Let me tell you about Nancy

(Glenn Vaughn Jr., Saluda, NC, June of 2011)

Nancy Vaughn

Although expecting we both will be around a good while longer, I wouldn’t want to leave this world without a few special words about Nancy, my wife of 59 years.

Nancy Jean Weeks was her name, daughter of public school educators James Everett and Etta Mae (Dunn) Weeks She grew up in Gilmer County, located in the mountains of North Georgia. She was born in adjacent Murray County December 21, 1931 in the small community of Sumac.

We met at a Soule Hall dormitory dance at the University of Georgia the summer of 1950 and were married at Watkins Memorial Methodist Church in Ellijay, GA, August 30^th 1952.

Nancy

From the start of her work life she has mastered whatever endeavor she took on. At first her title may have been secretary, but clients or other employees very soon came to know Nancy was the one to call to get things done.

She is a hard worker, a great mother and an ideal wife. There is no end to her skills, which go far beyond being a fine homemaker and outstanding home decorator, so good in fact, had she chose to, she could have decorated professionally.

After our first two children, Valorie and Penny, came along, she successfully launched a weekly newspaper in Tucker, Georgia, then our hometown. It was 1957 and by then I was working as a newsman at The Atlanta Journal. To start The Tattler, she first had to learn to drive. Then she paid $1.25 to rent a post office box. She placed an old upright manual typewriter on the kitchen table and a weekly newspaper was born.

Glenn and Nancy

After a printer was engaged, Nancy started selling advertising to local businesses at a dollar per column inch. She began in mid-month counting on having collected enough advertising revenue at month’s end to pay the printer. Her plan worked and The Tucker Tattler was a going concern. The Tattler’s central piece was a very popular and newsy gossip column Nancy wrote and called ‘Tattle Tales.’

In the beginning, she printed 5000 papers, and hired several young boys to distribute them free to DeKalb county homes each week. Later on she had a circulation drive, gained a weekly paid circulation of 1500 papers, which were delivered on second class permit through the post office.

She sold her paper two years later when a very timely offer came. At the time Nancy was pregnant with our oldest son, Bobby, and getting pretty far along. Monthly payments for the little newspaper were received happily, bolstering the family budget several years.

Then it was back to the Columbus area from 1959 until the spring of 1965. Nancy, Glenn and their four children resided for a fondly-remembered year near Seale, Alabama, in 1964 and early1965. Nancy was a teacher at tiny Cottonton, Alabama, school across the Chattahoochee River from Fort Benning, GA. It was a 20-mile commute for her. Glenn drove almost an equal distance to his job in Columbus as managing editor of the afternoon Ledger

Valorie and Penny rode the school bus to Seale Elementary School while toddlers Bobby and Billy were looked after by an outspoken and hard-working colored maid named Cleo, who later resolutely refused a pay-raise because she said her friends would be mad if she earned more than they.

In the spring of 1965 a rare opportunity arose to start a new morning newspaper in Athens, GA, which would compete with the then 130-year-old afternoon paper called the Banner-Herald. It was a chancy undertaking to be sure. In fact, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer publisher Maynard Ashworth angrily told Glenn on his departure, “They will grind you under, you won’t last six months!”

It was indeed a scary prospect for a working family to uproot and travel all the way across the state on this kind of undertaking. Many wives, I suspect, would never agree to be a part of it. A special kind of courage is required. Nancy was and is self-confident and courageous. Chancy as it was, Nancy supported Glenn’s dream from the start.

Glenn joined a partnership with Charles McClure in Columbus, who owned several radio stations and Claude Williams in Athens, who owned a relatively small outdoor advertising company and published a weekly newspaper called the Athens Advertiser. Claude became president and general manager and Glenn became publisher and editor.

The Athens Daily News was launched. Success ultimately came, but not without a lot of hard work. Nancy was a huge part of the endeavor from the start. From the jobs she held through the years, she had a great deal of business experience. For example, she worked at Dun & Bradstreet in Atlanta and Columbus for nine years. She started at D&B working as secretary for an outstanding boss, who trained this brainy lady very well indeed. Over time business leaders calling to check on the credit worthiness of other firms, began to insist on getting help from Nancy rather than higher-ranked individuals.

The new morning newspaper desperately needed a classified advertising department, along with an operating procedure. Nancy took on that job with a passion. And she did it without a salary because, in the beginning, the low-budget newspaper could not afford it.

Following her success with a new classified department, Nancy became editor of The Daily News women’s section – this time on a salary. With no more than a single assistant most of the time, Nancy put together, on a daily basis, four or more pages of news and pictures. At the Columbus newspapers that kind of output required a staff of four or five persons.

