Newspaper Page Text
A Doc Holliday In the community: Local groups to meet — page 6B
response
January 7,
2009
jana. a.
mitcham
F IRST OF all, my apologies
for not listing a way to locate
the Doc Holliday book.
Last week, I wrote a feature story
about the book Why Doc Holliday
Left Georgia, but I neglected to say
that the book may be found online
at Amazon.com. You can google
the book title or the author’s name.
Gene Carlisle.
I got one call
after that paper
had come out,
with a reader
wondering how
to get a copy
of the book.
Then I got
another call
from a local
woman, Denise
Temple, who
said that she is
of the Jackson County Holliday fam
ily and that, indeed. Doc Holliday
is related to the local bunch.
Her brother, Terry Fulcher, report
ed that he had heard the same, both
from family and from a friend who
had read a book about Doc Holliday.
They both told of a Holliday
family plot off Holliday Cemetery
Road in South Jackson where
one of Doc Holliday’s relatives,
an uncle who was murdered,
is reported to be buried.
Shortly after, I got another query
on how to get a copy of the book.
Then this week, we got another
email wondering about the book.
In Barrow County, one of the
Barrow Journal reporters heard
tell from a reader more about the
Holliday cemetery located on land
that used to be in Jackson County.
According to Carlisle’s book, Doc
Holliday’s aunt is buried in what is
now a Barrow County plot and the
grave next to hers, while unmarked, is
“understood” to be that of Holliday’s
uncle, J.R. Holliday, who was mur
dered in Jackson County prior to
Doc Holliday’s move out west.
But, what if that’s not J.R.’s
unmarked grave, and he is buried in
South Jackson? Or, Carlisle surmises
that Holliday could have had two
uncles murdered in Jackson County,
so it could be F.M. Holliday bur
ied there in South Jackson. Family
history, passed down through the
years, is not easily dismissed.
For that matter, Carlilse says
no one knows with absolute cer
tainty where Doc Holliday himself
is buried. The most familiar story
is that he is buried in Colorado,
and there is a marked grave there,
but Carlilse wonders if he might
actually be buried, along with
his father, in Griffin, Georgia.
Clearly, John Henry “Doc”
Holliday remains a figure of interest,
more than 121 years after his death.
I had no idea. When I wrote
the feature, I didn’t realize there
is such a Doc Holliday follow
ing, but I have since learned that
there is a Doc Holliday Society
and there are many, many people
who find his story fascinating.
And it is.
A Georgia boy, a dentist fallen
into despair and hard times with
gambling, drinking and illness. He
heads out West, for whatever reason
— murder in Jackson County? A
pre-arranged dental practice? Health
reasons due to “consumption?” A
desire for the “romance” of the Wild
West? — and his life takes a drastic
turn. In his early 20s, he becomes
a “gunslinger” — some accounts
question his accuracy, while others
tout him — a desperado who trav
eled under assumed names and was
arrested numerous times, a bar owner,
a gambler, a friend of Wyatt Earp, a
participant at the famous Gunfight at
the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Ariz.
The thought is that his poor physical
condition and impending death from
tuberculosis made him reckless, see
ing death by gunfire or drink as more
welcome than that from lung disease.
It’s the stuff of movies. Quite
iterally. Remember the 1993
movie “Tombstone,” with Val
Kilmer playing Doc Holliday?
Whether or not he left Georgia
after committing vengeance murders
over Jackson County killed kin and
old family feuding, as Carlisle sug
gests, Doc Holliday’s story is an
interesting one on its own merit.
An intellectual schooled at the
Valdosta Institute in the classics,
including Latin, French and Greek. A
dentist with a pharmaceutical bent, as
well. A Georgia native who, by vari
ous accounts, missed his Southern
home and family, to whom he surely
knew he would never return alive. A
notorious name in the Wild West.
Quite a figure of the American
frontier, where pioneer fami
lies, fortune seekers and out
laws settled together.
Jana Adams Mitcham is features
editor of The Jackson Herald.
0 The Jackson Herald
Jana Adams Mitcham,
Features Editor 706-367-8760
jana@mainstreetnews. com
Page 5B
‘Candles Lit on the Eve’ honors cancer survivors, remembers the lost
LUMINARIES lit on New Year’s Eve in front of Braselton
Town Hall honored cancer survivors and their families and
those lost to cancer in both Jackson and Barrow counties.
This was the first time for the American Cancer Society
event, coordinated by Victoria Patrick and Danielle Austin,
to be held in West Jackson. Funds will go toward the local
Relay for Life.
In Honor: Jackson Austin, Danny Austin, Danielle Austin,
Kim Hunter, Emery Tackett, Kelli Banks Wehunt, Gail Banks,
Steve Cain, Janet Galloway, Joe Miller, Ann Manders, Missy
Morgan, Ryan Morgan, Charles Boone, Christine Clingan and
Carol Rowell.
In Memory: Betty Tackett, Jack Patrick, Larry Grice, Toni
Boise, Alma Pauline Hulsey, Carol Haskins, Helen F. Parker,
Mettie Voyles, Frances Young, Kathy Haymon, Gordan
Hogan, Margaret Turner, J.R. Strickland, Melissa Hayes
Kilgore, Connie Lea Wilbanks, Helen Griffeth, JoAnn Lott,
Mary Hogan, Ethel Harbin and Jewell Reynolds.
