BRIAN KEMP

STACEY ABRAMS

KEMP RE-ELECTED IN GOVERNOR’S RACE

By FRANK SAYLES JR.

Tifton Grapevine

Gov. Brian P. Kemp, who charged into an early lead in Tuesday's gubernatorial race against Democrat Stacey Abrams, was re-elected to a second term.

Kemp had 54% of the state’s vote to Abrams’ 46%, with 97% of the vote tallied.

Kemp carried Tift County with 9,412 votes. Abrams had 3,539 in Tift, and Libertarian Shane Hazel, 80.

Kemp, a Republican who refused entreaties to help overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, had narrowly defeated Abrams for the governor’s seat four years ago.

Kemp has generally received high marks for his handling of the pandemic in Georgia, promoting safety while being the first to open a state for business, spurring a strong statewide economy.

Abrams' campaign had failed to generate enough traction in the rural areas of the state.

RAPHAEL WARNOCK

HERSCHEL WALKER

U.S. SENATE RACE MAY HEAD TO DEC. RUNOFF

BOTH WARNOCK & WALKER AT 49%

The race for U.S. Senate between incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and GOP challenger Herschel Walker is likely headed to a December runoff as both candidates have received less than 50% of the vote.

With 97% of the state’s vote tallied, both Warnock and Walker were at 49%, with Libertarian Chase Oliver at 2%. Warnock had a slight lead of 28,872 votes out of 3.9 million ballots cast.

Under Georgia law, if no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, the Senate race will go to a runoff four weeks later — on Dec. 6 — between the top two vote-getters.

Walker carried Tift County, receiving 8,914 votes to Warnock’s 3,872. Libertarian Oliver received 176 votes in Tift.

Overall, Tift County saw 53.59% of its registered voters cast ballots in the midterm general election, or 13,062 out of 24,376 registered Tift voters.

WOOD WINS RE-ELECTION TO TIFT COUNTY COMMISSION

By FRANK SAYLES JR.

Tifton Grapevine

Tift County Commissioner Greg Wood handily won re-election Tuesday to a third term on the Tift County Board of Commissioners.

Wood, a Republican, defeated Democratic challenger Rachael Price by a vote of 1,934 to 577, in unofficial results.

"I appreciate the support of the residents of Tift County District 6, and I will continue to strive to do my best for all the citizens of the county as a whole,” Wood told the Tifton Grapevine. 

That race was the only contested race within the county. Incumbent Tift County Commissioners Donnie Hester, Paul Webb, and Stan Stalnaker were all re-elected without opposition.

Also, Tift County Board of Education incumbents Pat McKinnon, Jamie Hill, Sam Wright, and Rusty Harrelson were all re-elected without opposition.

A matching grant will allow the marquee to be replaced with a digital one and will fund upgrades to the current neon lighting, officials say.

FOX THEATRE INSTITUTE AWARDS $70,000 GRANT FOR LIGHTS, MARQUEE AT TIFT THEATRE

By FRANK SAYLES JR.

Tifton Grapevine

The Fox Theatre Institute has awarded the Tift Theatre for the Performing Arts a $70,000 matching grant to replace its marquee and upgrade the outside neon lights.

On Monday, Tifton City Council accepted the grant, which will be matched with city funds.

Acting City Manager Emily Beeman told council that replacing the marquee is a safety issue.

"The theater marquee is literally falling apart,” Beeman said. “Letters are falling off the sign.” Not only are there safety concerns but “it’s also a bad look for the theater,” she said.

Some letters currently must be “zip-tied” to the marquee to keep them in place. The marquee will be removed and replaced with a digital one, Beeman said, but it won’t be filled with videos or flashing lights.

“It will look the same way as it does now, but will look better,” she said.

The grant will also “take most of the neon down and replace it with LED lights,” Beeman told council.

The Tifton grant is one of 11 historic grant projects, totaling $500,120 that the Fox Theatre Institute has just awarded.

The grants "allow historic theaters to receive much-needed financial assistance, restoration support, and operations mentoring from the engagement department of the Fox Theatre in Atlanta,” according to a Fox Theatre press release.

Since 2008, the Fox has awarded more than $2.7 million to more than 75 projects, primarily in Georgia, with a limited number in Alabama, South Carolina, and North Carolina.

In December 2017, the Fox Theatre Institute awarded a $77,027 matching grant to the Tift Theatre to repair and restore interior seating.

“The Fox Theatre has been a great partner for us,” Mayor Julie B. Smith said at Monday’s council meeting.

The Tift Theatre opened in 1937 as a movie house and was revamped as a performing arts venue in the 1990s.

Former WALB-TV anchor Ruthie Garner shares a portion of her butterscotch sauce profits to help others facing cancer treatments.

RUTHIE GARNER FINDS NEW CAREER WITH A MISSION

By FRANK SAYLES JR.

