Jackie New's Birthday Story

Jackie Chappell New is now seventy years old; the other delightful news flash is that she chose to celebrate this memorable occasion with friends she has known for years.  We spent much of the time playing  “remember when” because it is entertainment that always includes surprising statements about the past and an amusement that is never played the same way twice.  It is interesting that even though we had the pictures of various events that we enjoyed as youngsters, our versions of the happenings were sometimes quite different.

I have written about Cynthia Ladd Taylor in previous columns; I did not mention that she only lived in Richland for a few short years but we have never forgotten her.  Her family became active members at the First United Methodist Church; her dad led the singing and her mom played the piano.  Her mother, Ann Osborne Ladd was an only child so her parents visited frequently driving down from Clendenin, West Virginia.  In fact, her Meme and Papa finally purchased a home across the street from Ms. Mae Lee and spent countless summer months there in Richland.

Jackie, on the other hand, was the second daughter born to Jack and Grace Chappell; his family had always resided in the Richland area. Her dad owned the Plymouth/Desoto dealership, was a gentleman farmer, local politician, and an entrepreneur who built the Kay Lynn Kourt, the local motel which became a famous landmark for tourists traveling to Florida for the summer season.

When he built a swimming pool in front of the motel, we were invited to congregate there where we swam, raced in the water, and sunbathed. It soon became the place to be in the summer, and of course the boys circled the area waving and blowing the car-horns.  We also frequented the pool owned by the American Legion and migrated back and forth according to where the crowd had gathered.  Our summer months are legendary and the kind of memory that causes us to smile.

Jackie has a treasure-trove of albums and scrapbooks; we spent hours studying the photos and sharing information about our classmates of  yesteryear.  Jackie’s mother, Ms. Grace Chappell enjoyed scrapbooking before it became a popular hobby and we are appreciative that she encouraged Jackie to keep all the tickets, bulletins and newspaper articles that now authenticate our childhood to early adulthood.

Jackie and Reid New have been married for fifty three years and reside  in a beautiful home in the suburbs of Macon, Georgia.  They have traveled the world and are both now retired, Reid from the pharmaceutical industry and Jackie as a registered nurse.  They are the ultimate hosts and treated us ladies and John to delicious food  
during our visit.

A weekend was not long enough for us to visit all the aspects of our years together but we managed to pack so much merriment into those precious hours that we were exhausted by the time we hugged each other and said our long goodbye.
 

 

Brenda S. Brown 

 

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