Published: April 27, 2009 01:59 pm         

Marilou Jones' life: Busy as a bee

By Mark Pace



Mrs. Marilou Godfrey (James M.) Jones of the Valley Point area south of Dalton was considered one of the most active women in that community. She was the first president of the Whitfield County Home Demonstration Council, was one of 19 charter members of the Busy Bee Club, a worker in her church’s Women’s Missionary Union, assisted as a Sunday school class teacher and found the time to make small quilts.

After she and Jones were married. They moved to Akron, Ohio, but later returned to Whitfield County. When her father, R.L. Godfrey, purchased a farm with two tenant houses they moved into one of them where they lived by oil lamps until the house was wired with electricity with single light cords hanging from the ceiling in each room. Then their new “electric home” was built and her desire for electrical appliances mounted; likewise, her home work and responsibilities accelerated.

They had five children, Glenn, a W.W.II Marine veteran, who married Pata Foster. He died in 1997. Moreen married Seth Headrick, Marian married Wyley Kinney, Betty, and James, who married Kaye Blackstock. Marilou succumbed in 2003. Her husband died in 1970.

Marilou possessed a writing ability, too. She was recognized on a national scale, prompted by North Georgia Electric Membership Corp.’s installation of electric power in the Jones’ new two-story home.

In 1943, when she preserved a huge amount of vegetables and meats, sandwiched in between her home chores, she wrote an essay in a nationwide contest on the advantages of the electrical age in rural areas. In her essay she pointed out that, among other things, electrical appliances in the home had made things so much easier and quicker.

Her essay was the nation’s best, the judges ruled, and she was awarded a Certificate of Farm War Service. The certificate was co-signed by Claude R. Wickard, Secretary of Agriculture in President Roosevelt’s cabinet. It was a part of the nation’s war-time “Food For Freedom” project.

When someone asked her why she had so many home electrical appliances, her desire to handle the situation was obvious in this reply: “So I can learn to use them.”

She constantly was busy as a bee, and it is no wonder she was an original member of the Busy Bee Club. As a nephew, Harlan Godfrey describes it: “Marilou loved to work. She seemed to be busy working at something all the time.”

Betty said last week from her Dalton home that her father liked to drive a tractor while doing farm work.

He had plenty of workers on the farm while he worked with Westcott Hosiery Mill. When tufted bedspreads grew in popularity, he and his brother, Guy, joined A.D. Rogers in establishing Rogers’ Dye Laundry on South Hamilton Street in Dalton. Jim and Guy later sold their interests to Rogers.

A September, 1943, issue of a local newspaper did this account on her canning of fruits and vegetables that came from the family’s sprawling 250 acres of farm land. It was in this period of time when the neighboring Valley Point school furnished canning of food and locker services for freezing foods, The newspaper account listed the preservation of food items, much of which, Betty recalls, was stored under a stairway in their 10-room home.

Contents by the quarts: Corn; 25; soup mixtures; 30; berries, 35; cucumbers, 18; beets, 15; beans, 30; tomatoes, 75; Brunswick stew. 55; and ground beet. 8. Also, the placing of this volume by the quarts in the school’s freezing locker: Corn, 15; squash, 8:; strawberries, 15; plus 12 pints of okra, and portions of pork and beef.

A huge quantity of local foodstuffs? A similar situation prevailed in other parts of Whitfield County.

At that time, six of seven Whitfield County schools also furnished canning and freezing facility services for families in the neighborhood. The Dalton Citizen’s 100th Anniversary Edition in 1947 published an article on the projects. It stated that in the homes and in the canneries of those rural schools, it was estimated that between 200,000 and 250,00 cans are put up annually. Vocational agriculture teachers were supervisors of canneries in these schools. Tunnel Hill, Westside, Varnell, Cohutta, Pleasant Grove and Valley Point.

The canning program in the Dawnville school did not operate full time as in other schools.

Vocational agriculture teachers in charge of the programs were Joe Campbell, L.D. Hamil, C.B. Padgett and J.T. Trammell.

The news article pointed out: “Whitfield County farm folks each year like to conserve fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats by canning them, as well as cutting down on the home food budget.”

     

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