THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of Union County, Georgia
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
Going home
A tribute to
Virginia Parks Souther
Lt.
Col. John Paul Souther (1915-2006) and Virginia Parks Souther
(1919-2007)
On
Then on Friday,
August 18, 2006, Lt. Colonel Souther had his final "Going Home" as he
crossed quietly into the Great Beyond after several months of illness.
On Wednesday,
January 3, 2007 my telephone rang. The
call was from Lynn Souther Godshall, daughter of Lt. Souther and
Virginia Parks Souther.
I heard the
tears in Lynn's voice as she said, "Ethelene, Mamma died yesterday"
(Tuesday, January 2, 2007). I could hardly
believe Lynn's report. I had a strong impression to telephone Virginia
on Tuesday. When I told Lynn, she said, "But it would have been too
late!"
Virginia's
grandson Mark went to tell her a final goodbye before leaving for
Cincinnati after being home for the holidays, and he could not get her
to the door. Going inside, Mark Souther
and his wife, Stacy Sue, found Virginia Souther as though she were
peacefully asleep on her bed--no apparent struggle, just a "gentle
passing on." Four and one-half months
before, Virginia's beloved husband had "passed quietly" about 3:00 a.
m. on August 18. He had been extremely ill
and his death was expected. Virginia, however, had enjoyed this past
Christmas and New Year's with her family. She was tired, of course,
after a long period of care-giving for her beloved "Bill" (John Paul). But none in her family expected her death so
soon after her husband's.
I thought about
this gentle, genteel lady. She always had
a smile and kind words for everyone she met. She
and John Paul had sixty-five years of a very strong marriage before his
death. I could imagine that, even though
she was bravely "carrying on" following his demise, enjoying family and
friends, she still longed to be "going home" to join John Paul in that
"place prepared" for the blessed. She had
told me how much she missed him and how lonely her life was without
him.
The lines of
William Cullen Bryant's poem, "Thanatopsis" ran through my mind as I
thought of her sudden and unexpected death:
So live that
when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable
caravan, which moves
To that
mysterious realm where each shall take
His chamber in
the silent halls of death,
Thou go not
like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his
dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By an
unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who
wraps the drapery of his couch
About him and
lies down to pleasant dreams.
Lt. Colonel
Souther left his mark as one of "The Greatest Generation," a brave and
much-decorated participant in World War II. But
on the home front, his beloved wife, Virginia Parks Souther, was making
her own mark, as she continued to do through the sixty-five years of
their marriage.
I love the
romantic story of how this young couple met. On
June 23, 1938, John Paul Souther and some fellow forestry students from
the University of Georgia were at a forestry camp near Lake Burton at
Clayton, Georgia. They had a few hours
free from camp duty, and went fishing at the lake. John
Paul got his first glimpse of Virginia Parks who was with her uncle,
aunt and cousin from Gainesville, looking for an available place on the
lake to build a cabin. Even though
Virginia and her cousin Elizabeth Parks had their boyfriends along on
that trip to Lake Burton, that did not deter John Paul from determining
to get in touch with "the vivacious young girl Virginia" whom he saw
for the first time that day. Learning
where she lived, the young forester penned a letter to her that night,
addressing it just with her name and Gainesville, Georgia. In those days before zip codes and exact
addresses were required, the letter reached Virginia in Gainesville at
the home of her parents, Roy Webb Parks and Edith Garrett Parks because
they were well-known Gainesville residents and Virginia was their only
daughter. With that letter, their courtship began. Virginia
transferred from Georgia State College for Women in Milledgeville to
the University of Georgia. That way, the
young couple could "court" without so much distance separating them.
She continued
college, earning a bachelor of science in home economics in 1941 with
honors. While she studied there, and
during John Paul's senior year (he graduated with a degree in forestry
in May, 1940), Virginia lived in Soule Hall, a part of the Home
Economics Department. The house mother,
Mrs. Myers, "took a liking" to John Paul Souther, and allowed him to
come and eat the "goodies" the home economics students had cooked that
day. Mrs. Myers also allowed him and
Virginia to use the parlor for dates. He
writes in his book, Between
the Blood and the Bald, (2000, p. 124): "I cannot
imagine anyone enjoying college more than I in his senior year."
Virginia Parks
and John Paul Souther were married June 8, 1941 in Gainesville in what
the groom termed "a quiet home wedding…on a hot Sunday afternoon." They spent their first months of marriage at Ft.
Knox, KY, where he was stationed in the army.
After maneuvers
in Louisiana and a period of intensive war preparation at Ft. Dix, New
Jersey, Lt. Souther was shipped out to Europe on May 11, 1942 on the
Queen Mary with his 1st Armored Division.
Virginia
returned to her parents' home in Gainesville to wait and pray for
thirty-seven months for the return of her husband. On
December 7, 1942, their first child, William Parks Souther (Billy) was
born in Gainesville. Because Virginia often showed their son pictures
of his father, when Lt. Col. Souther returned from war on June 10,
1945, his little son ran to him with his arms outstretched, saying
"Hello, Daddy!" That first meeting of
father and son happened in a happy way because the child's mother had
prepared him well for his first meeting with his dad.
Virginia Parks
Souther was an exemplary military wife and civilian wife of a returning
hero. In addition to being wife and mother
(the couple's second child, Virginia Lynn, was born August 6, 1946),
she was a career woman. She served in the
Hall County Department of Family and Children's Services as a
caseworker and as director. She was
actively involved in community service through the Garden Club,
Tallulah Falls School Study Club, Gainesville Federated Music Club, the
Northeast Georgia History Center, and the Northeast Georgia Medical
Auxiliary. She and her husband were active
members of Gainesville First United Methodist Church.
Virginia Parks
Souther supported her husband in his work and in his community service.
If he had a project going, like getting the
bust of Georgia Washington erected in Gainesville (December 14, 1999)
in the bicentennial year of Washington's death, or having a permanent
marker placed at the grave of Revolutionary War ancestor John Henry
Stonecypher, Jr. at Estanollee, GA, or going with him on booksigning
and speaking engagements to promote his two books, War Not Forgotten (1995)
and Between the Blood
and the Bald (2000), or placing an historical marker at
the site of the Old Souther Mill, Choestoe, Virginia Parks Souther was
ever the thoughtful, polite, sweet supporter and helpmeet of this man
born in Choestoe, Union County, Georgia on May 4, 1915 to Jeptha and
Mintie Dyer Souther. And although she was
a "city" girl, born and bred in Gainesville (b. December 19, 1919), far
from the mountains and valleys where John Paul grew up, she always
enjoyed visiting in the mountains with him.
In her quiet
and unassuming way, she endeared herself to family and friends.
At the
Dyer-Souther Heritage Association July 21, 2007, we will pay tribute to
these two staunch genealogical supporters, as well as several others,
whose "going home" since our last reunion have left us with many
precious memories but with feelings of loss and vacancy because we will
miss their physical presence with us.
Virginia Parks
Souther, in life, was one who lived exemplarily; and in death, one who
"wrapped the drapery of (her) couch/About
(her), and lay down to pleasant dreams."
c2007 by
Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Jan. 11, 2007 in The Union Sentinel,
Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights
reserved.
[Ethelene
Dyer Jones is a retired educator, freelance writer, poet, and
historian. She may be reached at e-mail edj0513@windstream.net; phone
478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA
31061-2411.]
Back To Union County, Georgia GenWeb Site