In May 1933, when Essie Mae Burke-Lawson was born in Eatonton as the youngest of nine children, the Great Depression was well underway, FDR had taken the White House and Adolf Hitler was the new chancellor of Germany.
A half-gallon of milk sold for a quarter, a loaf of bread for less than a dime, and a brand-new Ford or Plymouth could sit in the driveway for less than 500 bucks. And a gallon of gas for that new car cost about 10 cents.
At 89, Essie Mae has witnessed a lot more change than most, but she remembers the years with family and friends best of all.
“I was married two times. The first time was to Eddie Collins; that’s who I had my two daughters with,” she says. “One of them is a preacher now in Atlanta and my baby girl, she died from cancer, but I still talk to her every night,” she adds, pointing to a framed obituary sharing space with dozens of family photos hanging on the back wall of her sitting room.
For 65 years now, Essie Mae has lived at her small home on Rainey Drive, only a mile or so away from Eatonton’s downtown. She’s been there through thick and thin, raising her daughters, losing her first husband to heart trouble, marrying her second, Freddy Lawson, who later passed away with cancer, and through the births of three granddaughters and two great-grandchildren.
“And lots and lots of God-babies,” Essie Mae adds.
Her work life began in the late-‘40s, she says, picking cotton and later as a $10-a-week housekeeper. “Washing, ironing, cleaning, cooking, I did it all.” Like so many Eatonton locals, Essie Mae also worked in retail, at the local ice cream factory and later the aluminum plant.
“It was hard work, but I liked it there,” she recalls.
Over the past six decades, Essie Mae has been a member of Union Baptist Church, lending her voice as recently as early 2019 as a longtime member of its choir.
She was well known in her neighborhood for always being willing to lend a hand in good times and as a regular visitor to residents cooped up in local nursing homes.
For 20-plus years, always wearing her Sunday best, Essie Mae slowly drove her Buick through Eatonton’s downtown streets in the annual Dairy Festival Parade.
She particularly enjoyed waving to the kids and passing out peppermint candies, a signature move she continues to this day when visitors arrive at her home.
“I enjoy being around people, still do,” Essie Mae says. “But I don’t get out much anymore. I have trouble getting around. The doctors told me my body is just worn out.”
At the request of granddaughter April Sanford, Essie Mae was recognized in an official proclamation last year, read aloud by Eatonton Mayor John Reid during a June city council meeting. The proclamation outlined the good deeds and hard work of her life and concluded with Reid sharing Essie Mae’s personal motto: God loves you and I love you, too. Keep smiling!
Sanford says the COVID pandemic took its toll on her grandmother, explaining Essie Mae has slowed considerably since essentially being confined to her home the last couple of years.
These days she relies on visits from her daughter, son-in-law and granddaughters, as they bring food, toiletries and anything else she might need. Family and friends check on her daily, either by visiting or through phone calls. Her Pastor calls, too, and the church deacons occasionally drop by to visit. Neighbors will pitch in when needed, driving Essie Mae to doctor visits or any other important appointments.
She admits it can be surprising sometimes to look around at the town she knew so well while growing up and raising her family.
“I remember things one way and they’re another way now. Cars, houses, buildings, they get put up, they get torn down, they all change,” she says.
But Essie Mae isn’t one to live in the past; she doesn’t resist the change; she accepts and embraces it.
“It surprises me sometimes, but there’s nothing we can do,” she points out. “I just trust God and follow His rules. I can go to church no more, but I still pray a lot with the preachers on TV. That’s what I do.”