Some things last if you put a lot of heart into them.
Sewn together in 1976, a star-spangled red, white and blue quilt created by the Brantley County Women’s Club is still as vibrant 50 years later as the day it was completed.
The Women’s Club is no longer active and most of its members have “gone to be with the Lord,” said former club president Sidney Walker, but the quilt they created still remains and, by good fortune, wound up in the hands of her son.
Each year, the Women’s Club would host a tea social to welcome the new teachers starting with the school system later that fall, Walker said.
In order to help pay for the food and drink to host the event, Walker and the other women stitched a special quilt commemorating the United States’ 200th anniversary, the nation in the grip of bicentennial fever.
Raffle tickets were sold for a chance to win the patriotic creation and it just so happened Walker’s son, Mike, purchased the winning ticket.
In 1976, Mike Walker was stationed at Moody Air Force Base near Valdosta, working as an aircraft maintenance technician, so it seemed appropriate a member of the nation’s military won the themed creation.
These days, Sydney Walker lives at the Okefenokee Country Club. Her son makes his home on St. Simons Island. Both were glad last week to spend some time remembering the old, beloved quilt as America’s 250th anniversary nears.
