Schley-Houston-Sumter County GaArchives Obituaries.....Evans, Foy S. March 14, 2008
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Harris Hill http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00011.html#0002514 March 23, 2008, 5:00 pm

Buyer's Guide & News   March 19-25, 2008
BUYING A PIECE OF OUR PAST
by David Crenshaw

For the first time in 60-something years, a weekend in the life of Warner 
Robbins has come and gone without it receiving the concentrated attention of 
Foy Evans, the newspaper pioneer and political leader who came flat broke to 
this town about which he admittedly knew nothing in 1949 and never found a 
reason to leave.  He would own condos and resort homes in his vintage years, 
but they were never more than places to go home from.

Foy Evans died last Friday morning at Serenity Gate, a Hospice-operated wing 
of Perry Hospital.  Hospice became a part of his future in late 2007 when he 
and his doctors decided they would not try to remove the tumors found in his 
brain.

He was 88.

While he was most widely known for his newspaper and his politics, he had what 
most would regard as a full resume by the time he arrived in Warner Robbins in 
1949.  He graduated from Americus High School and continued his studies at 
Georgia Southwestern College.  He graduated in 1938 and moved straightaway to 
the Macon Telegraph and News as a sports writer.  It was not long before he 
became assistant sports editor.

In 1941 he took his first hard news job as Managing Editor of Fort Lauderdale 
News, a job he would hold until Dec. 8, 1941, the day he joined the United 
States Navy.  And there he remained until 1946.

From the Navy, Evans went to Athens and the University of Georgia Law School.  
By the middle of 1948 he had earned his law degree and passed the bar exam, a 
feat he accomplished even before he had earned his degree.  He practiced law 
in Macon but knew quickly that it was not the way he wished to spend a career.

As he would tell it years later, Evans had little knowledge about Warner 
Robbins and even less money but thought Warner Robbins was the place he ought 
to be.  So he came, and on Feb. 24, 1949 with four tabloid pages and $5 in 
paid advertising, The Warner Robbins Sun hit the streets of a little town on a 
downhill slide.  The direction of the town and the fortunes of the newspaper 
would change course only with increased involvement of the U.S.---and its 
nearby Air Force Base---in the Korean War.

"The Last Linotype:  The Story of Georgia and Its Newspapers Since World War 
II" reports that The Sun began publishing twice weekly in 1960.  By the end of 
the decade Evans took The Sun to a daily.

By the end of 1972, Foy and Leta Evans---He and Leta Harbuck were married in 
1952---decided to sell their paper and did so on Nov. 1.  Evans remained as 
editor and publisher for two years after he sold the paper but it wasn't the 
same.  By the start of 1975 he was out of the newspaper business and bored 
with law, which he practiced briefly in Warner Robbins after leaving The Sun.

Politics was to be the next field he would conquer.  He thought he would make 
a good mayor and in 1975, 53 percent of Warner Robbins voters agreed with 
him.  He won without a runoff against the incumbent mayor and three other 
contenders.  He would be mayor for two terms, or eight years.  By noon Friday 
the city he took as his own so long ago was celebrating Foy Evans with flags 
lowered to half-mast and the recollections of many of those who knew him.  

Like Mayor Donald Walker who was visibly touched by news of Evans' death.  "I 
never had to wonder where his advice about the city was coming from," 
remembers Walker.  "It came from his interest in the people of this city."

Or Sonny Watson, a long time leader in the Georgia House of Representatives 
and today's chairman of the Houston County Hospital Authority, was one of the 
many who "threw" The Sun to homes in the early days.  "He was one of the big 
and powerful people in Warner Robbins for as long as I can remember," says 
Watson, "but he wasn't the kind of man who needed to flex his muscles so 
others could see it and be impressed.

And like his son, Danny, who, of course, has a unique perspective.  Danny knew 
his as father first, and business partner second.  "He was such a good 
father...make that great father.  No one else knows just how wonderful he was 
at that.

"What they might know about is his role in journalism and newspapers.  And 
they know he leaves some shoes that are hard to fill," said the younger 
Evans.  "Make that impossible to fill."

And it is the journalism and his newspapers that his town will most remember.  
They will remember the community journalism he loved and preached to reporters 
who had the good fortune of passing through a Foy Evans newsroom.  If an 
editor planned to run a national story he had to be prepared to defend that 
decision, for Evans was loath to put into print a story which did not have a 
clear local reason for being thus distinguished.  His paper was to be a 
collection of stories readers could find no place else.

His readers.  He had the grandest regard for his readers and he talked about 
you the last time we spoke, just a few days ago.  He thought you were in a 
class of your own because he felt you loved this city, too.  As Evans figured, 
Warner Robbins and The Sun pretty much grew up together, and he never forgot 
that it was his readers who made that all possible.


