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Former Library Directors and Distinguished Board Member Honored with Portraits
On 22 February 2004 in a combined meeting of the boards of directors of the libraries composing the Oconee Regional Library System, portraits honoring Martha Hooks, Elizabeth Moore, and Susan Williams were unveiled. After the welcome from Francis M. Lewis, chairman of the Oconee Regional Library Board of Directors and remarks from Leard R. Daughety, Director of the Library, the three portraits were unveiled by the Board of Directors' portrait committee members Annie Bonner, Linda Brandon, and Kathy Sweat. Frenasee Daughety is the artist. Shown seated on the front row in the picture from the unveilling are (l-r) Mrs. Williams, Anne Johnson (life-long friend of Ms. Hooks), and Melanie Moore (daughter of Mrs. Moore).
Martha Elizabeth Hooks
Ms. Martha Hooks, a life long resident of Dublin, graduated from Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina. Ms. Hooks was a 49 year member of the Woman's Study Club, a member of the Laurens County Historical Society, an accredited flower show judge for the State of Georgia, and held many leadership positions in the John Laurens Chapter, NSDAR. Ms. Hooks was the first woman member of the Macon Satilla River Club elected on her own merit. In 1975, the St. Patrick's Festival named Ms. Hooks Woman of the Year, and she was also awarded the Exchange Club's Golden Book of Good Deeds. For more than 30 years she served on the Laurens County and Oconee Regional Library Boards lending her vital support to the 1964 and 1997 building campaigns. The Laurens County Board room is named in her honor.
Elizabeth Dupree Moore
Elizabeth DuPree was born in Gordon, Georgia and received her Masters in Librarianship Degree from Emory University in 1953. She began her library career as a reference librarian at Washington Library in Macon, Georgia. In 1957, state officials handpicked Mrs. Moore to organize and direct the Oconee Regional Library system headquartered in Dublin. In 1964 she led the effort to build a new 20,000 square foot library on the corner of Bellevue and Elm streets. Mrs. Moore was named "Outstanding Citizen of the Year" by the Civitan Club in 1965. She served as organizing president of the Georgia Council of Public Libraries and as Vice-President of the Georgia Library Association. In 1974, Mrs. Moore was appointed by Governor Jimmy Carter to the State Board for Certification of Libraries, serving until 1980. Mrs. Moore retired in 1989 after 32 years as Director.
Susan Spencer Williams
A native of Detroit, Michigan, Mrs. Williams began her library career as Assistant Director of the nine county Northland Library Cooperative. Later as Director, she lobbied for a separate line in the state budget for rural libraries, acquired state funding for training for non-professional librarians, and created Michigan's first computerized subject search union catalog. In 1989, Mrs. Williams was selected to succeed Elizabeth Moore as Director of the Oconee Regional Library system. Utilizing her energetic personality, vision, and leadership, Mrs. Williams directed the $3.1 million renovation of the Laurens County Library in 1997 as well as the building of the new Rosa M. Tarbutton Memorial Library in Sandersville, Georgia. Mrs. Williams was named Woman of the Year at the 1995 St. Patrick's Festival. Upon her retirement in 2000, the Laurens County Library Children's Center was named in her honor.
Road Makers
We shall not travel by the road we make.
Ere day by day the sound of many feet
Is heard upon the stones that now we break,
We shall but come to where the cross-roads meet.
For us the heat by day, the cold by night,
The inch-slow progress and the heavy load,
And death at last to close the long, grim fight
With man and beast and stone: for them-the road.
For them the shade of trees that now we plant,
The safe smooth journey and the ultimate goal-
For us day-labour, travail of the soul.
And yet the road is ours, as never theirs;
Is not one thing on us alone bestowed?
For us the master-joy, oh, pioneers-
We shall not travel, but we make the road!
--V. H. Friedlaender
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