Until We Meet Again — By Tommy Purser

My friend Terry Toole passed away a couple of weeks ago.
Today, he is reunited in glory with three of his “Partners in Crime” — Sam Griffin, Bo McLeod and Billy Fleming. I say “Partners in Crime” good-naturedly, for they were anything but criminals. The four of them had a lot in common — they married charming women, raised wonderful children, were true friends, fun to be around, engaging and committed to the betterment of their communities.
Oh, and they were all members of a dying breed — weekly newspaper publishers. All in southwest Georgia. Sam was an exception — his newspaper published twice a week.
I was proud to call all four of those guys my friends. More than friends, really.
And I dearly miss them all, especially the one to whom the good wife and I were “family-close” — Billy. Today, we regularly enjoy long, delightful phone calls with Billy’s charming widow Judy. Through each other we keep up with our six mutual children, who grew up together at annual Summer getaways to Jekyll Island. There we rented side-by-side condos for years where the children created bonds that will last a lifetime. It was our two girls and a boy, and Billy and Judy’s two boys and a girl. Laura, Tommy, Anna, Heath, Heather and Holden — Heath was the senior member of the sextet and Anna the youngest.
Terry, Billy and I enjoyed fishing trips to Florida’s St. John’s River, Kay and I spent the night with Terry and Betty Joe where we enjoyed dinner and Juke Box Saturday Night. Sam’s father was former Georgia Governor Marvin Griffin whose Road Department Chairman was Roy Chalker Sr., one of my newspaper mentors and the father of two of my closest high school buddies, Roy Jr. and Phil. Roy Jr. was a groomsman when Kay and I tied the knot and, two weeks later, I returned the favor at his wedding.
Each week, Terry, Billy and Bo would utilize Sam’s printing press to print their newspapers.
Bo, by the way, had a legendary sense of humor that he shared each week through his column on the front page of The Donaldsonville News and at various speaking engagements, many at Georgia Press Association functions. I exchanged newspapers each week with all four of them. I would read Bo’s column every week, Sam’s column in the Bainbridge Post-Searchlight, Terry’s column, “Up The Creek Without A Paddle,” in the Miller County Liberal and Billy’s column, “Mumbles” (you had to hear him talk to understand that name), in the Early County News.
Sam succeeded his father in Bainbridge, Billy succeeded his father in Blakely and Terry succeeded his grandmother in Colquitt. Terry’s grandmother established the Miller County Liberal in 1897 and knew of a newspaper named The Liberal. The story goes that she liked the sound of that name so she dubbed her newspaper the Miller County Liberal. Terry was anything but a liberal and, fearing his grandmother would haunt him if he changed the name, he simply added a small, all-caps sub-name under the newspaper’s name — “IN NAME ONLY.”
Billy was the star running back on Blakely High School’s 1963 state champion football team. I like to think his trip to Glory was a reunion with his constant companion Boomer — a chocolate lab who spent his day’s curled up on a rug in Billy’s office at the Times. When he wasn’t running his newspaper or coaching his children in youth sports, he was in the woods hunting or fishing on Walter F. George Lake (Lake Eufala if you’re on the Alabama side of the lake).
Terry, also, was devoted to his times in fields and streams, and on the side, he served several terms as Miller County’s Coroner.
He told me one time that he was at a dove shoot in a neighboring county and got arrested for hunting over a baited field. He had no idea the field was baited so he was a bit miffed at the Game Warden’s accusations. He said he told the Game Warden, “I’m the coroner in Miller County and you better hope you’re never in an accident in Miller County, ‘cause if you are, you’ll be pronounced dead on the scene.”
Sam, unlike his Democrat father-governor, was a devotedly conservative Republican — a real Republican. He had a rich Southern accent that commanded the attention of all within earshot. His delightful Mary Ann had a similar Southern rhythm to her voice.
Waldo “Bo” McLeod was … well, Bo. Witty, humorous, funny, a bit mischievous, always with a bit of a glimmer in his eyes, never so bright as when he looked into the gleaming blue eyes of his better half Carolyn, an extraordinarily Southern Lady, of enduring charm — I say enduring because, at Bo’s side, she had to endure the witticisms that forever ventured past his mischievous grins.
It seems like a lifetime ago that the five of us — and our charming ladies — spent decades enjoying each other’s company at Georgia Press Association events.
Come to think of it, it was a lifetime ago — four lifetimes, to be exact.
Make that five — I failed to mention my good friend Carvy, whose widow Susan is as charming as the other charmers I’ve mentioned here. And his only child, a son, is wonderful, too. Carvy didn’t really inherit The Metter Advertiser from his mother. The two of them owned and operated the weekly newspaper together until his mother passed away. Then Carvy took on the headaches alone.
Carvy dabbled in a lot of things outside the newspaper, many of them community oriented including “Another Bloomin’ Festival” which he named and coordinated himself. So many things that he was known around Metter as “Mr. Metter.”
Carvy, Terry, Billy, Bo, Sam ….. members of a dying breed, indeed.
No doubt about it — I could be up next.
I expect to see those guys again one day. And Boomer, too.