involved wound drains, saline rinses,
compression dressings, hydrotherapy,
skin grafts, long term antibiotics,
several surgeries, individually tailored
stockings and gloves to prevent large
keloid scars, and intense physical
therapy. After months of trying to
save Bessie’s foot, a decision had to
be made. “I was waiting to see if they
were going to do another surgery for
a cadaver skin graft on my foot. The
doctor who saw me was the sweetest
little woman. She pointed to these
tiny little pink dots on my foot and
said, ‘Don’t cry, baby. No surgery for
you. Your skin has started growing.’
That was Jesus,” said Bessie.
Before the accident, she had been
like most seventh grade thirteenyear
old girl, she explained. “That’s
when you start thinking, ‘Am I pretty?
Do people like me?’ But I just got
snatched into a whole ‘nother world
of things to care about. I just wanted
to be able to walk again.”
Bessie did walk again. In fact,
she attended Brewton-Parker College
her freshman year on a volleyball
scholarship. You would never know
the beautiful, outgoing young mother
40 TOOMBS COUNTY MAGAZINE
had ever been so badly burned unless
she you knew her story. But the
experience had a deep effect on Bessie
and her sisters. Even though no one
in their family had ever pursued a
medical career, three of the four,
including Bessie, would become
registered nurses (RNs).
For her sophomore year, Bessie
went to STC and worked her way
through school graduating as an RN
in 2015. A year later, she and her high
school sweetheart, Bob Coleman,
became the proud parents of a baby
boy they named Rowan.
In 2020, after five years of
working in the ER at Evans Memorial
Hospital in Claxton, Georgia, Bessie
decided it was time to take a break.
The year had been a tough one,
especially for those who worked
on the frontlines during the covid
pandemic like Bessie. “We saw a lot of
people die in those first months,” said
Bessie.
In 2019, she and Bob had moved
out to his father’s ranch, which many
know as Buckhorn Creek Ranch, to
help Bob’s father, Steve, and his wife,
Debbie. Even though they had decided
to discontinue tours and visits to the
exotic animal farm, there were still
animals to feed and orchards and
gardens to tend.
“I love nursing,” said Bessie. But
for now, I’m doing a different kind
of nursing.” Bessie glanced toward
the baby goat she had started bottle
feeding after his mama had rejected
him. But bottle-feeding baby goats
was only one small part of what
moving to Buckhorn Creek Ranch
meant for Bessie and Bob. It was time
to take Bob’s woodworking business
to another level. And Bessie was just
the person to make it happen.
Bob
Bob’s family history
in Toombs County
began in 1896 before the
county was even founded. That was
the year Moses Matthew Coleman
Sr., (1851-1928) came to Lyons and
built several stores including the old
Elberta Hotel. According to an article
from the Vidalia Advance in 1928,
he was one of “Toombs County's
pioneer citizens,” (findagrave.com). In
the Vidalia Onion Museum, his son,
Moses M. Coleman Jr., (1901-1984)
is credited with helping to “pioneer”
the popularity of the Vidalia Onion in
1931.
The next Moses Coleman was
Bob’s grandfather, known as “Mose”
Coleman Jr., (1926-2019). A true
entrepreneur, he founded Coleman
Sales, Inc. and published eight books
documenting information from
headstones he surveyed in cemeteries
in Toombs and surrounding counties.
Bob’s father, Steve Coleman, taught
history at Vidalia High School. But it
was his father’s exotic animal farm
that brought some two thousand
visitors to Buckhorn Creek Ranch
during the annual Vidalia Onion
Festival in 2019. (The ranch was
officially closed in 2020).
Bob’s upbringing was
unconventional. The youngest of
four children, his earliest memories