ABOVE J.C. and Merle pictured at the
home of her Aunt Kate Kicklighter in
Lyons before they were married. Merle
lived with her aunt when she first
started teaching. TOP RIGHT Merle
and J.C. celebrate their 45th wedding
anniversary. RIGHT J.C. and Merle with
their youngest grandchildren during
Christmas in the late 80's.
this long line. I don’t remember why,
but Mr. Williams walked with a limp.
I’ll never forget, he said, ‘Come on.
Let’s go.’ And I remember him limping
all the way to the front of the line with
me following. He walked up to the
desk, and they took me next.”
When the registrar asked her
major, Merle said, “I had no idea what
she was talking about. But the lady
was real nice, and she didn’t want to
embarrass me. She just asked, ‘What
is your favorite subject?’ I said, ‘I
guess, literature.’ She said, ‘Okay, you’ll
major in language arts.’” Then she said
my dorm room was at the top of the
stairs on the right. So, Daddy and Mr.
Williams took me up there, dumped
out all my belongings, and left. I had
never been away from home for more
than two nights in my whole life. I was
one homesick person.” Thankfully,
Merle’s roommate helped her find her
classes and get settled in. “She was very
motherly and took me under her wing.”
One afternoon, the young man
Merle had met at the river the previous
summer came riding up to her dorm
building. “He was in some sort of little
pickup that had been converted into a
car. It was the oddest little thing. I was
hoping none of my friends would see
it,” she laughed. “We rode around in
that little jalopy all over the Ag campus
at UGA. It was our first date at the
University. After that, it was pretty
steady.”
When Merle came home for
Christmas break her second year of
college, the Lyons Elementary School
principal came to see her father. “He
hadn’t been able to fill a position at a
little school out in the county all year.
He asked my dad if I could stay home
and teach it just until the end of the
quarter.” The class was 6th grade math.
So, instead of returning to UGA,
Merle began her teaching career. “They
were all country kids—and such good
kids. They never got to go to town, so
going to Lyons was like going to the big
city for them. One weekend, a friend
74 TOOMBS COUNTY MAGAZINE