Newspaper Page Text
SEE PAGE IB
SEE PAGE 12A
East Jackson
Ending Season
At Banks Co.
County Schools Brace For Staff Cuts
SEE PAGE 12A
City Schools In A Funding Struggle
Vol. 133
No. 52
20 Pages
2 Sections
50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875
Billy and Darthy Hix married when he was 20 and she was 16 and just
starting her senior year at Commerce High School. Fifty-three Valentine’s
Days, three children, seven grandchildren later, they wouldn’t change a
thing.
A Marriage Fit For
A Valentine’s ©ay Wish
Billy and Darthy Hix live in the Scott Street
house they built in 1957, the year after they snuck
off to Homer and got married.
Council Passes
New Electric
Rate Schedule
1.9% Residential Hike Spares
Lower-End Electric Customers
For $1,100
Commerce
Gets Nothing
By Mark Beardsley
They say you get what
you pay for. The City of
Commerce didn’t.
The city spent $1,100
in conjunction with
the Jackson County
Area Chamber of
Commerce, the Industrial
Development Authority
and other governments in
the county to help pay
for a two-page advertise
ment in the February
issue of “Georgia Trend
Magazine.’’ In return,
“Georgia Trend’’ was to
write about Commerce
and the rest of the coun
ty
While Braselton Mayor
Pat Graham was fea
tured on the cover, and
she and officials from
the IDA, the chamber,
the county and Jefferson
were interviewed, the
story contained no men
tion of Commerce — or
Nicholson.
“It was like the coun
ty line stopped at
the river,’’ observed
City Councilman Bob
Sosebee.
Please Turn to Page 3A
msnn
THURSDAY, FEB. 12
Jr
Partly cloudy: Low, 38; high,
67; 10% chance rain
FRIDAY, FEB. 13
■ - ■ ■
•"Vv
Partly cloudy: Low, 46; high,
61; 10% chance rain
SATURDAY, FEB. 14
Showers: Low, 38; high, 59;
40% chance rain
SUNDAY, FEB. 15
0
Partly cloudy: Low, 44; high,
60; 10% chance rain
Rainfall this month
.1 inches
Rainfall This Year
3.89 Inches
INDEX
Births 7A
Church News 3B
Classified Ads 6-8B
Calendar 3A
Crime News 7A
News Roundup 2A
Obituaries 9-1OA
Opinions 4A
School News 1 OA
Sports 1-2B
Social News 7-8A
4 8 7 9 1 4 1 4 1 " g
By Mark Beardsley
She was just 16 and
about to begin her senior
year at Commerce High
School, and he was 20,
working in the cafeteria at
Harmony Grove Mills.
They got married Aug.
29,1956, and she began
her senior year of high
school Aug. 30. She told
the Banks County ordi
nary, who officiated the
then-secret wedding at the
courthouse in Homer, that
she was 17.
“She’s a liar,’’ her hus
band joked.
It wasn’t the ideal sce
nario for starting a mar
riage but 53 Valentine’s
Days later, Billy and
Darthy Hix say they never
looked back, never had
any regrets.
“I haven’t thrown any
thing at him and broke it,’’
Darthy joked.
“I wouldn’t do anything
different as far as I can
think of,’’ Billy offered.
America celebrates
Valentine’s Day Saturday,
a holiday
that roman
ticizes (and
oversimpli
fies) love
and relation
ships, but
for many
couples
meeting the
expectations
of the day is
intimidating.
Billy and
Darthy
(known
as Dot by most of their
friends) live the ideals
expressed in countless
Valentine’s cards, their
love having survived —
prospered — through the
years, children, grandchil
dren and other experienc
es of more than a half cen
tury together. If it didn’t
begin in textbook fashion,
their marriage certainly
defied the odds.
They’d planned to get
married — Dot was wear
ing an engagement ring —
when the urge struck.
“We had two couples
that had gotten married a
couple of months before
we did. That sort of gave
us the courage,’’ Dot
remembered.
They were Anne and
Willard Epps and Bobbie
and Fred Turpin. Anne
was Billy’s sister. In addi
tion, his other sister, Jean,
had married Dan Ford a
few months earlier.
Billy and Darthy had
dated about a year and a
half. Dot was the only girl
Billy ever
dated.
“When you
find what
you’re look
ing for, why
look any fur
ther?’’ Billy
explained.
“We weren’t
going to get
married until
I got out of
school,’’ Dot
remembered.
“Anne and
Williard and Bobbie and
Fred gave us the guts to
do it, and we did it.’’
The plan to keep the
marriage secret didn’t last
long.
