sam had gotten the idea for a bench while visiting Don Thompson's store. The first order of business was to dry the boards. Jake Dean helped to saw the boards and Phillip Morris planed them into just the right thickness and width. After three months, Sam presented his bench, which includes a storage compartment beneath a hinged seat, to Scott Thompson, Director of the Dublin-Laurens Museum. The bench will become a part of the museum's permanent collection and will be part of the featured exhibits during the celebration of Dublin's bicentennial beginning in 2012.

And, there's still more. For good measure, Sam placed an original board inside the storage compartment. And to say thank you to those who helped him in the project, Sam asked Dublin attorney, Judge Johnny W. Warren, to finely craft ink pens made from the wood of the old ferry boat, which thanks to Sam will be preserved for many generations to come.

LAURA DARLEY

You have never seen Laura Darley's picture on the front page of the Courier Herald. People like her rarely wind up on the front page of any newspaper. That doesn't mean that you won't recognize her if you see her. Many of you have eaten lunch with her. You may have seen her in the lunchroom at Northwest Laurens Elementary. But, if you don't know who Laura Darley is, just go over to Chick-fi-La for lunch and you'll find her patrolling the place, policing up the fallen crumbs and abandoned trays, and keeping the whole place tidy and neat, just like your grandmother would.


Laura Darley has lived in Laurens County for almost all of her eighty-five years. She grew up on a farm near Rockledge. Life was tough for Laura's parents, Ashley and Tiny Stewart, during the Great Depression. After she graduated from Wilkes High School, Laura married Johnnie Darley. They had seven children, five boys and two girls. Johnnie died way too young in 1970.

During her four decades of widowhood, Laura Darley kept on working. She worked in and outside of her home. Despite the fact that she had seven of her own children, Miss Laura took in at least five foster children, including a six-month-old baby. When she was looking after her own children, Mrs. Darley worked for almost two decades in the lunchroom at Northwest Laurens Elementary.

After leaving the school, Laura took a job at Quincy's Restaurant in Dublin. She worked along with her son Doyce, who was the one who cooked those fabulous, triple-buttered yeast rolls that put a smile on our faces and inches on our waist lines. "When I worked there, my family would always ask me to bring them some home when I got off work," Mrs. Darley, who only worked at Quincy's for a short time, fondly remembered.

Then in the middle of April in 1999, Laura's life took a change for the better. She took a job at Chick-fi-la. "I went over and applied for a job and Mr. David Roberts hired me," Laura recalled.

Roberts had a plan for Laura. "When she came in, I thought how wonderful it would be to have her as a greeter for a while, to be a grandmother to everyone," the manager recalled. She wouldn't work in the kitchen or in the drive through a window or even the front counter.

Laura's shift starts at lunch and lasts only three hours. It is her job to keep the place neat and tidy. She really doesn't mind those who leave their tables and booths in a mess. After all, it's her job to make the eating areas so clean that you wouldn't know anyone had eaten there in a while. One customer, who requested anonymity, keeps an eye on his drink, careful to move it every 20 seconds or so, to make sure Mrs. Laura doesn't come by and pluck it up. And, she does that six days a week. She reserves the seventh day for the Lord and her family.

David Roberts once thought that when she first came to work that Laura would work for only a short time. "Now, she's been here for about 12 years, and " She has only missed a handful of days and her work ethic is unmatched," Roberts continued. On some days, Mrs. Laura has to work up to the strength to get over the normal aches and pains of someone her age just to make it in to work. "She is always in a good mood. She has been a blessing to us," Roberts observed of his longest serving employee.

Laura Darley will celebrate her 85th birthday on Thursday, March 31. Unless her boss gives her the day off, Laura will be working the lunch shift, just as she has for the last dozen years.

Laura Darley has no plans to quit working. "I love the people who come here," she says. "And, I will keep working as long as I can," she continued.

So, if you want to wish her a happy birthday, stop by at lunch and there you'll find Miss Laura, doing what she does best, being a grandmother who picks up your crumbs and your trash and never fusses at you.

