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Forsyth County News
J Your "Hometown Paper" Since 190 s '
Vol. 95, No. 67
Ingram sold to Mariettan
Continuous family ownership
of funeral home comes to end
By Harris Blackwood
Community Editor
Ingram Funeral Home, one of
Forsyth County's oldest businesses
under continuous family ownership,
has been sold to a Marietta man
who is a member of a family which
has a long history in the funeral
home industry in Georgia.
Jack W. Allen is the new owner
of Ingram's, which began as a hard
ware store and funeral service in
downtown Cumming in 1928.
Allen is the great-grandson of
H.M. Patterson, who founded one of
Atlanta's oldest funeral homes in
1880. The Patterson family busi
ness, for which Allen worked, was
sold in 1993 to Service Corporation
International (SCI), the largest
provider of funeral, crematory, and
cemetery services in North
America. He remained employed by
SCI for a time, before working as a
consultant in the funeral industry.
The decision to sell did not
come easy for brothers George and
Robert Ingram, who followed in the
footsteps of their father. Royston A.
Ingram Sr., who founded the firm.
An older brother. Royston A.
"Buck" Ingram. Jr., was involved in
the family business for many years
before retiring a few years ago.
"Robert and I had been doing
some estate planning, and the issue
was 'What do we do with the funer
al home?'" said George Ingram,
who has been a licensed funeral
Pinson believes he has advantage to win
By Nancy Smallwood
Associate Editor
Forsyth County Board of
Education District 4 candidate
Ronnie Pinson believes he has an
advantage over some other candi
dates for the position because he has
seen what a great school system can
do for his own two children.
The 50-year-old sales and service
person of Cai-Maine Foods and 20-
year resident of the Pleasant Grove
community said he thought it was
time to give something back to the
system that gave so much to his chil
dren.
“I want to keep the system mov-
New light shed on the
Endres investigation
Sheriff: Abductor may have stalked victim
By Nicole Green
Staff Writer
Forsyth County Sheriff Ted
Paxton has released new details
about the disappearance of Patrice
Tamber Endres, a north Forsyth
beautician likely abducted April 15,
suggesting that this was no random
robbery gone awry.
Sheriff’s investigators are operat
ing under two primary theories about
the suspected kidnapping of Endres,
38, from Tamber’s Trim-N-Tan on
Matt Highway (Hwy. 369), Paxton
said Thursday.
In one scenario, at least one per
petrator may have entered Endres’
salon intending to commit a robbery.
Endres may have become a second
ary target during the commission of
the crime. In the second scenario, a
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Your "Hometown Paper" Since 190 s
director for 47 years. The brothers
did not have any heirs who would
follow in the family businesses. He
said that they had rejected numer
ous offers over the past few years to
sell the company to a large corpora
tion, such as SCI, because they did
not want to lose the personal service
started by their father.
“When we met Jack Allen, we
found that this was the type of per
son we wanted to represent our
name.” George Ingram said, adding
that Allen has hired the entire pres
ent staff of the funeral home,
including both Ingram brothers. "He
is going to allow us to be here and
take care of families and conduct
services."
Allen. 45. said that his career in
the funeral home business began at
the age of 11 cutting grass at his
family's funeral homes.
"1 graduated to the vacuum
cleaner at 13," he said, smiling.
He became a full-time employee
of the family firm when he was 21.
Allen said that he plans no
changes in the operation at
Ingram's. The name of the funeral
home will remain the same.
“I don't know of a thing I would
change," said Allen. "George and
Robert Ingram run a top-notch oper
ation and people come to them
because they treat folks right and
give good service.”
He said that the business has
See INGRAM, Page 2A
fit 4
Pinson
North Forsyth High School LSAC
for seven years and the Forsyth
County Board of Education redis
tricting committee for two years.
Pinson’s wife, Donna, also has been
teaching for 19 years and is currently
stalker may have planned to take
Endres from her empty salon.
“It’s looking more like Patrice
was the object and motive here,"
Paxton said based on several discov
eries at the crime scene.
A robber typically overturns a
place in search of valuables. At
Tamber’s Trim-N-Tan. the assailant
only emptied the cash register and
rummaged through Endres’ purse,
Paxton said. Endres’ reportedly took
in $95 by 11:38 a.m. when her last
customer left the salon. Any other
money in the register was startup
cash replenished each morning.
The robber missed the bulk of
Endres’ cash in his hurried plunder.
Investigators found S3OO in her wal
let tucked behind some credit cards.
