Residents of Quiet Oaks Health Care Center in Crawford spent time with former Oglethorpe Echo visual journalist Julia Walkup earlier this year. Walkup captured the emotions of Frankie Brooks, Marcus Goolsby, Mary Ann Seagraves and Betsy Wheless while they shared their memories of growing up or living in Oglethorpe County.
Marcus Goolsby
The 98-year-old Goolsby grew up on a farm in Sandy Cross and lost both of his sons — one at 15 years old and the other at 24 — to muscular dystrophy. “We just had a little old one-room school. … There was nothin’ but a potbelly heater sittin’ in the middle of the room. … Some children didn’t have no pencil, no book, nothin’. Some of ‘em had to write on a piece of brown paper.”
Mary Ann Seagraves
Seagraves, who at 102 years old, is the oldest resident at Quiet Oaks, grew up in Maxeys. She had her hair done before the photoshoot. “When I got old enough, I went to Athens to take a course in beauty culture. And I thought I wanted to own a beauty shop. And I like to fix hair. And I had older sisters, and they always played with my hair, and fixed me, you know. And that was our beauty shop.”
Betsy Wheless
Wheless grew up on a farm in Sandy Cross and recounted tales of chickens wandering throughout the house. The 81-year-old also remembered how they killed chickens for dinner. Wheless grew up playing with her nextdoor neighbor, and they would ride bikes down the unpaved roads.
Frankie Brooks
Brooks, who is 68 and can’t use her legs, didn’t grow up in Oglethorpe County, but is president of the resident council at Quiet Oaks. “I worked in a textile mill, running looms to make cloth ... . Me and another girl had 12 looms that we had to keep running. And I worked 12-14 hours a day, back when I was a lot younger that I could do it. ... But it was so much fun.”
EDITOR'S NOTE: This package was produced in conjunction with UGA photojournalism professor Mark E. Johnson and the Woodall Weekend Workshop, a photojournalism event that was held in Oglethorpe County in March. The Oglethorpe Echo thanks the staff at Quiet Oaks for providing the time to interview and photograph the residents.