Marion-Muscogee County GaArchives Obituaries.....Hogg, Henry C. December 18 1983
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Carla Miles http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00010.html#0002476 December 31, 2004, 10:04 pm

A History of Marion County, Ga.; Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Dec. 19, 1983
The following information was taken from the book entitled, A History of Marion 
County, Georgia, Motherland of Many by Rena S. Cobb
Reprinted with permission of Rena Cobb

Pages 125-126

Columbus, Ga., Monday
December 19, 1983

By Jim Houston
Assistant City Editor, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

Hat Tipping “Candy Man” Henry Hogg Dies at Age 101

For five decades, he walked the streets of Columbus, tipping his derby hat and 
smiling as he spoke to those he passed.

For almost 50 years he gave out candy to hospital patients and children.

For almost all of his 101 years, Henry C. Hogg, known throughout the city 
as “The Candy Man” was a student of the Bible, reading and rereading its 
passages and even writing a book of verse based on the scriptures.

Henry C. Hogg died Sunday at Pine Manor Nursing Home in Columbus.

He was born October 27, 1882, in Marion County, one of twelve children born to 
Mr. and Mrs. John A. Hogg.

His longevity, his practice of dispensing candy, his daily walks in derby hats 
and his cheerful greetings and disposition had made him a local celebrity.  
During one of the many newspaper interviews he gave, Hogg was asked how he had 
managed to live so long.

He replied, “I used to tell this around my brothers, and they denied it, but 
I’d always say, “when my brothers would be out possum hunting all night, I’d be 
at home sleeping.  When they would be out all night dancing and carrying on, 
I’d be home sleeping.”

In addition to never smoking tobacco, Hogg also quipped that he had never seen 
a football or baseball game.  His one meal a day was usually brains and eggs, 
syrup, butter and biscuits, and on special days, a Krystal hamburger and slice 
of lemon pie,” he said, but longevity of life was a tradition in his family.  
It has been one of Hogg’s ambitions to live longer than his grandfather, whose 
Marion County tombstone claims he lived 91 years, nine months, and 15 days.  
Hogg passed that mark in August 1975.

When he was 20 years old, Hogg moved from Marion County to Americus, and later 
to Richland, where he worked as a carpenter.  The work wasn’t steady, however, 
when a storm struck Columbus in 1921, Hogg and some friends from Richland moved 
here to help rebuild.  He worked for a few years for a local contractor, then 
got a job with Lummus Industries as a cabinet maker.  He worked for the company 
40 years, retiring at age 78 only after the company passed a mandatory 
retirement rule.

While working at Lummus in the 1930s, Hogg was laid up in Columbus’ old City 
Hospital.  “The Candy Man” was born during that stint in the hospital.  He said 
that he learned how lonely it could be to be in a hospital.

“I got so lonesome, I didn’t know what to do.  Folks would come down the halls 
and pass right by my door,” he said.

When he was released, he returned to the hospital two or three times a week to 
visit patients, almost all were strangers to whom he would introduce himself.  
And he always carried candy and chewing gum to dispense during his visits.

The practice began during the “Great Depression”, but it continued for more 
than 25 years.  He and his wife made regular visits to the hospital bearing 
their sweet gifts, but Hogg also began to give candy to children and other 
passerbys as he made his daily walks.  Children waiting for school buses came 
to know Hogg as “The Candy Man.”

That practice won Mr. and Mrs. Hogg national recognition.  In 1946, they were 
saluted on the national “Breakfast in Hollywood” radio program as “Good 
Neighbors of the Day.”  In 1951, the couple won a local Tops in Our Town 
competition and represented the city in a national radio network broadcast of 
the competition.

Hogg also had another recognizable trademark.  He almost always wore a derby 
which earned him another popular nickname, “The Derby Hat Man.”

He became a Biblical scholar by reading, rereading and then reading the Bible 
again and again.  He counted words, chapters and verses in it, (1,189 chapters, 
31,102 verses and 789,674 words) and made several trips to Egypt, Israel and 
The Holy Land.  A member of Wynnton United Methodist Church, he was frequently 
a guest lecturer in many area churches, describing his experiences and 
observations of his trips.



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