Additional Comments:
Thanks to a good friend and faithful reader of all the old Schley 
County/Ellaville newspaper items that appear on this list, for supplying this 
obituary for Foy Evans.  Foy was frequently mentioned in The Ellaville Sun and 
even filled for editor Raymond Duncan once when he was ill.  I hope you enjoy 
the excerps from The Sun I was able to locate about Foy Evans.

 The Ellaville Sun Friday, Oct. 28, 1938 No. 17

SCHLEY SLANTS
by Foy Evans
RAYMOND DUNCAN IS SICK--THE SUN GOES ON
It was because of the unfortunate illness of Editor Raymond Duncan that I was 
given the responsibility of editing this issue of The Sun. Having first become 
sick last Thursday, Raymond was up and around Sunday and confident he would be 
able to give his full attention to The Sun this week. But a relapse early in 
the week put him back in the sick bed, and he called me in to lend a helping 
hand. It is, at that, a coincidence that my service on this paper should begin 
with so great a task just one week before I was supposed to become a regular 
staff member of The Sun. It is my sincere desire that this issue of The Sun 
meet the approval of its many faithful readers........

AND A HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...........
Patsy Barnes, who celebrated her second birthday on Oct. 23. Lillian Cooper, 
Rupert, and J.W. Hambrick, Oct. 20. J.M. Cook reached the ripe old age of 82, 
Oct. 23; and Mrs. Lizzie Park, visiting Oglethorpe, who has been ill, was 81 
the same day. Martha Jones Elliston, Rupert, Oct. 25; Fred Rainey, Oct. 29; 
Oct. 30 was a birthday with Supt. J.L. Duncan, Mrs. J.L. Lindsay, Mrs. Carlton 
Wall, Jim DeVane and Griffin Bell all celebrating. Mrs. Floyd Moore, Nov. 1; 
Martha Jane manning, Nov. 2; and Frances McGinty, Rupert, Nov. 3. To Mr. Theo 
Wimbish goes top honor this week with 90 candles on his birthday cake 
Thursday, Oct. 27. Betty Ruth Martin, Butler, Oct. 31; and Wannie Phillips, 
Nov. 3.

WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Cooper of Rupert, celebrated their 47th anniversary October 
22.


NINETY YEAR-OLD MAN PRAISES GOD
T.A. Wimbish Observes His Birthday "Eating 'Possum"
T.A. Wimbish, one of Schley county's oldest citizens who celebrated his 90th 
birthday Thursday "having the best time any poor man ever had," attributes his 
long and happy life to "faith in a kind God."

Still keen of wit though his sight and hearing are not quite what they used to 
be, Mr. Wimbish ate possum for his birthday dinner he has every year he can 
remember.

"Life is just a span," he reminisces. "I can remember my youth like it was 
yesterday--my disappointments and triumphs--and I can see where the Lord has 
been mighty kind to me for I am the last of the crowd I knew in my youth. I 
believe I am the oldest living person in Schley county today."

Having lived a clean, healthful life, he says, "I took care of myself and in 
all the 56 years I lived with my wife there was not 15 times sundown caught me 
away from home."

"Punctuality--that's one of the vital things in life and one of the keys to a 
long and happy life," he added.

Diet, even after 90 years of life, does not give Mr. Wimbish the least bit of 
trouble. He does not recall the time he complained about a meal or the time he 
was particular about what he ate.

"The first thing I ever ate was a piece of fat meat, and since that day I've 
loved hog meat above all others."

Noting the "wonderful" changes that have occurred in transportation, farming 
methods, and life itself, he recalls the days when "we had no roads through 
most of the county, and our farming tools were handmade from trees."

Though he was only 16 years old when the Civil War ended, Mr. Wimbish 
remembers some of the horrors of the National Cemetery at Andersonville.

"I was at Andersonville when the Yankees hung those six thieves you hear so 
much about," he asserts, "and I saw one of them break the rope they hung him 
with. He got away then. He ran hard but the Yankees caught him."

According to him the war was "absolutely uncalled for." It was, he believes, 
the result of jealousies that should never have arisen between 
the "northerners who brought the first slaves into the United States and the 
southerners who found a practical use for them."

Mr. Wimbish enjoys smoking a cigar and has "taken a drink or two--enough to 
get drunk--but I've regretted it."

"I have several boxes of cigars given me for birthday presents, and I hope the 
Lord is kind enough to let me live long as it takes me to smoke them, though 
I'm ready to go any time he wants me now that I've reached ninety," he 
declares. "I can see no harm in smoking. Nor do I condemn a man for taking a 
toddy when he wants one, but it's disgusting to see a man loaded up with 
liquor like he was trying to kill a bear."

Though he is proud to say his memory "is almost perfect," he does not remember 
ever making an enemy in his life. "I never tried to. It's easy to be friendly, 
and I like to talk about a man's good habits instead of his bad ones that most 
people bring into their conversations."

Cursing is the most foolish habit a man can acquire, he thinks.

As for dancing---well he had his day. And a big time it was, back when it was 
against the law of the church to dance.

