The 1970s: Forward together part 1

The 1970s saw a continued period of sustained economic growth.  

Southeast Paper built a newsprint plant in the latter years of the decade.  The company expanded to become the nation’s largest and one of the world’s largest producers of recycled newsprint in the world.  The plant continued the tradition of diversified industries in our community.  It is the diversification of Laurens industries that makes the County a desirable place to live.  

Mrs. Ed Smith, formerly Marilu Crafton of Dublin,  was chosen in 1970 to be the first Republican on the Georgia State Board of Education.  Mrs. Smith, whose husband was killed in a car accident while conducting the first Republican campaign for the governorship of Georgia since Reconstruction,  joined Dr. John A. Bell of Dublin, was also a member of the Board from 1963-1977. Dr. Bell served as chairman of the Board of Regents in 1976. Laura Gibson, the former Miss Laura Jane Snider of Dublin, married former Georgia governor Marvin Griffin in 1971.   The 1971 AA Debate Championship was awarded to the team from Dublin High School.   

Shopping habits changed when the Dublin Mall opened in 1971.  The biggest disappointment of the Seventies was the failure of the proposed Junior College in Dublin.   

Air South began regular passenger flights in and out Dof ublin in June of 1971.  The first plane to be aboard was the future President Jimmy Carter. Sgt. Maj. J.W. Beasley of Dublin was the highest-ranking enlisted man in the Georgia State Patrol.  Beasley was blinded by a shotgun blast in 1953 and returned to duty as a radio operator. 

After opening his first furniture store in Soperton in 1949, Sherwin Glass moved the corporate headquarters of Farmer’s Furniture to Dublin.  The company rose to become one of the nation’s largest retail furniture chains and the largest in terms of the number of stores. Known nationwide as a generous philanthropist to Jewish organizations, Glass was elected to the Furniture Hall of Fame in 2003.  W.H. Champion, editor of the Dublin Courier Herald, was elected President of the Georgia Press Association in 1975. 

Ray Pope began his law enforcement career as a patrolman with the Dublin post of the Georgia State Patrol around 1940.  He served as police chief of Waycross,  Macon and Jackson, Mississippi. Pope’s ultimate assignment came in 1971 when he was named the Commissioner of Public Safety in Command of the Georgia State Patrol.  Pope was the president of the Georgia Peace Officers Association and Georgia Association of Chief of Police.

William Scott, a future resident of Laurens County, won the 100-yard and 200-yard dash races in AA for the Johnson County Trojans in 1973. Scott’s Class A record of 9.7 seconds in the 100-yard and 21.8 seconds in the 200-yard dash, which is no longer run, still stands today. Old-time football watchers in Johnson County are adamant that Scott was faster than his successor Herschel Walker. Scott played two seasons for the Clemson Tigers before an injury ended his career. 

An F-2 tornado struck southeast of Dudley on January 13, 1972.  The first two weeks of February of 1973 saw the greatest daily rainfall to date ever officially measuring 5.57 inches and the greatest daily snowfall, which in some places exceeded 14 inches. 

In 1974 Sharon Lynn Tucker of Dublin became the first African-American woman to obtain a law degree from the University of Georgia.  When sugar prices went sky-high, moonshining, which had been a local tradition for over four decades, became a thing of the past.  At one time, Laurens County was home to one of the largest contingents of revenue and ATF agents in the state.  Bobby Coates joined the U.S. Secret Service in 1966 and protected President Richard Nixon in his last year as President. 

John Kibler of Dublin was chosen as the Best Actor in Class AA, GHSA in 1977.   John Carruth, a former Dublin resident and a successful Roswell architect, was chosen as the Best Actor in 1973 in Class AA of the GHSA.

The Possum Hollow Festival, Laurens County’s premier fall festival, began in 1975.  David and Pat Graham were selected as the National Farm Bureau’s Young Farm Couple of the Year in 1976.  98-year-old Lucian A. Whipple, a native of Laurens, retired in 1976 as the oldest practicing attorney in the country.   Dr.  George R. Lee retired at the end of 1977 after 65 years of practicing dentistry and establishing a record for length of service by a professional in the county’s history.  The year 1977 was the coldest year of the 20th Century.Public Service Commissioner William E. Lovett, Jr. of Dublin was the first Laurens Countian in forty years to be elected in a statewide election.  Former Dubliner Cassie Yates made it big in Hollywood, co-starring in major motion pictures and television shows. Charles Robinson, Jr., of Dublin, was the first African-American to become certified by the American College of Healthcare Administrators and was selected as Georgia’s Health Care Administrator of the Year in 1977. The West Laurens Junior High Industrial Arts Club was the best in the nation in 1978. Rev.  Irene Tos, the first woman pastor in the history of the South Georgia Methodist Conference, began a one-year term as pastor of Pinehill Methodist Church. Two of the saddest moments of the ’70s were the murders of Orianna grocery store owner, Mrs. L.B. Thigpen, who was killed by mass murderer William Pierce in 1971, and of convenience store worker, Marty Wilkins, who was killed by mass murderer Henry Lucas in 1979.

Sports news continued to dominate the 1970s. Tal Prince, a Dublin car dealer, was killed in a qualifying race for the 1971 Daytona 500. Willie Hall, a native of Montrose, was named a captain of the University of Southern California football team.  He was also chosen the team’s Most Valuable Player and selected to the All-Pac-10 Conference team.  Hall received the ultimate collegiate football honor when he was a First Team NCAA All-American. Hall played in the 1971 Shrine East-West Game and the 1972 College All-Star Game.  Drafted in the 2nd round of the 1972 NFL draft, Hall played at linebacker for two seasons for the Saints (1972-3) and four seasons with the Oakland Raiders (1975-78.)  Willie Hall led the stalwart Raider defense in their victory in Super Bowl XI.  

Cy Dozier retired after 35 years of coaching boy’s basketball at Dexter High School. Bert Greene, son of local golf pro-Herb Greene and who called Dublin home, won his first P.G.A. tour event at the L&M Open in 1973. Until a freak injury put an end to his career, Greene was one of the promising young stars on the PGA tour.  Joe Isaac, star pitcher for the East Laurens Falcons, was an 8th-round pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1974 Major League Baseball draft.