Newspaper Page Text
-FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS—WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1985
PAGE 8A
Tornado drill scheduled in Forsyth schools
Don’t be alarmed if you hear a
shrill noise in your office building or
the fire alarm goes off at school today
(Wednesday). That’s just Forsyth
County participating in statewide ef
forts of tornado safety.
There’s nothing more frightening
or unpredictable than a spring tor
nado. The violent storm has left few
Georgia counties untouched. That’s
why legislators have set aside this
week (Feb. 24 through March 2) as
Tornado Awareness Week in Georgia
and for the seventh year Emergency
Management/Civil Defense person
Deaths
Denton
Funeral services were held Thurs
day, Feb. 21,1985, at 3:30 p.m. at the
chapel of Ward’s Funeral Home in
Cleveland for Reginald J. Denton, 45,
of Atlanta.
The Rev. Kenneth Law and the
Rev. David Naglee officiated the
service for Mr. Denton who died
Tuesday, Feb. 19, following a sudden
illness. Interment was held in Mt.
Yonah Baptist Church Cemetery.
Mr. Denton, a native of White
County, had lived a number of years
in Washington, D.C. and New York
City, N.Y. He was the former past
president of Foreign Credit Insur
ance Association in New York City.
Ingram ends
AF training
Airman Robert D. Ingram Jr., son
of Robert and Sandra Ingram of
Cumming, has been assigned to
Chanute Air Force Base, 111., after
completing Air Force basic training.
During the six weeks at Lackland
Air Force Base, Texas, the airman
studied the Air Force mission, orga
nization and customs and received
special training in human relations.
In addition, airmen who complete
basic training earn credits toward an
associate degree through the Com
munity College.
Ingram is a 1981 graduate of For
syth County High School in Cumming.
OMI.MI.t From the Front
is being controlled by various local
governments around the country, and
at public participation. .
In other business at Monday night’s
meeting, the commissioners:
• Opened 14 bids on a proposed
computer system for the courthouse.
The bids, ranging from less than
SIOO,OOO to more than $250,000 for
hardware-software packages, will be
forwarded for review to a special
computer study committee. Mem
bers of the committee included Com
missioner Jack Shoemake, Tax
Assessor James Payne, Deputy Tax
Commissioner Joan Henderson and
Patricia Cole, who’s serving as a
consultant. After reviewing the bids,
the committee will prepare an analy
sis for consideration by the board of
commissioners.
• Took official action on the provi
sion of ambulance service in the city
of Cumming. Mike Oglesby, who has
contracted with the county to provide
ambulance service, said at Monday
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‘Granny’ Wallis ends career at Cumming Elementary
nel and the National Weather Service
officials will conduct a statewide drill
today (Wednesday).
The drill is designed to test emer
gency response capabilities, as well
as each citizen’s ability to react to
tornado warnings. It has proven to be
an effective teaching tool and has
served to test our state’s official
warning and response system.
The Cumming-Forsyth Civil De
fense encourages all residents to take
part in the drill. Participants should
listen for a warning sound on the local
radio stations and the television.
Mr. Denton is survived by his wife,
Mrs. Heidrun P. Denton of Atlanta;
his mother, Mrs. John Denton of
Cleveland; a brother, David H. Den
ton of Cumming; one niece, two new
phews and a number of aunts and
uncles.
Smith
Funeral services for Hubert L.
Smith, 77, of Gainesville route 2, were
held Sunday, Feb. 24, 1985, at 2 p.m.
at the chapel of Ingram Funeral
Home.
The Rev. Jack Biddy, the Rev.
Doug Collins and the Rev. Haldene
Bagwell officiated the service for Mr.
Smith who died Friday morning, Feb.
22. Interment was held in Memorial
Park Cemetery in Gainesville.