“Billy called me at Belk’s
and said 'you’d better
tell your folks, Momma
knows it,”' Dot recalled.
“Word had gotten out that
Anne and Willard had got
ten married. When Anne
got home from school that
day, her mother lit into
her.’’
“And she says, 'Billy’s
married too,”' Billy added.
“To get Mrs. Hix off her
back she said, 'Well, Billy
and Darthy got married
too,”' Dot continued.
Their parents’ reaction?
“My father cried,’’ said
Dot.
Billy’s mother and broth
er predicted that the mar
riage would last a year. His
father’s reaction, which
included the reaction to
his sister Anne’s marriage,
was: “Well, you’ve played
hell now.’’
They — and Jean and
Dan — moved in with
Billy’s grandmother for a
few months. Borrowing
$3,000 from Commerce
Building & Foan and
$3,000 from Billy’s father,
they built a house on
Scott Street in 1957. They
still live there, though
they’ve built two additions
over the years.
Dot finished school,
hike Anne, she was a
CHS cheerleader (It was
through Anne that she and
Billy met). Their first child,
Keith, was born in 1958
(Dot was pregnant at the
time of her high school
senior trip). Scott followed
two years later and Fisa
(now Fisa Maddox) was
born in 1964.
They had little money,
but with the help of fam
ily members who’d drop
off a dozen eggs or some
homemade sausage, they
got by. They had a number
of young couples with
whom they socialized.
They may have been poor,
but they had fun.
“We had a lot of good
Please Turn to Page 3A
By Mark Beardsley
Almost half of
Commerce’s residen
tial electric customers
shouldn’t see any increase
from the new electric
rate schedule approved
Monday night by the city
council.
The rate schedule was
almost revenue-neutral,
and should increase
overall revenue by about
$21,000 a year, but high-
end residential customers
can expect to see slightly
higher bills during the sum
mer months.
The council approved
the new rates on a 3-1 vote,
with Councilmen Bob
Sosebee, Mark Fitzpatrick
and Mayor Pro Tem
Archie Chaney voting for
the change, and Donald
Wilson opposing it.
Actually, for the six
months of “non-summer’’
rates, the cost of electricity
is down slightly. It’s dur
ing the “summer’’ usage —
when air conditioners are
running — that the increas
es occur, and they exempt
the 45 percent of the city’s
By Angela Gary
A Jackson County
church built in 1890 took
center stage on Monday
when actor Robert Duvall
came to Jackson County
to film a few scenes for his
new movie, “Get how.’’
A location scout came
across photos of the Miles
Wilson Matthews Chapel
in the History Village at
Hurricane Shoals Park
on the Tumbling Waters
Society website and con
tacted Helen Gunnels
about the church. She han
dles rental of the church
for weddings but this was
the first time a movie com
pany contacted her about
the site.
Focation scouts visited
Heritage Village and took
customers, according to
City Manager Clarence
Bryant.
“Forty-five percent of
our residential customers
use less than 500 kilowatt
hours a month,’’ Bryant
explained Monday night.
For those, the rate stays
the same under the new
ordinances.
But for those who use
750 kwh, their non-sum
mer bills would drop by
50 cents, while their winter
bills would go up $2.25 per
month.
At 1,000 kwh, the increase
is $3.50 a month during the
summer (and there is a $1
decrease in non-summer
months), while at 2,000
kwh, there is a $1 savings
half the year and a $7.50/
month increase during the
summer schedule.
Sixty-seven percent of
the city’s electric custom
ers used less than 1,000
kwh last month, according
to Bryant.
The rate schedule is
the result of an analy-
Please Turn to Page 3A
photos of the church,
which was used as Center
Presbyterian Church until
1947 and was moved to
Heritage Village in 1993.
Just one week ago,
Tumbling Waters Society
leaders learned the church
had been selected to be
a part of the movie. TWS
received $2,500 for use of
the building.
Early Monday morning,
before 4 a.m., crew mem
bers arrived at Heritage
Village, located between
Maysville and Jefferson,
and began setting up the
cameras and equipment
needed for the all-day
shoot.
Filming began around 9
a.m. Monday and Duvall
Please Turn to Page 5A
"We had two
couples that had
gotten married a
couple of months
before we did.
That sort of gave
us the courage."
- Darthy Hix, explain
ing how she and Billy
snuck off to Homer
and got married.
Film crews prepare to shoot a scene from “Get
Low” at the Miles Wilson Matthews Chapel at
Hurricane Shoals Park.
Scene From Movie
Filmed At Shoals Park