SHANE HARDEN

War on Terror News
Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Relics of Defeat: Marines uncover insurgent caches


Regimental Combat Team 1



03.28.2011 Story by Sgt. Jesse Stence

MARJAH, Afghanistan - Like tomb raiders, the Marines unearth the deadly treasures of those who no longer rule Helmand province. Scouring dry creek beds and abandoned compounds, they collect caches of AK-47s, Soviet era grenades and homemade explosives buried by the Taliban.

Capt. Walker Koury, the commanding officer with Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, said his troops find caches every day as citizens of Northern Marjah warm to the Marines.

“I think this makes it much more difficult for them to return,” said Koury, addressing the possibility of a Taliban spring campaign in the area.

For Fox Company, weapons cache finds are the most tangible evidence of the Taliban’s woes in Northern Marjah. The company has averaged three per day over the last three months, accumulated more than 240 since the beginning of their deployment almost five months ago, and accounted for more cache finds than any other Marine company in Afghanistan, Koury said.

Koury, from Nashhville, Tenn., said the increased rate of cache finds is a byproduct of the growing support for Marines in Northern Marjah.

“If the people support the Marines, they’ll tell them that the Taliban are coming,” explained Koury. “Who’s going to spot the Taliban? Not us. The people. Because they’re going to see the Taliban moving with the weapons, so that’s [why the Taliban] are having to hide all of this stuff … What they’ll do is hide the weapons where they’re going to conduct the attack.”

“So therefore,” concluded Koury, “I’m literally attacking their ambush position, but they’re not there; their weapons are.”

First Lt. Shane Harden, the Fox Company executive officer, noted a significant decrease in Taliban small arms attacks since the beginning of the deployment. Harden said firefights used to be a daily occurrence. Now, he said, more than two weeks have passed since their last engagement with the enemy. Harden, from Dublin, Ga., believes the decrease in violence is directly related to the increase in cache finds.
Koury, whose company supports 3rd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, said the turnaround in Northern Marjah is the byproduct of a change in command philosophy. The former battalions focused more on destroying the enemy, whereas 3/9 and Fox Company have concentrated more on building relationships with the locals, Koury said.

Harden noted that Fox Company and 3/9 face a weaker enemy than past Marine battalions in Marjah – units that adopted a more aggressive approach by necessity, he said. He conceded that Fox Company's approach wouldn't have been possible in the spring of 2010, when local Taliban forces were a more formidable threat, and he credited previous battalions for aggressively pushing lingering Taliban out of Marrjah and setting the conditions for more sophisticated counterinsurgency operations. Nevertheless, he said, Fox Company saw no progress until a point early in the deployment when they shifted their focus from killing the enemy to embracing the community.

Koury illustrated the problem Marines have had in the past. “Say you get attacked, and you go through – you break people’s stuff,” he said. “You point weapons at people, and every time your [base] gets shot at, you return with machine gun fire. Now what are the people going to think about you? You can see it however you want, but they’re not going to like you.”

“The next day, the Taliban come by, and they go up to these people and say, ’Hey, you know the guys who broke your door? The guy who just pointed that weapon at your kid? That guy who searched your house? He’s coming down the road in 15 minutes. We’re going to put this bomb in the road, and don’t you say anything to him.’”

Koury looked up, breaking off the narrative. “Would you say anything to him? Would you tell him there’s a bomb in the road?”

In Northern Marjah, the people will, asserted Koury, because the Fox Company Marines have avoided endangering the civilian population in pursuit of insurgents.

Sgt. Gerry Cariaga, a squad leader with Fox Company, said he’s surprised at how much of the deployment he’s spent talking to people and searching for buried weapons. He said departing Marines from the last unit warned that violence would resume with the changing of seasons.

“They said, ‘Hey, once it gets hotter, it’s going to get worse.”

Cariaga, from Solsona, Ilocos Norte, Phillippines, said he’s sometimes disappointed by the unfulfilled prophecy. He sometimes misses the excitement of the firefights, he admitted, but overall, he’s glad that his company has found a safer, more effective way to operate.

“If you treat people with respect, they will respect you,” Cariaga observed.