A huge help to the Daily News’ success were the photographs taken by a masterful newspaper professional named Browny Stephens, who wowed our readers with exquisite works. (He had added the ‘y’ to his first name because, he said, people could not remember which name was his first.) Now deceased, Browny had a remarkable wandering lust, especially for a man with a wife and children. On one occasion he wrote down the names of over 50 newspapers, mostly weeklies and small dailies across the nation at which he had worked.

Browny really preferred not to take “society” pictures. But Nancy always charmed him and he went to great lengths to get good photos, even to the point of lying on the floor for arty shots like capturing a club activity scene through the handle of a teapot.

The Athens Daily News was dubbed “the People Paper,” a phrase that quickly caught on in the “Classic City.” The first year the fledgling morning newspaper entered a Georgia Press Association’s annual newspaper contest, the new morning paper received more awards for excellence than any daily newspaper in the state.

“Even paper people pick the People Paper,” a full-page Daily News ad beamed.

Unlikely successes like the Daily News come about, I believe, because certain individuals involved, of whatever rank or position, are in themselves a “force.” These are the individuals, who by their attitudes and accomplishments generate excitement and momentum. These kinds of attitudes are contagious. Lewis Grizzard, who later became a best selling author and widely syndicated columnist, had his first full-time job with the Daily News. He was such a “force.” So were Larry Young, Browny Stephens, and Claude Williams. Nancy Vaughn was that kind of “force” as well. Plus, she spotted the outstanding potential of a student working part time at a furniture store. His name is Mark Smith who also was a People Paper “force.” There were others, of course.

By age 16 Nancy had graduated from Ellijay High School and enrolled at Young Harris College, some 50 miles away. The town (in Towns County, GA) was so small that when Nancy’s father, Everett Weeks, took her to the college the first time, he drove on the dirt road, straight though the town only to learn some miles later he had gone too far.

She was at Young Harris two years before transferring to North Georgia College at Dahlonega. After another year she transferred to the University of Georgia at Athens. In later years she would bring together her bachelor’s degree requirements at Columbus State University where she graduated with a science degree.

In high school Nancy dreamed of going to Duke University and studying journalism. Although that was not to be, she very quickly turned into a fine journalist on her own.

In about three years, the Morris's, owners of the competing Athens Banner-Herald and a number of other papers, made the Athens Daily News partners an offer they felt they had to take. It was a good price, but we were to learn that had we waited about two more years, the newspaper market became such that we could have gotten a price many times higher. In December, 1968, the sale was announced.

Nancy and I and the entire staff were saddened by the sale of the “People Paper” we loved. That last day in the old Daily News Building on Hull Street, more than several of us cried like babies.

In 1969 I was offered the editorship of the Columbus Enquirer, also a morning paper. So Nancy and I and the kids headed back to Columbus.

It was the third time I had been hired by this company, then the family-owned R.W. Page Corporation. It was something of an adjustment for me to work for the first time on the morning newspaper there. A rare relationship had long existed between the staffs of the afternoon Ledger and the morning Enquirer -- no relationship at all. In fact, the staffs of the two newspapers were so competitive they often did not speak.

Longtime publisher of the Ledger-Enquirer on our return to Columbus was Maynard Ashworth, 75. He was married to Annie Laurie Page, daughter of the founder of the R.W. Page Corporation which owned the newspaper. His ultimate replacement nearly 15 years later was none other than yours truly.

The “Colonel,” as he liked to be called, having served during both world wars, was really fond of Nancy. She had boldly demanded his attention some five years earlier. One day she met him on the street and he did not speak as he stiffly walked straight ahead. She marched behind him right into his office and said, “Mr. Ashworth, I want to be sure you know me. I am Nancy Vaughn and my husband is the managing editor of your afternoon newspaper and that entitles me to your respect!”

Not long afterwards the Colonel said the newspaper needed a business column,

When told Nancy would be a good candidate for the job, he liked the idea. So did Nancy.

She called the column “Purse Strings” and it was a fine, chatty piece about what local business people were saying and doing. It very quickly became very popular.

In those days, as strange as it may seem, most newspapers didn’t print much business news except what the wire services did about larger corporations. Because of the many favorable comments about “Purse Strings,” Mr. Ashworth’s personal interest in it grew. Almost daily he would have Nancy come to his office to tell about business activity he had heard about and to offer ideas for future “Purse String” columns.

That Nancy was getting so much attention from the Colonel, it turned out, did not set well with some in the organization. Some of it had to do with the old rivalry between the two news and editorial staffs. Perhaps that was merely another sign of the changing times because in the years that followed most all afternoon newspapers just died.

