Polly and her daughter Gabby, whom Polly’s home décor store is named after, enjoy their time at the store. Gabby says of Polly, “As
the trends change, she is able to adapt. She is always growing in her gift.”
The Not So
Distant Past
Although the roots of the Victoria
family remain shrouded in mystery,
there was nothing ambiguous about the
Victoria family that settled in Toombs
County. Polly’s father, Randolph
Victoria, Sr., went to work with the
City of Vidalia, until he was shot in
the crossfire of a robbery. “In 1981,
someone was robbing a liquor store in
Vidalia, and a gun was fired. The bullet
hit my dad across the street where he
was walking home from work. Doctors
didn’t want to remove the .357 bullet
for fear of paralyzing him. He became
very ill and almost died.”
Polly’s mother, Laura Jean (Mincey)
was known for her eye for aesthetics
with home décor. She was also
known for her hard work. “Mama did
everything,” said Polly. “If the wooden
24 Toombs County Magazine
floors in our home needed to be redone,
she stripped and stained them herself.”
When the insurance agent, Mr. Tony
Scott, came by, “he always said, ‘Ms.
Victoria, it’s hard to believe that you are
raising seven children in this house.’
Mama kept the house spotless and was
an excellent decorator.”
It wasn’t until Polly and her
family moved to California that her
mother’s gift for home design took on
new meaning. Polly and her husband,
Mark Durden, Sr., fell in love with The
Golden State after a visit in 1997 with
friends who lived there at the time.
Two months after their visit, Mark
had secured a job in California as
an electronic engineer and found an
apartment for his family. Polly went to
work at a daycare for a time and then at
the J. C. Penny warehouse.
During a routine inspection of
the apartment, the manager was so
taken by the way Polly arranged and
decorated her apartment that she
asked to use Polly’s apartment to show
prospective renters. “I said, ‘Sure,’ and
every time she showed my apartment,
she took $25 off my rent.”
Before long, Polly’s neighbors were
putting in their own orders for floral
arrangements and hiring her to help
with interior design in their apartments.
In 2002, Polly returned home for
her grandmother’s funeral and went
by to see her mother-in-law, Maggie
Mae Collins. “She was a diabetic and
went totally blind the year before my
daughter Gabrielle was born. But
she had still been able to live on her
own. Every time we came home for
a visit, she always asked, ‘When are
ya’ll coming back from those shaky
grounds?’” Polly smiled. Just as quickly,
her brow knitted. “Mark being away
took its toll on her. As soon as I told
Mark that his mother did not look well,
we started packing. One month later,
we were back in Toombs County.”