When Mary Davis was born in 1907, Charlton County was quite different from the Charlton County of 1983. She was born to Mr. and Mrs. Lewis E. Stokes in what was then called Stokesville approximately 11 miles south of St. George. Her family owned a naval stores operation and sawmill there, and Mrs. Davis remembers that Stokesville was then a bustling community, even though now there is nothing there except timberland.

“When I was a girl there was a sawmill, boarding house and what they called a commissary…it was a store where the people who worked out there could buy what they needed,” Mrs. Davis remembered. “Stokesville was named for my father’s family. It was way out in the country and it was a great place to grow up. We had a good life there.”

Her father, in addition to being in the mercantile business, served for 26 years on the Charlton County Board of Education, and was convinced of the importance of providing his sons and daughters with the best education possible. So when the time came for her and her brother to be seniors in high school both of the older Stokes children lived in a dormitory in Folkston and attended school there.

“After I graduated from high school in 1927, after having lived in a dormitory my senior year, my mother decided the family needed to move to Folkston for the other three children to attend high school here,” related Mrs. Davis. “The plan was that when the other three graduated from high school the family would move back to Stokesville. Then a week before they were going to move back our family home burned. The fire turned out to have been a good thing because in Folkston the family had a better opportunity to find jobs,” she said.

When asked about the school she’d attended before coming to Folkston to complete her high school education, Mrs. Davis fondly described the Stokesville School as a “little two-teacher school” where children could learn all they needed to know to prepare them for larger educational opportunities. “We stayed there until the school was consolidated with St. George,” Mrs. Davis said.

Not a lot of young ladies in 1927 chose to get a college education, but Mary Davis was one who did. She went to Valdosta to what was then a women’s college and earned a degree in elementary education. After graduation she came back to Charlton County and taught in the school system here for 33 years taking leaves of absences when her children were born…and having one leave of absence more or less forced on her when she married.

“When I started teaching I taught one year in St. George then moved to Folkston,” Mrs. Davis said. “I taught the first grade 19 years, the third grade one year and the fourth grade 13 years.

“Mr. John Harris was school superintendent when I got married,” related Mrs. Davis. “He believed like a lot of men believed at that time, and he did not believe a married woman should be teaching children. So when Frank and I got married I had to resign.”
She was disappointed at having to choose between marrying the man she loved (and still loves. Frank and Mary Davis will soon celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary) and her teaching career. But her positive attitude allowed her to believe things would eventually work out so that she could teach again. She happily reports that in 1936 Mr. Harris revised his policy against allowing married women to teach school. “After Mr. Harris changed the policy and asked me to come back, I taught in Folkston from then until the birth of my second child,” stated Mrs. Davis. “I took a four year leave of absence with the second child, then went back to the job and taught until I retired in 1970,” she said.

Since her retirement, Mrs. Davis has learned to quilt and has recently completed a quilt which has the symbols of each state in the United States on its squares and is monogrammed with a small family history on the top right square. In addition to quilting, Mrs. Davis and her husband enjoy working in their green house. They grow ornamental as well as edible varieties of plants, She also enjoys painting, crocheting, needlepoint and “cooking for my family and friends,” she professed.

Organizations to which Mrs. Davis belongs include the First Baptist Church (where she was a Sunday School teacher for approximately 50 years and says she dropped out of things gradually), Baptist Women, the American Association of Retired Persons and the Retired Teachers Association.

Her pride in the accomplishments of her sons and their families is evident. She stated that she and her husband are the parents of Lewis and Stokes Davis. “They are grown men, but they are still my little boys,” confided Mrs. Davis. Lewis, their 48-year-old son, is employed by the U.S. Department of Education as Assistant Regional Director at their Atlanta office. He is married to Carolyn Cox. Their son Stokes Davis works with Nalco Chemical Co. and is married to Sallie, who is a Board of Education employee. They live in Folkston.

“My husband was a railroad man for 20 years and then worked with the forestry service for 20 years before he retired in March of 1970,” stated Mrs. Davis. “I guess the greenhouse is really his hobby…he made himself a shop. We call the shop “the barn” because that is what is used to be, but he has converted it into a shop, party house and greenhouse, We have cook-outs and use the party house for entertaining guests,” she said.

The last Davis family reunion was held at the party house. “There were 70 people here,” related Mrs. Davis “We all had a great time. I think part of the reason we enjoyed it so much is that people feel so relaxed out in the barn they just automatically have a good time!”

Both Frank and Mary Davis retired in 1970, and Mrs. Davis confided she might be less than charitable concerning people who profess boredom accompanies retirement. “We have had a good time being retired together,” she said. “We haven’t been bored a day in our retired lives. We live a full life and enjoy it.”

Evidence that she does indeed enjoy a full life was seen at Folkston Elementary School Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. Someone had recruited Mrs. Davis to be a judge at the Halloween costume contest held there, and she looked like she was having as much fun as the youngsters who were at the carnival!