With a brand-new driver’s
license and Big Dink’s teal-blue Buick, I coasted into the yard of the
weathered, lapboard-sided farmhouse. When the screen door creaked open, I was
expecting a striking blonde to step onto the lofted porch. Instead, a
2-year-old toddler—with a face full of smile—greeted me.
“What’s
your name?” I asked.
“Herschell,”
he said.
With
one hand, I tousled his black hair. With the other, I handed him a
bright-yellow pack of Juicy Fruit gum. And then the hinges creaked again.
Yolanda (everyone calls her Tootsie) the oldest of the five Hires daughters,
joined us. As my date and I were pulling away, Herschell was peeling the foil
off his third piece of Juicy Fruit.
That’s how our
friendship began 55 years ago. Today, that 1964 toddler has a salt-and-pepper
beard, a wife, two daughters and three granddaughters. The businessman is chairman
of the Wayne County Board of Commissioners.
On
Veterans Day, Herschell Hires chauffeured his soon-to-be-95-year-old mother,
Lauree; four of his sisters; and a brother-in-law to Athens. The University of
Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications had invited
Lauree to tell her World War II story. Her remarks followed the viewing of the
award-winning documentary The Golden
Isles at War, produced by Grady grad Kevin Maggiore.
Here’s
an excerpt from my introduction of Lauree Hires, a real-life Rosie the Riveter:
“When I think
of the Greatest Generation, I think of the children—including my parents—who
fought the odds of the Great Depression only to battle their way through World
War II and win again. Wayne County’s
Surrency sisters—Carobeth, Nanelle and
Lauree—didn’t wield rifles with
bayonets to defeat the Germans and the Japanese. They welded their way through the war with torches and welding rods to
build Liberty ships in Brunswick’s port.
“And no one
toiled harder or sweated more to support America’s war cause than these ladies
and their peers. For generations, our families—Surrency, Highsmith, Bacon, Hires and NeSmith—have been closer than
friends. We are as close as you could be and not be family. I am blessed to
have grown up in Jesup and benefited from the inspiration of these hometown
icons of the Greatest Generation.”
I wish you
could have heard Lauree Hires. But you don’t have to be left out. The new World
War II Home Front Museum on St. Simons gives you a front-row revisit to this
chapter in Georgia’s history. With interactive videos you can listen to Lauree
Hires and Carobeth Highsmith recount their war years. If their sister, Nanelle
Bacon, had lived a few more years, she would have been included.
However, the
Surrency sisters almost missed the documentary, too. Call it fate or a stroke
of luck, but here’s how Kevin Maggiore discovered Carobeth and Lauree. David
English, a superintendent of Herschell’s Dogwood Construction Group, overheard
ladies working in the soon-to-open museum. Apologetically, he interrupted, “I know where you could get some things to
display. Call my boss, Herschell Hires.”
One of the curators
dialed Herschell and asked, “Do you have some Liberty-ship memorabilia?” He
said, “No, but my mother does.” On the other end of the phone, Herschell heard
a gasp and then, “Your mother, is she
still alive?” Laughing, Herschell said, “She sure is, and her sister, too. They
both worked on Liberty ships.” Within a few days, Lauree and Carobeth were in
front of Kevin’s camera at Altamaha Baptist Church.
His mom and
aunt are featured in The Golden Isles at
War, but Herschell deserved some recognition for his contribution. So when
he escorted his family into the Richard B. Russell Building, I didn’t give him
just one pack of Juicy Fruit. With a face full of smile, Herschell accepted four.
dnesmith@cninewspapers.com