Without realizing it, the elderly Col. Ashworth was giving Nancy and her column too much attention. Daisy Tucker, it appears, reported the perfectly innocent relationship to Mrs. Ashworth, likely with something of a twist. Publisher Ashworth of course had for years depended heavily on his loyal secretary, widow of a long-time Enquirer editor, Cliff Tucker. She also had served for years as librarian for the Ledger-Enquirer.

The way things shaped up “Purse Strings,” popular as it was, could not survive. Colonel Ashworth was extremely sad when he told Nancy. Years later, ill in his bed at home, he apologized to her for the sorry episode.

Growing up Nancy spent a great deal of time with her paternal grandmother, Selina Garland Weeks who cooked in her fireplace and served that rural mountain area as a Midwife. Nancy often rode with her grandparents in their buggy to shop and at times to sell eggs in town, Ellijay. Her grandfather, Luther Weeks, was a quiet man who farmed his own land. Her grandmother put much stock in roots and herbs as medicine and could identify all the trees and plants

Selina Weeks was often summoned to deliver babies in remote mountain hollows miles away. Often she would take a pig, a couple of hens, or something else of value as payment. Sometimes there was no payment at all. Over the years Selina Weeks delivered almost 3,000 babies, many of them named after her own children or other family members.

Formerly Selina Garland, she had grown up in a beautiful and very isolated place called Cades Cove in Tennessee, now part of a national park. Her Father was Joseph Garland, who first served in the Confederate Army, then ran away and joined Union forces. Family legend has it he was a guard at Abraham Lincoln’s funeral.

When Nancy was growing up not a single road in that entire mountainous area was paved. Everything was pretty much like it had been the century before. Her parents taught school for a tad over 80 combined years. Her mother, the former Etta Mae Dunn from Murray County and Nancy’s father, James Everett Weeks, a native of adjacent Gilmer County, were married May 4, 1930. Nancy was born in Murray County, December 21^st 1931. Her brother James Everett Jr., was born June 28^th 1933, and her brother Archie Daniel, was born May 21^st 1936.

Both of Nancy’s parents, in their early years, taught in one-room schools where the first seven grades were usually taught. (Years later Mr. Weeks still believed that was the best way for a child to learn) The teacher’s first task was to arrive early and build a fire in potbelly stove. Then school would start and one grade at a time would be taught while the others quietly listened or studied their own lessons. Discipline was never a problem and not a soul in or out of the classroom ever thought it might be.

Everett Weeks at Pleasant Grove School

Of course there were no modern facilities and outhouses served well. Everyone brought his or her own lunch and water was available from a nearby spring.

One story Mr. Weeks told, occurred around 1930, when he was a teacher at one of Gilmer County’s many one-room schools. The superintendent asked the then young Mr. Weeks to take a young, newly hired teacher into the mountains and introduce him to the several School System Trustees at their homes. One Trustee, an old bearded mountaineer came out to greet the young man and had a question for him: “Young man, do you teach that the world is round or flat?” The new teacher immediately responded, “Sir, I am prepared to teach it either way.”

Mr. and Mrs. Weeks were excellent teachers. Both were to later serve as principals and he was to serve two terms as Gilmer County School Superintendent. Nancy’s brother, Jim, had a career as teacher and principal and her brother Archie was a water resources engineer with the U.S. Soil Conservation Service.

A time to remember was during World War II was when many of the mountain men were away at war. A combination of volunteerism and the reach of draft boards had extended far into the hollows to place young men on the battlefields of the world.

It was a heart-tugging time when the Weeks’ rural home was the destination of a parade of solemn parents, some having walked for miles clutching letters they could not read. They wanted the schoolteachers to read to them their precious letters and write for them a reply. Later Nancy’s parents held reading classes at a church.

When Nancy left newspaper work, she turned to personal pursuits. One activity was to research her family’s history. Then she joined one of the three Columbus chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR. Soon she became president of her chapter and, still later, a state officer. This gave her an opportunity to visit DAR chapters all over Georgia. Nancy also served as president of the prestigious, 120-year old Woman’s Reading Club of Columbus. Several times and in several places she has been president or teacher of her Sunday School class, and did charitable works as well. Once she made a substitute speech for her husband at a large civic club on very short notice.

Much of our work life has been in Georgia. We’ve lived in Albany, the “pecan capital of the world;” Columbus, the “Fountain City” and first community in Georgia to consolidate city and county governments; Athens, “The Classic City” and home of the Georgia Bulldogs and the second Georgia city to consolidate its government with the county’s; and Atlanta (Tucker) the metropolis that never stops growing.

The Athens Daily News lived grandly for 30 years. For that entire period, Athens, Georgia, probably was the smallest city in the nation with both morning and afternoon papers. That’s because economics dictated, in both larger and smaller cities, that advertising would no longer support both morning and afternoon newspapers. Because the Athens Daily news, with the larger circulation, was so strong it was impractical for it to be shut down and ownership sentiment favored the afternoon Banner-Herald and its long history.

