Tuggle airfield in Decatur
Manget tells some history of Camp Gordon and Naval Air Station Atlanta as well as aviation history for DeKalb County. He explains that at one time DeKalb County had three airports, Gunn Airfield, DeKalb Peachtree, and Stone Mountain
Dr. Jack Schreeder and Dee Schreeder of Chamblee
Dr. Schreeder served during World War II in the Mediterranean and European theaters and was awarded the Bronze Star and French War Cross. After the war, he attended Emory University Medical School. He did his residency at Grady Memorial Hospital and Lawson General Hospital in Chamblee. Then he joined Dr. W. A. Mendenhall’s office and small hospital in Chamblee.
Wright family dairy in Brookhaven
At one point, there were one hundred fifty dairies in DeKalb County. The 1939 map (which I have shared in previous blog posts) in the book A Century in North DeKalb: The Story of the First Baptist Church of Chamblee 1875-1975 shows thirty-three dairies in the North DeKalb area including the Wright Dairy.
WWII Lawson General Hospital discoveries lead to more questions
I have returned to the subject of Lawson General Hospital again and again. It is intriguing to me that during WWII this hospital was located in Chamblee, adjacent to Naval Air Station Atlanta. Also, the people involved were sometimes from Atlanta, Chamblee or other nearby towns, but most of the people who worked, trained, or were treated at Lawson General Hospital were there for a brief time. They went home or to another hospital after being treated or they received their orders and left to serve their country using the skills received as part of the MDTS, Medical Department Training School.
Katherine Strong Rudeseal, Home Demonstration Agent and Avondale teacher
When Ethel Warren Spruill married Stephen Spruill in 1933 and moved to Dunwoody, she became a member of the Dunwoody Home Demonstration Club. At the time, Katherine Strong Rudeseal was the Home Demonstration Agent for DeKalb County. (“Story of Dunwoody,” by Elizabeth L. Davis and Ethel W. Spruill)
Home Demonstration Agents traveled around their assigned county demonstrating methods of preserving food, such as canning or freezing. They sometimes shared other skills including sewing. Many counties in Georgia had agents, but not all.
WWII soldier Richard R. Smith and Thanksgiving 1944 at Lawson General Hospital
It is always an honor to learn the story of a soldier who spent time at Lawson General Hospital in Chamblee, Georgia during World War II. Stories of soldiers who were injured and of men who did medical training at Lawson have been shared with me and I will continue to share those stories through pasttensega.com.
This history comes from Doug Smith, whose father Richard Rouse Smith, Sr., was wounded in France during July of 1944 and spent the last part of 1944 at Lawson General Hospital in Chamblee, Georgia.
Irvindale Dairy
Irvindale Way, which runs off Broad Street in Chamblee is named for Irvindale Dairy. P. E. Hyde started Irvindale Dairy in 1918. This was a time of tremendous growth for Chamblee with thousands of soldiers and employees at World War I Camp Gordon. The dairy was in the area along Broad Street and Irvindale Way near today’s Chamblee post office.
Telephone Party Lines
If you have seen the 1959 film Pillow Talk, you will remember how Jan, played by Doris Day, kept trying to use the phone only to find that Brad, played by Rock Hudson, was constantly on their party line. A party line consists of multiple telephone subscribers connected to the same land line.