The loss of a great lady…
Yesterday, Clarice Strother went to meet her
Creator. A fine human being who cared for so many, she was a wife, mother,
grandmother and dear friend.
She is immortalized in Stephen Doster’s Georgia
Witness – A Contemporary Oral History of the State (Deer Hawk
Publications, 2012). Along with twenty-five other outstanding Georgians, Mrs.
Strother told her story; one of great memories of Brunswick and St. Simons
Island, as well as events she witnessed and incredible people she met in her
lifetime.
Below is a short excerpt from Georgia Witness, which is
available through all online outlets as well as local book stores, especially
in The Golden Isles.
Our hearts ache, but we know she is with The Lord of
All.
Clarice
Strother grew up in a time when meeting a real “Yankee” was a rare event for
some Southerners. She describes what it
was like growing up on the coast during the 1930s and ‘40s. Her husband’s store, J. C. Strother Co., is
located in the heart of the village on St. Simons. More than an icon, it is one of the oldest
family owned and operated businesses in the state. She also discusses an incident from her days
as a teacher that still weighs on her conscience.
My name is Clarice Sutton
Strother. I was born November 27, 1927
at home, 1615 Macon Avenue in the Urbana1 section of Brunswick,
right behind the Hadley Brown home, which is now the Chamber of Commerce. My maiden name was Clarice Sutton. I didn’t have a middle name, so I just used Sutton. My sister, Rosalie, made up her middle name –
Catherine. My father was Leslie Gordon
Sutton. He had the Royal Crown Cola
bottling company in Brunswick. There was
a cola war going on at that time.
Coca-Cola and Dr. Pepper were the two other bottling companies. The bottling plant was at the end of
Gloucester on the block where the Brunswick library is now. When my daddy sold it, the man who bought it
wasn’t really able to look after it, so it sort of went to the dogs.
Clarice Strother, 1945
high school graduation photograph.
Georgia Witness
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