Koury attributes the company’s success – the uncovered caches, burgeoning public support and reduced hostility – to Marine discipline. Marines prefer the gallantry of combat to playing the role of neighborhood watch, but they will always restrain their natural aggression for the sake of mission accomplishment, he said.

“You can kill every Taliban, but if you don’t have the support of the people, it doesn’t matter,” Koury said. “In fact, you don’t have to kill any Taliban, and you can win.”

LEONARD BURKE

America and Erin Go Bragh

Leonard Burke is used to wearing green. After all, his parents were Irish. And, he just celebrated his 93rd St. Patrick's Day. Although Leonard may look green on the outside - he wore the olive drab uniform of his country for six years too- on the inside, Leonard Burke bleeds red, white, and blue. So, at this Saturday's St. Patrick's Parade, look for this passionately patriotic veteran, one of the many grand marshals we salute for their service to our nation.

Leonard Burke was born to Joseph Patrick Burke and Sarah Jane Eckert Burke in Pennsylvania on the tenth day of the tenth month of 1918. Six weeks after his birth, Joe Burke began making preparations to come home from World War I. Leonard Burke grew up in the Great Depression on the back streets of a West Philadelphia neighborhood, where most of the residents were Irish or Italian. Leonard never finished high school, opting to start working instead. He worked at Dewey's Restaurant on 13th and Market streets for $18.00 a week, keeping $5.00 for himself, and giving the rest to his mother as long as he was living at home.

When the war with Japan broke out, Leonard left his managerial job at Dewey's and took a job as a ball bearing grinder at SFK Ball and Bearing Plant, where he made bearings for ships, tanks, and trucks. When called into the service in 1943, Leonard, at the age of twenty-five with a wife and infant daughter at home, enlisted in the Army. Naturally he was assigned to an engineering unit. After training for many months in the states, Burke and his unit arrived in Liverpool, England in mid-May of 1944, just weeks before D-day.

Leonard was assigned to the 300th Combat Engineers. For eighteen months, Leonard built roads, mine fields, bridges, fortifications, and anything else the Army needed to build or blow up as it slowly moved across France and Belgum into Germany. During the bitterly cold winter of 1944-45, Burke's unit saw service just north of the Battle of the Bulge. One of the highlights of his service was the day Leonard literally bumped into Gen. George S. Patton. When Burke saw whom he had bumped into, he apologized. The immortal general excused the momentary brush. Leonard never can get out his mind the sight of piles of bones in the killing ovens of the concentration camps he saw near the end of the war. During his tour in Europe, Burke was awarded five bronze stars, a meritorious unit award, and various other awards. Seeing it as a jinx, Burke turned down a Purple Heart instead telling his general to give it to the guy in the bed because he was in worse shape.

After the war was over, Burke was one the lucky ones when he got old job back. But, after six months, Leonard decided to join the Army Air Corps to ensure a steady income for his family. Among Leonard's highly prized memorabilia of his years in the service is a certificate issued to him by Col. John R. Kilgore. Burke participated in Operation Sandstone at the Eniwetok Atomic Energy Proving Grounds on the Marshall Islands. The project was a three-detonation series of atomic bombs in 1948 to test the effects of nuclear fall out on the atmosphere and naval ships and aircraft.

After the war, Burke married the love of his life, his wife Thelma, and moved to Florida. Eventually, Leonard and Thelma moved to Moultrie, Georgia, where he lived and worked until he recently retired. Yes, Leonard worked up until the age of ninety. Burke began working at Lear-Signer in Moultrie in 1951 and kept on working full time in the aviation industry. At the age of seventy-three, when most people his age have already retired, Leonard took a new job at Maule Air, Inc. He would work there for almost 17 years. At the age of 89, Leonard was honored for his work as a quality control inspector as the Older Worker of the Year in Southwest Georgia.

Today, Burke lives with his step daughter Elaine Goolsby on Walke Dairy Road. His memories of his life in World War II are still vivid in his mind. He treasures the friendships he made and the good he was able to do on behalf of his country. I imagine, if the U.S. Army called and needed his help, Leonard Burke would put his green uniform back on, stand at attention, and salute the flag of the country he so dearly loves.

