A Lost Norman Rockwell Scene — By Tommy Purser

Lots of people were happy to hear that a Zaxby’s restaurant will be built on Jarman Street here in Hazlehurst. Site preparation is already underway.
And that work makes me sad.
I’m not sad that a Zaxby’s is coming to town. Rather, I’m sad to see the home of the late Vernon and Mary Dowling leveled to make room for the restaurant.
Over a half century ago, I moved to Hazlehurst and brought with me a love for the game of golf. A love that had grown within me since the age of 10, when I was a pint-sized kid growing up along the St. Johns River in Palatka, Fla.
The game allowed me to strengthen the friendships I had as a young boy, a teenager, a college student and a young adult. And when I moved to Hazlehurst as a young man, the golf course here served as a vehicle to make new friends in a town where I knew no one.
Among those new friends was Vernon Dowling, a man 21 years my senior, who, like me, loved to play golf. I liked him instantly. He seemed always happy, always smiling, always having fun at the golf course. He had a trademark, raspy voice, most times spoken with a wide grin on his face.
Vernon was the owner-operator of Dowling Furniture Store, located on Latimer Street, about where the Ledger is located today. Vernon owned his own golf cart he used while playing rounds at Jeff Davis Country Club. He kept the cart at his Jarman Street home and every weekend he’d load his cart onto a trailer and drive to the golf course to play golf with his circle of close friends.
I played a few times with Vernon but, to be honest, his golfing skills were far less than mine so we seldom played together.
I didn’t know Mary Dowling as well as I knew Vernon. On the occasions our paths crossed or our jobs brought us together, I was struck by her quiet, stoic presence, her warm smile and her gentle nature. She brought intelligence and compassion to her job as a social worker with the Department of Family and Children Services.
Vernon passed away in 2006 at the age of 79. Mary continued to live in their Jarman Street home until her passing in 2021 at the age of 91.
When I moved to Hazlehurst, most of the Dowlings’ five daughters were grown and building families of their own. For years, the Dowling family — Vernon, Mary, their five daughters and 15 grandchildren — gathered every Thanksgiving and Christmas at that Jarman Street home. Its location enabled literally thousands of people to get a glimpse of the Dowlings’ 15 grandchildren as they gathered for touch football games and other activities on the front lawn of that home.
It was a heartwarming sight watching the Dowling grandchildren grow in both numbers and stature as they created fond memories of “visits to Grandma’s house” where outdoors fun seemed to always be the order of the day.
If ever there was a trademark Norman Rockwell setting, it was on the Dowling front lawn on Hazlehurst’s busiest thoroughfare. Thousands of people traveling from Macon to the coast and back enjoyed that scene for a couple of decades.
Most of those grandchildren are grown now. They gave Mary 20 great-grandchildren to enjoy in her later years.
I imagine that the remaining Dowling daughters, their combined 15 children and 20 grandchildren will visit or pass through Hazlehurst in the coming years. Perhaps they’ll stop to dine at Zaxby’s. And if they do, they will undoubtedly pause to remember Vernon and Mary and the wonderful memories created on that site. Not only for themselves but for thousands of passersby over the years.
I know those youngsters created warm memories for me to remember for years yet to come.