Living to tell it
FAMILY OF SURVIVORS
Pictured at the New Year’s Eve luminary event in Braselton are (L-R) Kelli Banks Wehunt, Chad
Wehunt, Gail Banks, Larry Banks, Kyle Banks and Amber Bagley. The Banks family has sur
vived cancer and moved on to work with the American Cancer Society and to help other cancer
patients and caregivers. Photo by Jana Mitcham
2009 Relay for Life kickoff ahead Jan. 22
County family
survives cancer
By Jana A. Mitcham
ANCER ISN’T a solitary dis
ease.
It doesn’t only alter the life of the
patient.
It affects the caregivers, the parents, the
spouses, the siblings, the grandparents. The
whole family is impacted and changed.
So to say that Gail Banks and Kelli Banks
Wehunt are survivors is only telling a part of
the story.
The Banks family is a survivor.
Gail Banks, who will reach her 32-year
survivor mark on March 25 this year, is
quick to say that her son, Kyle, and her hus
band, Larry, are also cancer survivors.
Larry was there when she was diagnosed
with breast cancer at age 23. He was there
years later when their daughter, Kelli, was
also diagnosed with cancer. Kyle, age 9
when his sister was undergoing treatment for
bone cancer, spent much time at the hospital
and helped his sister as he could. Kelli, a
15-year survivor, has support now, too, from
her husband, Chad Wehunt.
“You can't just isolate the
patient. The whole family
suffers the consequences. ”
— Gail Banks, survivor
Until Kelli was diagnosed at age 12
and then was named a “survivor” at 13,
Gail had been the youngest in her fam
ily to have cancer. On her father’s side
of the family, there have been 26 people
stricken with the disease, in one form or
another.
The Jackson County family is an advo
cate of the American Cancer Society and
has been involved in the Jackson County
Relay for Life from the very start in 1994.
Gail has been a volunteer with the ACS
since 1980.
Cancer has been a family battle, so
it was not surprising that the Banks-
Wehunt family, along with Kyle’s fian
cee, Amber Bagley, attended together the
luminary service held on New Year’s Eve
at Braselton Town Hall to celebrate fife
and to remember those who have been
lost to cancer.
“We’ve got both Jackson and Barrow
represented here,” said Victoria Patrick,
senior community manager for the
American Cancer Society. “We’ve had
luminary services in both Jefferson and
Commerce, and we’ve been trying to
get one here for a long time. This is the
first year for Braselton, and we’d like it
to be an annual event. Danielle Austin
and I organized it, and we thought New
Year’s Eve would be a good time — a
good end to one year and a good start to
a new year.”
As another new year begins, both Gail
and Kelli say their battle with cancer has
taught them to five life to the fullest and
to see that each day lived is a blessing.
Here, they share their story.
IN THE FAMILY
In March of 1977, Gail was diag
nosed with breast cancer.
“I found a knot,” she said. “They did
a biopsy on Friday and on Monday I
had a call from the doctor’s office — I
had seen him since I was 4 — and
the nurse asked me to come in and to
bring my mother and my husband. I
was 23.”
Gail next met with an Athens sur
geon who felt she was too young for
cancer. He was so certain, in fact, that
he didn’t speak of mastectomy to either
Gail or Larry before surgery, but the
procedure revealed that, in fact, the
knot was malignant.
Gail had cancer.
“Those first few seconds you think,
I’m going to die and, if you’re a
woman, my hair’s going to fall out, and
my marriage is over,” Gail remembers.
“But Larry was a trooper. He handled it
much better than I did.”
After surgery, Gail did not undergo
radiation or chemotherapy and said she
“I have learned that every
day is a precious gift from
God. Live each day to the
fullest. Tell everyone that
you love them, and mean
it. Be thankful for your
family, friends, and your
health. ”
— Kelli Banks Wehunt, survivor
didn’t think of herself so much as a
survivor as “someone who lost a body
part.” It wasn’t until years later, after
Kelli was diagnosed and underwent
treatment, that her thoughts on her own
experience shifted.
The surgery was over. Life moved
on.
Kelli was bom the day before Gail’s
27th birthday and Kyle was bom three
and a half years later.
“I raised them without worrying about
passing my cancer along,” she said. “I
didn’t have chemo or radiation. I didn’t
think about it every day. When Kelli was
diagnosed, I was shocked and surprised
— and I wasn’t. The guilt was there, that
I’d passed it along.”
January 1993: “I was a typical 12-year-
old pre-teen girl,” Kelli said. “I had decid
ed to let my hair grow long. I loved
school, friends, family, make-up, and
continued on page 6B
Getting
started
Cancer survivor
Sandra Fite was
a co-chair of
the first Jackson
County Relay
for Life in 1994.
The 2009 Jackson County Relay for
Life campaign will kick off Thursday, Jan.
22, with a program at the Jefferson Civic
Center. The theme is “Hometown USA:
Hope Starts Here.”
Refreshments will be served at 5:30
p.m., with a program to follow. Jim Joiner
and Priscilla Daves, the honorary chair
men, will speak, and there will be a slide
show from last year’s relay, said Sandra
Fite, relay committee member.
“We would love for anybody to come
who might have an interest in the relay,
even if they don’t have a team,” Fite said.
This year’s relay goal is to raise $245,000,
to have 250 survivors involved and to have
at least 55 teams participating.