Willie Dubois passed away May 29, 1988

Articles have been edited by Suzanne Forte for brevity and to avoid mention of living individuals.

Once upon a time Walton County abounded with plantations.

On the O’Kelley plantation, located near Loganville, there was a young man named Permetus O’Kelley who was 14 when the Civil War began.

Permetus O’Kelley later married Nettie Eugenia Hopson and they had seven children, two boys, five girls.

Now, several years later, Willie D. O’Kelley, one of the five girls, says, "All seven of us went to college. I don’t know how our parents did it. I guess it was just by management, since we didn’t have any money."

Willie D. is one of the most colorful and most respected figures in Loganville’s history. Miss O’Kelley, as she was known for years, became Mrs. Dubois about three and a half years ago. She and her husband, Carmen, met in Atlanta.

"I finally got old enough to marry", she says with a twinkle.

"I have always lived in Loganville", she says fondly, "except when teaching away at different schools and colleges."

Her being away from Loganville includes a Bachelor of Arts degree from LaGrange College and a Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts degree from Columbia University in New York.

In addition, she taught at Knox College in Cooperstown, N.Y., taught political science at Georgia State Teachers College for Women; was head of the history department at Queens College in Charlotte, N.C., was head of the history department at Whitworth College in Brookhaven, Miss., and taught in public schools in man localities in Georgia, including Clinch County, College Park, Buford, Lawrenceville, Snellville and Loganville.

"The most important thing in my life is the boys and girls I taught. I have students who live all over the United States and in foreign countries. The list includes students in agriculture, music, government, art, psychiatry, a Rhodes scholar and two graduates from West Point. I have no children except these wonderful ones", she muses.

She has received many honors in her lifetime, but one in particular stns out.

She was selected by the state of Georgia to travel to England and do all the research for Georgia’s Bicentennial celebration in 1932. She did all the research in British museums, using old books, records and maps.

"Now, I am the only living member of the old Georgia Commission", she states.

"I wrote for the Atlanta Constitution when Clark Howell was owner. They published everything I brought from England. I even discovered there were two Edward Oglethorpes. The first one died, and the parent named another son Edward. The older one is the one who founded Georgia."

In addition to traveling in England, she has visited in and studies the educational systems in Scotland, Ireland, France, Italy, Switzerland and Belgium.

A life-long member of the Loganville Methodist Church, she says, "I remember when the present church was built (1906). The church before than was located across the way from the Loganville Christian Church and the cemetery on the Atlanta highway. Although I am a member of the Methodist Church, I deeply love all the other churches in Loganville.

One of her fond memories of Loganville is when Mrs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt dedicated the gym in Loganville. She has always been interested in the schools, and her brother, Hoke, who died in 1969 gave the land for many of the ball fields around Loganville.

Willie D. says her early memories of Loganville are dirt roads and buggies. "I do wish we had a nice shopping center here", she says, "Loganville has grown in so many ways. The Scharffs (Walton Clothes) have done a lot for Loganville.

"I am so proud of Jimmy Carter", she says, "I even have one of his badges."