Our Guest Writer is Anne Coots Brown

I was born in Columbus and moved to Miami FL when I was ten and to Brooksville, FL 21 years ago.
I've been married to Joseph Brown for 45 years and we have four children, 12 grandchildren, and four great grands.
I taught Kindergarten in a Christian School in Miami and then Brooksville. My husband is a Tile Contractor and I left teaching to do his books. I still teach Children's Church at Old Spring Lake Baptist.
I belong to the Daughters of The American Revolution and the United Daughters of The Confederacy.

I love spending time with my family and keep pretty busy with, the office, family, church and other the afore mentioned organizations. I enjoy crafts, genealogy, scrap and traveling, which we don't get to do much of.

Memories of Anne Coots Brown
428 Broad Street
Granny and D-Daddy's house

I was born in Columbus, GA, but left there at age ten. I did often return during the summer to visit with my grandparents and cousins.

My Jeffries Grandparents lived at 428 Broad Street in a large old house, which stood at least four feet off of the ground on brick pillars. From research, I've learned the old place was built sometime before 1889.

That house held many happy memories for my siblings, my cousins and me. It had a porch that spanned the whole front of the house. There was a large entrance hall with two rooms on each side. I assume at one time, the two rooms on the right were used as a parlor and dinning room with the two on the left being bedrooms. When my grandparents lived there only one room was used as a living room and the rest were for sleeping. When another bedroom was needed that living room was turned into another bedroom and the hall became the living area.

At the end of the hall was a wooden door that led to a large room. I was told that at one time this would have been an open breezeway and had been closed in at some point. Another door at the far end of this room contained another small hall, which led to the kitchen and two more bedrooms. The family always ate at a long table in the kitchen.

My grandmother's uncle, James Ham, and my great grandfather, John Swept Jeffries, occupied the two bedrooms.

Family Names This was taken in the hall of my grandparent's home around 1952. Far left is my Aunt Doris and Uncle Bill with their daughter Debbie Jeffries, Next to them in my mother and father, Frances and Jerry Coots, with my brother, Jimmy. Standing next to mom is my Aunt Maggie. D-Daddy, William Curtis Jeffries is in the center and Granny, Clara Elizabeth Salter Jeffries is sitting. The next couple over is Aunt Betty and Uncle John and next to them Uncle Cliff and his wife Frances.
The children are from left, my cousin, William Curtis Jeffries II whom we called Buster, then me, Anne, and next to me is Busters brother, Greg. Buster and Greg were children of Aunt Doris and Uncle Bill. Sitting in front row is from left, my cousin, Mike Jeffries, brother of Buster and Greg, my brother, Dean Coots, my sister, Paula Coots and Johnny Jeffries, son of Uncle John and Aunt Betty. It's very obvious that we were cowboy fans! And I don't mean the football team!

Outside, there were all types of trees. I especially liked the pears and black walnut. There were also large mulberry bushes on one side that we loved to eat. Learned very quickly to watch out for the worms!

As children we always played under the house. At seven years of age, I could stand completely upright without my head even touching the floor above. We drew playhouses in the dirt as well as playing hide-in-seek and Cowboys and Indians. It was a wonderful play world and my aunt, who is now 82, has shared with me that she, my mother and uncles also did the same.

After many years of my grandmother cooking in the old kitchen, my grandfather decided to make things easier for her. His father, my great grandpa Jeffries had died and D-Daddy as we called my grandfather, turned his room into a workshop. He proceeded to build new cabinets and install them in one of the rooms on the right of the hall in the front part of the house. It was an amazing kitchen. He made the cabinets out of knotty pine and had installed a counter that extended out into the room in an 'L' shape. Granny had plenty of preparation space and since the room was so large, they placed a dinning table in one corner.

D-Daddy added a door to the outside with a little screened room leading to a row of steps going into the side yard.

Granny loved her new kitchen. A few years later, one of my uncles and his family came on hard times. He suffered from sever migraines and due to this the family had some financial problems. They moved in with Granny and D-Daddy. Being the kind of sweet and caring person she was, Granny gave up her new kitchen to my aunt and returned to the old one in the rear of the house.

I remember an alleyway that was on the south side of the house. It led to the next street over where there stood a little grocery store. We kids would often collect our coke bottles and some change and walk to the store where we would trade the bottles for new cokes and a bag of peanuts. Of course ya'll know what's coming next. Yes, we dumped those peanuts into our cokes and they were so good!

Clara Salter Jefferies, William Curtis Jefferies and daughter, Mary Frances. Taken about 1928 in Columbus, Georgia. Relatives of Anne Coots Brown

My D-Daddy worked as a projectionist at the Georgia Theater downtown. Because of this we were allowed to get into the movies free. I love going to the projection room and watching him work and he would show us how he changed the reels and prepared the next one to take over when that one was empty.

Granny loved Western and Horror movies. She was such a sweet thing, it's hard to imagine why she liked the scary movies, but she did. I remember her taking my sister, brother and I to see one called 'THE MUMMY'S GHOST'. Her bedroom adjoined my grandfathers at that time and we had a small bed in one corner of her room for when we slept over. (Which would've been every night if we'd had our way) During the night, all three of us were frightened from the movie. Every noise we heard brought horrors of what might be waiting to carry us away. We tried calling for Granny, but she was sound asleep and didn't hear us. D-Daddy however did. He came into the room with a flashlight to find out what the ruckus was about. When we told him we were sacred, he said, 'Well, your Granny's the one who took you to see that movie, so she'll just have to have you sleep with her.'

He then led us to her bed with the flashlight and helped us in. Granny said that when she tried to turn over one way, a tiny body blocked her and then when she turned the other, the same thing happened.