Tifton Grapevine

For more than 30 years Ruthie Garner came into Southwest Georgia homes as a well-known anchor and producer with WALB-TV. Now, she hopes to be in homes with a handcrafted product that helps her give back in honor of those who aided her family in a time of need.

Garner has created and is selling “Ruthie’s Best Butterscotch Sauce,” with a portion of sales going to the Bone Marrow Transplant Center at Northside Hospital in Atlanta to help families there undergoing treatment.

She knows first-hand what families face; for four months, Garner lived in Atlanta with her only child Stephen as he underwent transplants there during treatment for Stage 3C testicular cancer. At age 25, he was given a 50-50 chance of survival.

Garner had retired from WALB-TV less than a year before.

At the time, her butterscotch sauce was already popular with her family and friends. Based on a family recipe, the sauce was “tweaked and changed” a few times until Garner was satisified with it. She often gave it as gifts and brought it to family gatherings.

During 2016, Stephen had to report to the Atlanta hospital every day for blood work, chemotherapy, flushings, labs, etc.

“Stephen was getting great care from his medical team, so as a thank-you, I started taking my butterscotch sauce to the nurses’ station,” Garner said. “It was a big hit. They wanted more, and they asked where can they buy this."

Garner tells the Tifton Grapevine that she got “serious about” her sauce at the beginning of 2020, and then COVID-19 hit. “But I kept making it and sharing it,” she said.

Deciding to get her butterscotch sauce to a wider audience, Garner initially met with a packer in North Carolina to mass produce the product, but that company had difficulty with her recipe and scorched the sauce.

“It didn’t work,” she said. But, in her own backyard, she discovered Fourth & Cherry Foods of Ocilla, which produces several local products. “Ruthie’s Best” is now among its line of products made in downtown Ocilla.

Garner launched her butterscotch sauce last year during the Sunbelt Agricultural Expo in Moultrie. Now, just one year later, “Ruthie’s Best Butterscotch Sauce” is in 32 specialty stores (including some in Tifton) across the country – in Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Louisiana, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and New York.

“i’ve been extremely fortunate that, after a year, we're in so many stores and doing well,” Garner said.

And her son is also doing well. Six years, five surgeries, 100 bags of chemo, and two transplants later, he has a clean bill of health.

“He’s doing great; he lives in Atlanta, and he just got married,” Garner said. “They took such good care of him up there, and this our way to give back."

When her son was being treated and they needed to be near the Atlanta hospital, they lived in a condo owned by a foundation that offers the accommodations to patients and their families.

“That’s where our money's going; it's going back to the foundation to give back to another family that’s going through what we went through,” Garner said. "When you go through cancer, it is a family affair."

On her sauce's label are the words, “Handcrafted for Hope."

Not only are her son and husband both cancer survivors; Garner is also a survivor, whose own cancer recently returned after being in remission nine years.

“I’m doing great,” she said the other day. “I’m going through treatment one more cycle. What do I want for Christmas? All I want is a clear scan."

Garner said she never imagined that her love of butterscotch, going back to her childhood visits at her grandmother’s house, would lead to a new career with a mission.

“This is something that is completely foreign to me. I stepped outside of my box. I’ve never done anything like this in my life,” Ruthie Garner said.

“You never know where roads will take you."

ABAC CONCERT BAND, JAZZ ENSEMBLE PLAN JOINT CONCERT

The ABAC Concert Band and the ABAC Jazz Ensemble will present a joint concert at 7 p.m. Nov. 15 in Howard Auditorium at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College.

The 40-member Concert Band, which includes several community residents, will be directed by Deborah Bradley. Dr. Andrew Peal, assistant professor of jazz and music theory, directs the jazz band. The concert is open to the public at no charge.

Bradley said the Concert Band will open with Sousa-style selections dedicated to veterans.

“The program will open just the way John Philip Sousa would have done so in the 1920s when he became America’s ‘march king,’” Bradley said. “After a classical piece, the band will welcome guest conductor Don Coates, founder of the ABAC band program. He will conduct a Sousa march, ‘The Belle of Chicago,’ written in 1892 for a World’s Fair performance in Chicago.”

Donald Davis, executive director of the Lowndes County Historic Society and Museum, will bring to the stage an authentic Sousa band uniform worn by Sousa’s first trombonist Lester Grey. The uniform was used on the Sousa Band tour from 1919-25. Grey lived for a short time in Lowndes County.

When Peal and the jazz band hit the stage, their music will spotlight songs written or frequently performed by Charlie Parker, one of the world’s most influential alto saxophonists.

Peal said the jazz numbers will include Parker’s “Billie’s Bounce” and “Little Suede Shoes,” as well as “All the Things You Are” by Jerome Kern, and George Gershwin’s “Summertime.”

