The Memorial Garden
Article # 5.
If you had seen the corner of our lot that borders Fair Road and Georgia Avenue in the late 80’s, you could never have envisioned a beautiful garden. Fair Road was being widened to five lanes and sidewalks were being constructed on each side. The widening ended right in front of our church. The contractors parked their heavy road building equipment under the pine trees there at night – and the place, literally, was a mess!
One person, however, saw not the mess, but a beautiful garden to be. Blanche Turner, long time member of our congregation, knew that we would someday have a lovely garden in that area. She enlisted the aide of her dear friend, Virginia Russell, in putting forth her ideas.
So, in 1989, the men of the church began to clear the area of underbrush and to repair the soil damaged by the weight of the heavy road building equipment. Blanche started the garden by donating spring flowering bulbs, Mountain Laurels and Dogwood trees. She added a monetary donation of $1000 in memory of her late husband, Hugh Turner. Interested men went right to work. Gene Brown brought his tiller. Gene, Al Odom and Frank Pearson began the hard work of preparing an area to plant bulbs.
After several years, Virginia Russell engaged John Marshall, of Marshall’s Farm, to prepare a plan for the garden, and in 1993, this plan was presented to the Session for approval. The Session gave the go-ahead for work to start on the garden. By October of 1993, progress on the garden was reported in the Newsletter. In March of 1994, the garden was officially designated as “The Memorial Garden” by the Session.
In May of 1994, Alton Odom and Bob Davis installed an underground watering system in the Garden. But first – a way had to found to pipe the water to the garden. Alton Odom and Edwin Presley managed to install a water pipe under the driveway without having to dig up the driveway. They used a piece of galvanized pipe and a garden hose to tunnel under the pavement. (Ask Edwin to tell you how they did that).
Donations were being given to the church for use in the garden, and in November of ’94, Alton Odom asked the Session for guidance in the use of these donations. The Session directed Alton to “use his best judgment” in the matter.
By the end of Jan 95, a Memorial Garden Committee was named and began to work. Al Odom and Bob Davis were named as co-chairs; Virginia Russell, Sara Ellis, Emily Broucek and Don McDougald were committee members. Later they were joined by Weldon DuPree and Edna Kennedy. Planting began in earnest and soon 140 azaleas (three varieties), a Japanese Maple, 5 Red Bud Trees, many Dogwood trees and bulbs were planted.
The Memorial Garden is an evolving, on-going project. Many of our members have donated funds, The Fielding Russell Class, Polly Smith and Dot Odom have donated Dogwood trees. Not every item that was planted has lived, the long drought we endured was hard on may of the plantings. Alton Odom spends many hours during the year, watering, pruning, fertilizing, picking up highway trash; the Men of the Church spend many hours raking and cleaning.
Blanche Turner who died in 1998, lived long enough to see her dream come true. Her beautiful Memorial Garden, dedicated to the memory of those in our congregation who have been promoted to the Church Eternal, is now a reality. We can hardly wait for Spring – the garden, the result of many hours of hard work and dedication by many people, will be beautiful.
-Dot Odom, FPC Historian