The Dublin Civitan Club invites all veterans of military service to serve as grand marshals of this year's parade. If you are a veteran and would like to walk or ride in the parade report to the head of the parade column at S. Jefferson Street and Martin Luther King Dr., this Saturday morning between 08:30 to 09:30 hours. If you can't make it, the Civitan Club thanks you for your service to our country. To those who come to watch the parade, bring your flag to wave as we honor those who risked their lives to give us the freedoms we enjoy today. For further information, please call me at 478-279-2514.

Leonard Burke riding aboard the VA float, St. Patrick's Parade, March 19, 2011.
 

CAROL PORTER

Her Passionate Mission

BY: Scott B. Thompson, Sr.

Carol Porter has a passion for her missions. And, her missions are her passion. That mission is to make sure every Georgia child is educated, every waterway is clean and full, every road is safe and efficient, and every person who wants a job can have a job. Carol wants to put the people back in charge of their government. She has other missions, ones she hasn’t completed yet. They are spreading the word of her faith in her actions and as a Sunday school teacher and most important of all, raising her four sons and spending time with her husband, State Representative Dubose Porter. If you ask her, she will tell you that her favorite thing to do is to sit down and eat at the dinner table with her family. If there are friends there, then that’s good too.

Carol Dodd Porter was born on November 8, 1958. She grew up in the small town of Wrightsville, Georgia, where her father, Dr. William A. Dodd, practiced medicine. When Dr. Dodd wasn’t seeing patients, you might have found him sitting at his piano playing some of the world’s greatest jazz songs, sometimes with some of the world’s great musicians by his side. Her mother, Mrs. Louise Dodd, was a teacher, author, and community volunteer.

It was on house calls with her father when Carol got her first glimpses of the poverty, hunger, sickness and abuse which plague our state. “I believed there were solutions for those problems then and now I know that there are,” Porter says. Carol Porter’s passion for education was most stirred in the class room of Mrs. Pansey Mixson. “I still remember her reading Laura Ingalls Wilder books to us every day,” the former tomboy recalled. But by far, it was Carol’s mother who had the most profound impact on her young life. “My mother has the highest energy and strongest work ethic that I have ever seen. And, every day, I aspire to be the example she has set for me,” the mother of four grown sons proclaimed.

After graduating from the University of Georgia with a degree in Psychology, Carol went to work as a copywriter with the Courier Herald in Dublin. It was in Dublin where Carol met Dubose Porter, the county’s new state representative. Dubose left his law practice and along with Carol, purchased an interest in the newspaper.

Following the birth of their four sons, Stephen, Guyton, Asa and Inman, in five years, Carol Porter went to work on her first mission. Along with her husband, the Porters worked hard to raise their children to be exposed to education, the arts, scouting, and the teachings of the Church. All four of her sons followed in the footsteps of their father in obtaining the rank of Eagle Scout. Carol never was an Eagle Scout, but then again, they don’t have Eagle Scouts in the Girl Scouts.

After 14 terms in the Georgia Legislature ending with a position as House Democratic Leader, Dubose Porter stepped down to run for Governor of Georgia. All along, Carol had been at his side, listening and learning about the issues which affect our state. She researched policy positions, managed campaigns and formulated strategies for her husband. So, it only seemed natural that Carol could stand in for Dubose at the NFIB/Georgia's Small Business Day at the Capitol, held on Wednesday, January 27, 2010.

“It started when I sat in for DuBose at a governor’s forum,” Carol Porter commented. “And what I found out is, I know the issues facing Georgia better than some of the candidates running for governor that day. And I am passionate about this,” her husband’s biggest fan affirmed.

Then one by one, calls, emails and Internet posts came pouring in, asking her to run for the office of Lieutenant Governor. No one had announced for the position, other than the Republican incumbent Casey Cagle. So when the movement to draft Carol into the race began, she saw the opportunity to run for the office to stop the corruption she believes secretly infests the offices under the Gold Dome.