See ENDRES, Page 13A
INDEX
Abby 68
Births 4B
Classifieds 4C
Deaths 2A
Forsyth Life IB
Horoscope 6B
Opinion 14A
Sports 1C
SUNDAY April 25,2004
ing in the same
direction it is going
with better schools
and quality educa
tion." said Pinson.
Pinson has
served on the North
Forsyth Middle
School Local
School Advisory
Council (LSAC)
for three years, the
Qualifying begins
Monday for local, state
races on July 20 ballot
Page4A
g 1 ' Kin Wg
Photo/David McGregor
Jack W. Allen, foreground, is the new owner of Ingram Funeral
Home, one of Forsyth's oldest businesses under continuous fami
ly ownership. Former owner George Ingram is in the background.
employed as a music teacher at
North Forsyth Middle School. They
have two sons. Russell and Brandon,
both of whom are graduates of North
Forsyth High School.
"Russell is a graduate of North
Georgia College and State University
and is currently employed by
Accenture and Brandon is in his
fourth year at North Georgia College
and State University as a biology
major, from which he hopes to pur
sue a career in veterinary' medicine,"
said Pinson.
Observing the changes in the
county's education system through
out the years has given Pinson an
understanding of the demands and
-*•
I
Photos/David McGregor
Above, Alexa Worley, case agent Jason Burndrett,
and Katrina Murdock look over evidence in the
Patrice Tamber Endres case on Thursday after
noon at the command center off Kelly Mill Road in
Cumming. Right, words on a sign and numerous
yellow ribbons adorning Tamber’s Trim-N-Tan salon
encourage her safe return. Sheriff’s investigators
believe Endres was abducted April 15 from the
business on Matt Highway (Hwy. 369).
expectations placed on educators.
“Those experiences coupled with
everyday decisions made in the pri
vate business sector will enable me
to find the right solutions to our
greatest challenges," he said. "One
such challenge is the rapid popula
tion growth amidst the state's declin
ing fund allocations. In the face of
such circumstances it is imperative
that we work with our state legisla
tors to ensure we receive the funds
needed to relieve the demands on our
soon to be over-crowded facilities."
The high standards set forth by
the Forsyth County School System
See PINSON, Page 2A
South girls soccer nets
Region 6-A AAA
title.
PagelC
Jury says
county
must pay
Dam to be repaired
By Nicole Green
Staff Writer
After years of controversy and a
week of trial, a court decided Friday
that Pine Lake will remain a lake
at the expense of Forsyth County.
A Forsyth County Superior Court
jury decided Friday that Forsyth
County government must pay
upwards of SBOO,OOO to repair Pine
Lake Dam west of Cumming as per
mitted by the Georgia Environmental
Protections Division (EPD). The
county had threatened to breach the
dam, which would have turned the
lake into 22 acres of mud and deval
ued surrounding properties, residents
said.
In January 2002 the EPD found
the dam to be dangerously close to
failure. Cracks in the dam’s slopes, a
high rate of spillage and malfunction
ing siphons put downstream homes at
risk. As a temporary’ fix to the prob
lem, the county dug a trench from the
lake across Pine Lake Drive to lower
water levels by 12 feet and avert an
emergency. The county had main
tained the road and dam since 1975.
“For 25. almost 30 years, the
county put Band-aids on an open
heart wound, and they're asking you
to reward them for that," plaintiffs'
attorney Dana Miles told the jury in
his closing remarks.
In the end, the jury decided to
reward the residents of Greenwood
Acres with the full pool lake they
have missed for the last two years.
“Where I had a good view of lake
water. 1 have nothing but weeds
now.” said Douglas Morrison who
has lived in the neighborhood since
1983.
Senior Superior Court Judge John
Langford previously ruled that the
county owned the dam and was
therefore responsible for the dam and
the county road passing over the
dam. His directed verdict gave jurors
only two choices: the county must
either breach the dam or repair it.
“They [the jurors] felt like it was
a difficult decision," defense attorney
Terry Williams said after the verdict.
“They thought both sides shared in it
equally."
The jury also directed the county
to pay $78,000 in attorney's fees. To
See DAM, Page 4A
CUMBER’S ■
J ” Twim-n-TaN F
Possible Storms
High in the high 70s.
Low in the high 50s.
DODC3B
TOUI 01
LIFE, 1B
Tour de Georgia comes to Forsyth
LAKE LANIER LEVELS
Date Level
April 20 1070.31 ft
April 21 1070.33 ft
5 April 22 ( 1070,34 ft
(April 23 1070.35 ft
Full 1071. oe-ft