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The ADVANCE, March 22, 2023/Page 13A
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MOM AND SONS — Martha Bedingfield, two of her sons,
Hibby and Bill, and the family pet, pause for a photo on
the lawn outside their home in the 1950s.
FAMILY — In this vintage photo, Dr, Bedingfield, standing
outside his home in Vidalia, is surrounded by two of his
four sons, Bill and Hibby, and nephew Carl.
continued from page 12A
who was a redhead. It is a
trait that has carried over
into the current genera
tion.
Hibby graduated from
the University of Geor
gia where he played foot
ball for Vince Dooley his
freshman year. While at
the university he met and
married Barbara Witt. Af
ter graduation he attended
Mercer University’s School
of Pharmacy in Atlanta. In
1975 he returned to Vida
lia and took over Vidalia
Pharmacy from his Uncle
Herbert Bedingfield. Hib
by and Barbara have one
daughter, Laura Kay who
is a lawyer and lives in At
lanta with husband Russ
and their three sons.
David graduated from
Florida State and played
baseball and was the edi
tor of the school newspa
per, he finished law school
at Emory University, met
and married a British girl,
and eventually moved to
England where his wife is
a solicitor and he is a bar
rister. David was recently
appointed as a judge,
which Bill said is rare for a
U.S. citizen. “He has been
there for 30 years,” Bill
said of David’s residency
in England. David is also
a published author, hav
ing written a legal book on
childhood law.
Interestingly, after he
moved across the pond,
David met a Bedingfield
relative who was in a
branch off the original fam
ily tree. The distant relative,
Christopher Bedingfield,
took a real shine to David.
Christopher was also a law
yer and the very wealthy
owner of a castle in Chester
which David visited several
times. When Christopher
passed away, David was
notified that he was listed
in Christopher’s will, but
what sounded too good
to be true actually was too
good to be true. It turned
out that the estate was in
cluded in a trust which pro
vided for the education of
lawyers. “Technically, Eng
land would have to cease
to exist as a country before
I will inherent anything,”
David told his brothers.
Nonetheless, the Be
dingfield family is deeply
rooted in England’s past,
and a family estate in the
shire of Norfolk is proof.
(See the Oxburgh Hall
sidebar article.)
The youngest of the
Bedingfield brothers, Sid
ney, has also traveled an
extraordinary road. He
graduated from Florida
State, where he was the
editor of the college news-
BABE IN ARMS — Dr. Bed
ingfield holds Bill outside
the Vidalia hospital in 1953.
paper, became a journal
ist, and eventually a vice
president at CNN USA.
“He produced shows and
worked with Ted Turner,
left there and got hired to
manage two public TV sta
tions in San Francisco and
Los Angeles. He taught in
South Carolina, and later
wrote a book titled, News
paper Wars, about race re
lations and black newspa
pers from Reconstruction
forward,” Bill said. Sidney
earned a doctorate and is
now a tenured professor
at the University of Min
nesota, and living in St.
Paul. His daughter, Kate
Bedingfield, was Presi
dent Biden’s White House
Communications Director
until she stepped down
from the post recently.
A Road Less Traveled
Made All the Difference
After graduating from
Vidalia High School in
1970, Bill enrolled at the
University of Georgia
where he planned to study
medicine and follow in his
father’s and grandfather’s
footsteps. But he discov
ered the passion was just
not there while sitting in
chemistry class one day.
“There were 150 people
in this chemistry class and
the professor asked how
many wanted to be doc
tors. After almost all of us
raised our hands, the pro
fessor said that only three
in that class would make it
to medical school. I decid
ed I wasn’t one of them,”
Bill recalled.
While he had a blast at
UGA, Bill later transferred
to Georgia Southern Col
lege, as it was known
before becoming Geor
gia Southern University,
where he buckled down
to earn a bachelor’s degree
in economics. He may not
have realized it then, but
that degree would serve
him well in the future.
Things have a way of work
ing out.
While at Georgia
Southern, Bill took a little
detour that ended up pay
ing off in multiple ways. It
was a fluke, really, that he
discovered he had musical
ability; no one in his fam
ily sang or played an in
strument, so he had never
thought much about it.
Later, Bill would spend 33
years in the Presbyterian
Church choir, and also
sang tenor in a barbershop
quartet. “I am not only a
tenor, I can be a first ten
or,” Bill claimed.
Bill said his first musi
cal venture was facilitated
by a friend, Wes Wood,
who played guitar and
was in a band in which all
of the musicians were stu
dents. As Wes and others
were driving through Vi
dalia with Bill, a song came
on the radio, “Precious
and Few,” by Climax. Bill,
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