Walter Goff Photography

SCHOLARSHIP COMPETITION CROWNS MISSES TIFTON, FITZGERALD

By BONNIE SAYLES

Tifton Grapevine

Kelty Zavitz of Atlanta was named Miss Tifton 2023, and Charleigh Harper of Nashville was named Miss Fitzgerald 2023 in the Miss Fitzgerald/Tifton Scholarship Competition in Fitzgerald on Saturday night. 

Harper attends Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and is currently Miss ABAC.

Dakota Hubbard of Columbus was named Miss Tifton’s Outstanding Teen 2023, and Delaney Lanham of Rincon is Miss Fitzgerald’s Outstanding Teen 2023.

They will all continue to the Miss Georgia competition in June. 

Recipients of other honors were: Jaylee Kilgo: Miss Tifton’s first runner-up, Spirit Award; Hannah McGarity: Miss Congeniality, Preliminary Talent Award; Lauren Hunter: Preliminary On-Stage, Social Impact Award; and Brooke Story: Preliminary Talent Award. 

In addition to Miss Fitzgerald’s Outstanding Teen 2023, Delaney Lanham won Preliminary Evening Wear, On-Stage Question Award, and Spirit Award. 

The winners, from left in photo above: Dakota Hubbard, Miss Tifton’s Outstanding Teen; Kelty Zavitz, Miss Tifton; Cody Smith, local director of the Miss Tifton/Miss Fitzgerald Scholarship Competition; Charleigh Harper, Miss Fitzgerald; and Delaney Lanham, Miss Fitzgerald’s Outstanding Teen.

TIFTON-TIFT COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE RIBBON CUTTING

Clearwave Fiber

Tifton

Oct. 25

TIFTON-TIFT COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE RIBBON CUTTING

Tifton Harley-Davidson

49 Casseta Road, Tifton

Oct. 27

NEW FEATURE, ‘FRUIT FROM THE VINE,’

WILL SHOWCASE POSITIVE QUOTES

John Hicks, owner of Hicks Realty Services and manager/guitarist of “The Mood Doctors” band, is sponsoring a new weekly feature in the Tifton Grapevine. 

“Fruit from the Vine” will share positive quotations with a short summary of their message.

“The best part for me is having to go through my books of quotes to pick out the very best. The bonus is, hopefully, positive feedback from readers who get the right quote at just the right time when they may need it,” Hicks says.

Known around the Tift County area as the “What-a-beautiful-day!” guy (which is how he answers the phone), Hicks says his positive attitude was inspired many years ago when a friend gave him a copy of the audiobook “Lead The Field” by motivational speaker and author Earl Nightingale. 

That legendary seminar inspired Hicks to buy a portable sawmill to build a house for his family and start a portable sawmill business. He wound up setting up fulltime at Guthrie Lumber, which was a two-hour round trip each day. Hicks got hooked on audio learning and started collecting and listening to some of the world’s best educators during his daily commute. 

He then began attending seminars and workshops.

“It was while studying the works of Napoleon Hill that the light bulb came on,” Hicks says. Hill pointed out that the only thing a person can truly control is his own thoughts.

“Combine this with the fact that you can’t hold a positive thought and negative thought in your mind at the same time, and there lies the master key – as a man thinketh!" Hicks says.

“Hill also pointed out that the Creator designed us so our mind thinks in pictures, and you can’t think in reverse of a negative: ‘Don’t think about a big brown elephant’…‘The dog is not chasing the cat,’ etc., and the light bulb got even brighter.”

Hicks attended the Dale Carnegie “Effective Communications and Human Relations Course” in Tifton approximately 15 years ago, finishing in the top of the class as voted by his fellow participants.

Frank Sayles Jr., currently the editor and publisher of the Tifton Grapevine, was one of the course assistants. He and Hicks became friends and later formed their own course, “Adversity University ­– Turning Obstacles into Opportunities.”

They have recorded two audio programs – “Passion and Purpose” and “Adversity University” – have remained friends through the years, and still get together to brainstorm when needed. Hicks says one of his current goals is to educate high school students about the parameters that determine credit scores and how important it is to each person. 

When considering ways to help spread positive messages among folks in the Tiftarea, Hicks thought of the Tifton Grapevine and approached Sayles about a weekly feature.

“I hope ‘Fruit from the Vine’ will offer something to people and make them stop and think,” Hicks says. 

He encourages readers to give him feedback at johnhicks1964@yahoo.com

TIFTON GRAPEVINE'S CATS OF THE WEEK

“Dizzy” and “Kizzy,” two young cats, are available for adoption today at the Tift County Animal Shelter. To adopt them and to see other pets available, visit the shelter between 1-6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, or call 229-382-PETS (7387).

SECOND DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL

CONSTRUCTION COMPLETED

~ NOV. 7, 1907

On Nov. 7, 1907, S.N. Adams, the construction superintendent, formally turned over the three main buildings of the new Second District Agricultural School in Tifton, signifying that construction was complete. The buildings formed the core of what was later to become Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College.