Surviving Mr. Smith was his wife,
Mrs. Mae Smith of Gainesville route
2; children, Mrs. Glenn (Maerell)
Garrett of Gainesville; Mrs. Coley
(Frances) Sosbee, Mrs. Cliff
(Sandra) Young, Elmer Smith, Earl
Smith, Edwin Smith, Calvin Smith,
all of Cumming, and Dilmus Smith of
Flowery Branch; 35 grandchildren;
21 great-grandchildren; brothers,
Latt Smith, Gene Smith, Robert
Smith, all of Talmo; Wiley Smith of
Marietta; sisters, Mrs. Woodie Key of
Lawrenceville; Mrs. Nellie Page of
Talmo; Mrs. Lucille Kidd of Gaines
ville; and Mrs. Sadie Millwood of
Marietta; and a number of nieces and
nephews.
Ingram Funeral Home of Cumming
was in charge of arrangments.
night’s meeting that he has been
answering calls in the city. Oglesby is
head of Lifestat Ambulance Service.
Cumming Mayor Ford Gravitt
pointed out, however, that the con
tract with Oglesby contained no
wording providing ambulance serv
ice in the city. Following Gravitt’s
report, the commissioners ratified an
ambulance service contract with the
city for $1 per year.
• Granted final approval to a $650,-
000 bond resolution for Eriksen Indus
tries. The resolution involves
industrial revenue bonds, which do
not obligate the county in any way.
• Approved a low bid of $20,425 for a
heavy duty truck from Cody Chevro
let, and a low bid of $7,500 from
Andean Motor Company on a Chevro
let pickup. The vehicles will be used
by the county road department.
• Approved a bid of $5,995 for a
Ford tractor to be used by the county
recreation and parks department.
Civil Defense Director Bob Lady is
requesting that all participants send
a note stating the time that they first
heard the “watch” and the “warn
ing” to the: Cumming-Forsyth Civil
Defense Department, P.O. Box 738,
Cumming, Ga. 30130.
“We at the Civil Defense office will
be happy to work with any person or
group that wants information on tor
nadoes and how to survive them,”
said Lady. “We are here to help
before a disaster strikes, as well as
after.”
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Homes within a two-mile radius of a proposed rock quarry on Lower Creighton Road are shown on a residential map
(pictured above) compiled by residents opposing the quarry. The inner circle contains homes within a one-mile radius
of the proposed quarry site an 88-acre tract alongside the boundary of Cherokee and Forsyth counties. According to
the map, the majority of homes within the two-mile radius are located in Forsyth County. Vulcan Materials, a
manufacturer of crushed stone, is seeking a variance from the Cherokee County Appeals Board to operate the quarry.
At present, the firm is awaiting a decision by the board. (See story on Page 1-A.)
Granny hangs up apron
She served 550 lunches
a day for past 10 years
By Laura McCullough
Copy Editor
They simply call her “Granny.”
The cafeteria at Cumming Elemen
tary is a little more somber these
days. Now that Lois “Granny” Wallis
has retired.
The jovil lunchroom worker no
longer slides her wire-frame glasses
down to the tip of her nose and pipes,
“Where’s the beef?” to the delight of
hundreds of grammer school children
debating on whether to partake of the
hamburger and french fries on their
plate.
There will be no more mornings
which begin at 5:30 and no more
bribing finicky youngsters to eat their
vegetables.
Mrs. Wallis took off her white apron
for the last time Jan. 30. At age 70,
she decided it was time to retire.
It’s hard to explain to little children
that you won’t be there anymore to
make their lunch period enjoyable.
Mrs. Wallis, who doesn’t look or act
her age, said most of the students
refused to believe that she was actu
ally retiring.
She says, “One day this little boy
looked up at me and asked, ‘Granny,
what have you got in your hair? It’s
something white.’
“I just told him that my hair was
tant general and director of the
Georgia Emergency Management
Agency of the Department of De
fense, last spring’s outbreak of heavy
storms cut a wide path of destruction
through the state, destroying homes
and property. Yet, no death has been
attributed to tornadoes since 1977.
Last year 36 tornadoes touched
down in Georgia and in 1983 26 swept
through.
Destructive tornadoes produce
deafening sounds of roaring jet en
gines or rumbling freight trains and
travel in a path averaging nine miles
turning gray and I was getting old.