As a teen, on one of my summer visits my cousins were still living with my grandparents. I brought alone my box of 45 records and my cousin and I practiced dancing. Since I was from Miami and had visited the local American Bandstand, he thought I knew more about the music of the time. Boy did I have him fooled! Anyway I taught him a few new dances. On was the Hop. Remember the song At The Hop?

After my uncle moved out and Uncle Jim had passed away, Granny and D-Daddy sold the house to purchase a smaller one on 12th Avenue and 21st Street. Unfortunately the people who bought the house had it torn down. Now if you drive by that location, you'll find an apartment building. It breaks my heart every time I think of that wonderful old house being gone.

Idlehour Park in Phenix City, AL
At one time my grandparents owned a restaurant at Idlehour Park. I don't remember a lot about it, but I do remember a deck of some kind that hung over the water. I was told that in the evenings it would be lit up and people would go there to dance.

My great grandfather, grandfather, Uncle Bill and cousin, Buster along with Pastor Bryant, taken on the day my cousin was baptized into the Church. He was about seven.

Anne Coots Brown

I've enjoyed working with Anne getting this story and pictures together.
I hope you enjoyed her story as much as I have.

Anne has more to share. Please read Part two of her stories and the beautiful old black and white pictures she has shared with us.

Anne's story reminded me of one of my stories about lower Broad Street.

Anne's family lived on the same block my family lived on. The Jefferies were on Broad Street and my family lived on 5th Street. The backs of our house sort of backed up to one another. My sister Norma Waldrop and Anne's Uncle John Jefferies knew each other and they attended 7th Street School together.

I am not sure if Anne knows about this or not. In the early to mid forties Jane Russell's (the star of the movie The Out Law.) and her husband Waterfield lived in one of the houses near to her family on Broad Street I think Ms. Russell's husband was a coach of one of the Colleges.and at this time he was station at Fort Benning.

My mother was attending a Church meeting one afternoon and left my sisters Norma and Juanita in charge of me. Being the baby and spoiled, I wasn't happy when my mother left..this is what I was told later by my two sisters.

I was crying and the girls thought a walk around the block would quietten me. As we passed the house Jane Russell and her husband was renting, she was sitting on the front porch in a rocking chair. I was crying for mama and she noticed there was nothing the girls could do to quieten me. She came down off the porch and took me out of the stroller and walked back to the rocking chair and rocked me to sleep.

Norma and Juanita knew it was getting late so they told Ms. Russell we had to go. They all but ran as fast as they could to get back home before mama could.....To Late...mama was there. Mama asked where they had taken me and Norma was to scared to not tell the truth. So, Norma told her the nice lady on the front porch around the corner rocked me until I fell asleep and she talked to them while I was sleeping. It didn't take long for mama to figure out who the nice lady was.

From what they told me Juanita and Norma received a whipping. Mama was furious to find out that this nice lady was Jane Russell and not only did she rock me to sleep , she sat and talked to mama's girls for over an hour.

Now if anyone remembers Jane Russell and the movie she stared in "The Outlaw" they would know she had a bad reputation and the movie had been banned from Columbus, Georgia. Here 's mama out preaching against Jane Russell living in the neighborhood and setting a bad example for the youth of the neighborhood, while this Lady was baby sitting her own children. Daddy thought it was funny and he laughed. Needless to say Daddy got in trouble, too.

Everyone that read my story so far...tells me I should write why the town didn't like Jane Russell and why the movie was not allowed in small towns in the South. See below.

P. S.

Others who have read my story about Jane Russell tell me I should tell the rest of the story.

Jane Russell was a movie star in the 1940s. As we know there was no sex and very little violence in our movies back then. In the movie "The Out Law", a young man gets shot and he and Jane Russell are trapped in a Barn over night. The young man had a bullet in his body. He was very sick and was dying He was talking out of his head and burning up with a fever. With this ,Jane Russell lays down besides him shares a blanket and wraps her arms around him and she slept with him all night......If my memory is correct I believe the young man lives in the movie. I wasn't old enough to remember the movie but I did watch the re-runs because of what all I had heard about the "BAD" Movie that was banned from Columbus.

My mother was one of the leading women of the Disciple of Christ Church and there were many other women of the Baptist, Methodist and the Catholic Churches that were joining her. These women wanted the Movie "The Out Law" and Jane Russell out of Columbus, Ga. This is why my mother was so upset while she was at the Church fighting Jane Russell and the Movie "The Out Law" to be kept out of Columbus.

Mama's girls were on Jane Russell's front porch around the corner from her house and rocking her baby and Ms Russell talking with Juanita and Norma. This was why Norma and Juanita received a whipping and Daddy was in hot water for thinking what the girls did was so funny.

My friend Ron Rollins was born in 1947 , so he doesn't remember Jane Russell and the Movie "The Out Law", but he did remember Jane Russell being the 18 hour Bra Lady in the Television Commercial." That's our Ron".

Thanks for letting me share my memories.

Sandra

If anyone has any memories or stories they would like to share please contact me. If you can't write a story and you have one or a couple of stories , just send them to me and when I receive enough I will post them. Every time a guest writer writes there stories they remind me of something that has happen in my family.

Please join me on our www.ColumbusGeorgiaOnLine.com and share your Glory Days. Where we relive our past and enjoy looking back and laughing. Now we laugh about it but when it was happening it wasn't so funny.

Thanks to Sally Geiger Posey, Brenda Brown and Anne Coots Brown for joining us and bringing back a piece of our past and has us laughing at days gone by. Won't you join us?...please contact me at scalawag1826@cs.com

Again as always, Thank you for allowing me to share my memories with you all.

Sandra