Finally in 1995 the Morris group decided to replace the Athens Daily News nameplate with the Banner-Herald’s and move the afternoon circulation in with the larger numbers of morning readers. That, of course, makes sense. Still, it was sad for a few of us.

Nancy and I spent nearly forty years in and out Columbus from which we moved in 2005, to a tiny and charming town in the western North Carolina Mountains called Saluda. We built a home on Saluda’s steepest street, Memory Lane. The number is 692. Zip 28773.

It wasn’t an easy move for us because we took on the task of building a new home – not the best kind of task for senior citizens -- and we miss friends in Columbus. However, we are close to our two daughters, Valorie and Penny, and see more of our grandchildren. Bobby, who has long been associated with the Georgia Department of Transportation, lives in Marietta with his wife, Janet. Our youngest son, Billy, who became a fine newsman, was editor of the Oconee Enterprise at Watkinsville, GA, when he died in 2009.

Nancy has loved traveling and we’ve been over much of the world. We’ve visited a dozen or more of the world’s largest cities. We’ve seen the Blue Danube; Auschwitz Concentration Camp, the Great Wall of China; the spectacular, buried ceramic army at Xian. We’ve been to Budapest, Singapore, Tokyo, and Shanghai. We’ve been to Lisbon, London, Paris and Rome, and Berlin, Warsaw and Mexico City as well.

We’ve seen the sun go down over the Indian Ocean from the enchanting Island of Bali, and dined at Hong Kong’s highest point, savoring the breathtaking nighttime panorama. We’ve enjoyed New York, San Francisco and Honolulu several times over.

Approaching twilight years, Nancy still is going strong and yearning to travel some more. We will, for sure. Among memorable lifetime events at our home has been hosting a weekend reunion of fellow UGA Red and Black staff members almost 60 years later.

On top of everything else, she is a really good cook. I’ve often noted that she can start with practically “nothing in the house to eat” and come up with something quite tasty. She can design a garment, enhance curtains and sew like a pro. Through the years she always saw to it that our children dressed well, often doing these extra chores at home while holding down a fulltime job.

Among the most memorable events she hosted was a reunion of Glenn’s brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces and children at the Saluda, NC, home. Glenn is the oldest of 10. That huge crowd certainly would define the word clan.

When she feels real good Nancy loves to shop. She can spot a bargain anytime, anywhere. I have often told her she should teach seminars on shopping because so many young people simply do no know how. Today’s young never find a bargain.

Without Nancy’s incredible observation skills, untold thousands of items misplaced by Glenn would have been lost forever. This talent showed up early. One of her elementary school classes on an outing were encouraged by their teacher to have a contest to find a four-leaf clover. Nancy found one, then a second four-leaf clover. She went on to find a third while her classmates came up empty handed. The many days Nancy, as a little girl, had spent with her grandmother had left the youngster with a broad knowledge of trees, plants and wildflowers.

Nancy loved to teach and did so remarkably well. Three times she substituted in her mother’s fourth grade class, six months, three months and one month. For a year (1950/51) she taught first, second and third grade at three-room Henry Grady School in Gilmer County, Ga. Before moving to Athens in 1965 Nancy taught for a year at Cottonton.

At this writing she has a keen interest in learning how American flag originator Betsy Ross was able to make a star with five perfect points with a single snip of the scissors.

The story goes that when Gen. George Washington asked Betsy Ross to make a flag, he brought along a six-pointed star that would represent each of the new states. Legend has it that she persuaded Washington that a five pointed star would look better and showed him how to fold cloth in such a way that one clip of the scissors was all it would take.

Nancy remembers reading about the five-pointed star’s origin as a child in elementary school. She tells how she and her grandmother spent hours cutting up old newspapers trying for form a star, recalling that cut up newspapers totally covered the front porch.

Nancy never saw anything about snipping the star again until the former television news personality Cokie Roberts presented documentation in her historical novel “Founding Women” that the five-point star story was really true.

Finally, Nancy is one of those who dreams nearly every night. Rarely are they really bad dreams, though once she woke up terrified, dreaming a huge rat had its teeth gripped on her chin. She dreams with clarity, often remembering in detail what individuals in her dream were wearing. He dreams for the most part are quite plausible. At times her dreams, which she can recall for only a few minutes after she awakens, suggest a kind of clairvoyance. I have suggested that had sure made notes of her dreams, she might well produce a best- seller.

As you can see I am partial and brimming with memories to share with our children and grandchildren. Perhaps this will help our younger generation know more about a great lady and the great love for those she holds dearest.

Glenn Vaughn Jr.,
Saluda, NC
June, 2011