‘But, oh you can’t be old,’ he pro
tested. I just laughed and showed him
my hands and how wrinkled they
are.”
Retiring wasn’t an easy decision
for the lady who helped serve 550
lunches a day and almost half as
many breakfasts for the past 10
years.
On her last day she was greeted
with a huge banner stretched across
the stage of the lunchroom. “It read,
“We’ll miss you Mrs. Wallis,” and
was signed in crayon and colored
markers by hundreds of students.
The cards and letters poured in all
day from students of every grade.
Mrs. Wallis hasn’t had the chance to
count them all but she has read them
and re-read them. Most were made
with construction paper, crayons and
glue.
“Good diy we wel mes yuo,” read
one card made with blue construction
paper andsporting a homemade heart
colored red and glued to the center.
Mrs. Wallis didn’t need an inter
preter to decifer the message.
Though misspelled, it came across
loud and clear.
Mrs. Wallis began working at the
.school shortly after her husband died
in 1972. She was lonely and wanted
in length, 10 yards to a mile in width
and at speeds ranging from 35 to 45
miles per hour.
They can generate violently rotat
ing columns of air with wind speeds of
up to 300 miles per hour.
A tornado usually appears as a
funnel-shaped cloud, spinning in a
counter-clockwise direction, and ex
tending towards the ground from the
base of a large thundercloud. They
vary from gray to black in color and
can be seen when the air column
contains condensation, surface dust
or debris.
something to fill her time. Her hus
band, Albert Wallis, was a brick
mason and helped lay brick for many
local houses and the Forsyth County
High School.
The Wallis’s have two daughters
and sons-in-law, and three grandchil
dren: Peggy and Morris Gilreath of
Gainesville and their 16-year-old
daughter, Holly; Wayne and Imogene
Satterfield of Cumming and their
daughters Melony, 24, and Tammy,
18.
A typical proud grandmother, Mrs.
Wallis is not ashamed to show visitors
pictures of her family. Her living
room is adorned with framed photos
and she keeps several photo albums
on her book shelf.
It was Tammy who started the
tradition of calling Mrs. Wallis
“Granny.” When Tammy was a
student at Cumming Elementary
that’s what she called her grand
mother and the other children fol
lowed the pattern.
If the lunchroom worker could
bring joy to a student by becomming
his grandmother during the day, she
didn’t mind the title.
“I just tried to spread a little love,
that’s all,” she said. “I really miss
those children. I hated to leave.”
Mrs. Wallis said she enjoyed walk
ing around the cafeteria and talking
Strong winds, heavy rain, and espe
cially hail often precede a tornado.
They come from the southwest and
move in a northeasterly direction.
They are unpredictable and erratic in
their behavior. Never try to outrun a
tornado in an automobile.
Your best protection against a tor
nado is to get out of its way. Basic
safety locations include storm cel
lars, shelters, basements and small
rooms on the lowest levels in the
center of a home or building. Always
try to get under something sturdy to
protect your head, face and body.
with the children. Students enjoyed a
meal of hamburgers and french fries
best of all. They also liked the home
made brownies and cinnamon rolls
“It was real hard to get them to eat
vegetables,” she said. “And they
didn’t like coleslaw at all. They would
not eat it.”
At breakfast Mrs. Wallis worked
with a skelton staff of three to pre
pare homemade biscuits, sausage,
pancakes or sometimes bacon’
scrambled eggs, toast and grits.
Mrs. Wallis said she still wakes up
at 5:30 some mornings. Old habits die
hard. But she now spends her time
taking care of flowers (she still has
some of her mother’s plants she re
ceived before her death 12 years
ago). She also enjoys cooking and will
make cakes and pies for anyone who
will eat them.
To keep busy, Mrs. Wallis sells
kitchen towels to local businesses and
residents. This lady refuses to sit
still.
On her retirement her co-workers
gave her a party with a big cake and
presented her with a housecoat and
gown.
“That’s a present you give someone
to lounge around the house, not some
one who is active and on-the-go,” she
said while admiring the gift.