"I don't see any harm in dancing. I never did. And because of my views I got 
thrown out of the church three times when I was a youngster. But every time I 
got right up and joined again. After all, I didn't think I'd sinned, and the 
church is the Lord's house."

But he declares emphatically, religion isn't what it used to be. They don't 
practice it like they used to. And there are no morals like there used to be.

"People used to walk straight. Now you have to look on the records to see if 
they belong to the church."

He advises everyone to practice kindness to those whom he associates and faith 
in God.

Mr. Wimbish was born in Schley county Oct. 27, 1848, and received his 
education in the Buena Vista schools. He was married to Miss Mattie Perry also 
of Schley county, and is father of one girl and two boys. One son, Perry, 
lives in Americus, while Mr. Wimbish lives with the other, Grady, on his farm 
a few miles south of Ellaville.

The youngest of nine children, Mr. Wimbish points out that his brothers and 
sisters have died in exactly the order they were born--a natural phenomena 
that seldom occurs.


The Ellaville Sun Friday, November 4 1938 No 18

SCHLEY SLANTS
by Raymond Duncan

ELEVENTH-HOUR EDITOR
Back at the typewriter after the first week I have been compelled to transfer 
the job of getting out a paper to someone else, I want to say a few kind words 
for Foy Evans of Americus, who stepped in last Wednesday and gave a fine 
performance despite being called in at the 11th hour. Charles Wall, Jr., the 
man who sells the ads, carried on as usual.

Many readers asked for an introduction to Foy. Well, he is a very young fellow 
who was graduated from Georgia Southwestern college, there in June. He was 
editor of the school's newspaper, The Sou'wester, for two years. Before he 
left the classroom, however, he became Americus correspondent for the Macon 
Telegraph and his splendid coverage of that city and much of its territory has 
earned him top-place ranking among that newspaper's staff of correspondents 
all over the state.

He filled the groove so well up here that I think we will be calling him back 
in not a great while.




The Ellaville Sun Friday, November 23, 1938 No. 21
PROTECT AMERICA
by Foy Evans

While President Roosevelt and the United States as a whole extend a welcome 
hand to the persecuted of foreign lands, there is one person--an outstanding 
personality--who takes a definite stand against such wholesale immigration as 
the United States is practicing.

That man is Representative Stephen Pace of Americus. The Democratic 
representative of the Third District of Georgia.

His stand is firm. He minces no words saying what he thinks is right. In 
public addresses throughout the district he has condemned the present policy 
and advocates to "deport four million illegal aliens in the United States 
today and reduce annual number of immigrants admitted to this country."

"I intend to offer the press for passage in the next session a bill which I 
introduced in the last Congress, that is, to close our doors to further 
foreign immigration and to deport practically four million aliens who are now 
in this country unlawfully, who add to our relief burden, hold jobs to which 
American citizens are entitled, violate our laws and have no respect for our 
flag," he declared on Oct. 11 of this year in Americus when accepting 
nomination as candidate for representative from this district.

Since that time he has reaffirmed those statements. In Columbus last week he 
asserted again he would press passage for the bill.

Going further into the question he said: "The time has come when the admission 
of foreigners into this country for permanent residence should be limited, at 
the most to members of the immediate families of those who have previously 
entered, have become neutralized (naturalized?), who are making loyal 
citizens, and who are able to guarantee that, if admitted, their wives or 
children or parents will not become a public care."





The Ellaville Sun Friday, February 10, 1939 No. 32

FOY EVANS BECOMES TELEGRAPH'S ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
Foy Evans of Americus, 19, who wrote his first story three years ago as a high 
school student there, becomes assistant sports editor of The Macon Telegraph 
this week-end. Foy, well-known here and who wrote much material for The Sun 
last fall, succeeds Ben Chatfield who moves to the sports editorship of The 
Macon Evening News. The vacancy was created when Sports Editor Bobby Norris 
resigned to become business manager of the Americus baseball club. Albert 
Gelders, News sports editor, succeeded Bobby. I remember Foy always talked 
about wanting to write a sports story, and I suggested he write one for 
me.....the story is that he had the goods, as the jargon of the day puts it. 
But so much for memory time. I still think it was a good idea, 
though.........letting him, write that story.



The Ellaville Sun Friday, August 29, 1941 No. 9

 EVANS TO FLORIDA
Ellaville friends will be interested to learn that Foy Evans, formerly of 
Americus, has left sports editorship of the Macon Evening News, to become 
telegraph editor of the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Times. Foy edited a couple of 
issues of The Sun three years ago and wrote a number of feature stories for 
this paper while residing in Americus.


The Ellaville Sun Friday, February 6, 1942 No. 29 
Foy Evans, of Americus, a former Macon sports writer, is doing his writing for 
Uncle Sam now. Foy volunteered for the Navy and is with the public relations 
office at Miami. He has many friends in Ellaville.








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