Newspaper Page Text
fife
- ■■ < ' " -
Edward Downard leads his family and their
three ponies on the long trek from Tennessee to
Walking Family Os 10 Pass Through Perry
By Maxim* Thompson
A family of ten with little
money but a lot of faith
started walking on June 12
from South Pittsburg,
Tennessee to Okeechobee,
Florida with three ponies to
carry their meager
provisions and small
children.
Albert Downard, his wife
Rita (pronounced Ryeta)
and the children celebrated
Downard's 43rd birthday
June 21 camped beside U.S.
Highway 41 about eight or
nine miles north of Perry.
Mrs. Downard is 28.
The children are Gerald
14, leslie 12, Judy 10, June
Kay 9, Albert Jr. 6, Daniel 4,
Chet 3, and little Dawn Marie
Our people
are very bright
ITiey saw 80% of the area of Georgia without
any way to get electricity, and all the conveniences
and progress that electricity brings. Very well, they
said, we’ll do it ourselves. So they formed Georgia’s
consumer-owned electric utilities. Put together the
plans and the know-how and the personnel it takes
to keep the power humming through the most
heated equipment, over 77,000 miles of lines.
Today they light up life for some 1.25 million
Georgians—if not for you, then probably for some
one you know or love. Tliat s how some very bright
people, maybe some of your friends and neighbors,
have made the future very bright for all of us.
lIlkE/SS fUWHtCfRfC
9 , MKMBEHSHU'
cokpukation
2.
“Why’d we leave home
thus way? Well, on SSO a week
and a house, where we had to
pay our own light bill, we
just couldn’t make it,” Mrs.
Downard explained. ‘‘My
husband has 26 years ex
perience as a dairyman, and
can doctor cows as good as
any vet, he just doesn’t have
a license. He’s got a promise
of a job at either of two
dairies at Okeechobee with
people he used to work for
who know him.”
They explained that both
used to live in Florida, she
for 18 years and he for 10.
Downard is a native of
Michigan, his wife of Ten
nessee.
‘‘We left Florida because
/ JJ : : ,IVC4,
Florida. They were hauled through all large cities
on the way by kind people with trucks.
one of the kids had asthma
real bad down there. But now
it’s better and it’s all right to
move back,” Mrs. Downard
said.
She said that her husband
is expert in all operations on
cattle farms, and has showed
cattle in state fairs, winning
blue ribbons. His new job
will pay $l5O to S2OO a week
plus paid vacations, in- •:
surance, and other fringe •:
benefits, she said. •:
Furniture and most of the :■
family’s clothing was left •:
behind with a relative to be 5
retrieved later. The family :J
rolled up in some kind of ij;
covers under a stretched
tarpaulin to sleep, since they :J:
had no tent or sleeping bags. ;ji
Insects had bitten the :J:
children's feet and legs,and
one boy appeared to have
poison ivy on one foot.
Their ponies were unshod,
so they tried to walk on just
the grassy edges of roads, $
and one worry was getting |;|i
through cities. Someone told X;
them they wouldn’t be :I;
allowed to cross by their $;
mode of travel.
“We turned ourselves over
to the Lord before we made
this trip,” Mrs. Downard $
said, and her husband
nodded agreement. ‘‘We $
asked Him to help us if it was
His will for us to go to
Florida. We've had lots of £
help, and we know it came §
through the Lord sending it." *
Evidently their faith paid >:•
off. They did very little
actual walking, and did not >:■
have to go through a single
big city. ;X
Helpful people gave them
rides - ponies and all- in $
trucks through them. The S
first was a farmer who drove S
them through Chattanooga
(their home was about 33 S
miles north of that city) after
finding a veterinarian to get
a health permit for the S
ponies, and he let them out vi
about eight miles north of
Dalton Georgia on U.S. 41.
A few days later while they
were camped in a field about
10 miles north of Car- i?
tersville, rains from
Hurricane Agnes started
falling. A passerby brought
them a huge sheet of Iran
slucent plastic, hamburgers,
french fries and soft drinks
from a local hamburger :$
stand, and later led them to a
vacant farmhouse.
On Wednesday, June 21,
the Lions Club of Car
tersville brought them so -S
much food and clothing the -X
Downards were just stunned •:>
Then several Bartow County §
residents got a truck and
driver to haul the family and •§
their ponies through Atlanta ji|:
and Macon to a roadside $
park north of Ferry They :|;
knew they couldn t sleep ■:§
there, so they moved down w
the road
Before leaving Barlow
County, they were offered
free bus tickets and free
board for their ponies until
they could return for them,
but Albert refused to leave
the ponies behind. He plans
to start a horse and pony
ranch in Florida, and was
afraid to part with them even
temporarily.
The family told this Home
Journal Reporter she was
| DON'T JpPLI
| STRIKE
OUT!^*Wp|
| WITH A LOW RATE OF INTEREST I
|ON YOUR SAVINGS! /jP^ if 1
|| Any way you play the game, you're out to
earn 'VS jM :
H** most on your savings. offer the
The First National Bank |
•o.»sSj- Os Houston County |
t m C' j-**.•* *"jw*jr' ■ X)
jmL*;
■ Slip
* . *, ;. *”
"X? **- -v. i
jvfy .- -»., ri'JHHH Rr«
jjtgh. vmbkxT
7 * ' v * i^;
The Downard family, consisting of father,
mother and eight children, slept under a stretched
the fifth to interview them,
and reporters from two other
Georgia newspapers
(Dailies) carried their story
on Friday, June 23.
They decided to stay at
their Houston County camp
for a few days because they
had so much donated food
they feared it would harm
the pony that carried it and
PAGE 12-A
said they had to eat some of
it up before they left.
“We don’t eat just sand
wiches and junk, either,”
Mrs. Downard said proudly.
“Eve baked cake and
biscuits on the road, and
peach cobbler, too.” She
explained that she made a
reflector oven beside the
campfire with aluminum foil
PERRY, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 1972
~ 1 T~~iTW n~Mn il irin— fr 1 manr
tarpaulin and cooked over a campfire beside U.S.
Highway 41 about 8 miles north of Perry.
stretched around stakes.
Somehow their plight
reached Florida, possibly
the area for which they were
headed. Cpl. John W. Wright
received a call at the local
State Patrol Post from a
doctor in Florida who
wanted to know the exact
location of the family so he
could send a truck for them.
Cpl. Wright said he was very
busy at the time and didn’t
get the location of the call,
but evidently the people
looking for the Downards
found them.
Sometime Sunday af
ternoon or night they
disappeared from the
roadside. Their long walk
had ended.