To Carol, political office is all about trust. “What I love is to find a solution to a problem. Solutions come through leadership and governing. The answers are there,” Carol adds. Believing that politics is just one way to help find those solutions, Mrs. Porter contended, “too many of the people who get involved in politics forget what they are supposed to be doing.” The candidate believes in government can work, as long as those in the government don’t usurp their power and start working for the people.

At this moment, it is entirely possible that the top two elected offices in Georgia could be filled by women, if not in November, then some day very soon. To Carol Porter, that is a good thing. “Women make up not only the majority of Georgia’s population, but also an even larger majority of the state’s voters,” Porter observed. What troubles her is that women hold a fraction of the elected offices in the state. “I hope that my candidacy, along with all the other female candidates in the country this year, will inspire young women to be more active in their communities and their government. I hope those young women will learn about Georgia’s government and issues we are facing,” Porter wishes.

More than anything else, the housewife and newspaper owner turned politician, wants to return the power of government to the people. “The biggest problem that our state is facing right now is the corrupting of the legislative process under the Gold Dome,” Porter remarked. By consolidating power in the hands in less than a dozen people, Mrs. Porter believes the Constitution of the State and the government itself has been compromised. “By allowing our system to work as our Constitution intended it to do, then all we have to do is put the facts on the table and let common sense be our guide,” affirmed Porter.

Candidate and citizen Carol Porter’s passions are self-evident that children should learn, people who want a job should work, and that our highways and waterways should be the best they can we can make them. Fighting the corruption she sees at the highest levels of state government may be her most impossible mission, but her passion for the power of the voices of the people will always be her most passionate mission.

DORRIE GARNER

Dublin Woman Donates Bone Marrow to


Stranger

Jennifer Bellamy



@WMAZ
http://www.wmaz13.com/ 12/1/2010







For 22-year-old Dorrie Garner, life is full of golden opportunities. "I think that everybody is given gifts, and the purpose of those gifts is to turn around and help and love and strengthen those in need," said Garner.

The University of Georgia senior has found ways to give back though mission trips to Peru, Costa Rica, New York and Los Angeles, but managed to come across the chance to try and save someone dying from cancer while away at school.

Garner took a cheek swab test at UGA, and though others doubted her bone marrow would match up with someone in need, Garner knew better.

"I had people tell me 'you won't get a phone call' 'it's very rare, the statistics are very low that you'll get called' and I believed I would be called," recalled Garner laughing.

She says the National Marrow Donor Program flew her to Virginia for the six and a half hour non-surgical procedure, but before donating Garner spent her fall break getting ready. She says she had to have a medical injection that left her feeling weak and sore.

"It makes you kind of sick, it makes your bones hurt, but it's nothing in comparison to what cancer patients go through with chemotherapy," she said, describing the effects.

The National Marrow Donor Program says about 30 percent of people in need of a transplant can find a perfect match within their family, leaving about 70 percent to depend on the kindness of strangers or others for life-saving treatment.

Garner says she comes from a family involved in the medical profession with a father who works as a doctor, her mother a former nurse, and a brother in medical school. She says her family and friends supported her decision to try and help someone else.

"It's been a blessing," said Garner, "I think I've gotten more out of the experience than anyone." Lee Garner, Dorrie's mother, says she's proud of her daughter but knows she would say the story isn't about her. She says her daughter would want others to feel encouraged to sign up to donate bone marrow to others.

Dorrie says the preparing, undergoing and recovering took about 2 weeks. She says her professors appreciated what she did and gave her extensions that helped her get back on track with school.

Garner says she'll find out in a few weeks if the bone marrow she donated saved the life of a 52-year-old woman suffering from leukemia, but either way, the choice to try came easily.
"The idea that I can use something that I already have which is a healthy body, healthy blood, a cancer-free body to help someone else...it just made sense to me I have it so why not give it out," said Garner.

Until she knows the outcome, she'll continue to pray for the healing of a woman she doesn't know, but cares for just the same.

If the transplant is successful, Garner says she can meet her recipient in one year if she agrees.