4
at the time,” said Dorsey. “They were almost home when she crossed the railroad
tracks in Vidalia and her vehicle was hit by a train. Both survived the accident,
but my grandmother contracted pneumonia in the hospital and she died several
days later in June 1966.”
The entire Vidalia community mourned her loss. She had been the first
president of the Vidalia Beautification Commission and had also been very
active in the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Georgia Society of
Colonial Dames. She was also a founding member of the Episcopal Church in
Vidalia. In the year before her death she would be named citizen of the year and
receive the “Golden Deeds” award. In January 1968, the city held a memorial
service and presented a fountain and monument in her name. The fountain,
located in the pond near what is now Southeastern Technical College’s Adult
Education Center, is still in operation and is run every evening.
When Jack and his sons moved into the house in 1967, they were
surrounded by all the things Margaret had so carefully collected through the
years. The house that Jack and Margaret built is a love story in every sense of
the word. And if “home is where the heart is,” surely Margaret’s heart continued
to be felt at Tranquilla.
It would be Ernestine Green, an employee of the Ladson’s for over thirty-
64 TOOMBS COUNTY MAGAZINE
Some antiques
collected by
the Ladsons
include:
1 Sévres
style ormolumounted
urns
and vases.
2 A Chinoiserie
style chest
situated on a
gilt frame with
claw feet (chest,
circa 1810-1820
and base, circa
1860)
3 A portrait of
“The Honorable
Mrs. Partington”
of Derbyshire,
England, by
James Jebusa
Shannon who
was a leading
portrait painter
of the late 18th
and early 19th
century and
whose works
appear in the
Smithsonian.
4 A George III
rosewood tea
caddy, circa
1800.
"The house
felt more like an
art gallery when
I was a kid. We
were always being
told, 'Don't run in
the house...'"
antique collections
1 2
3