Margaret returned to Chicago with J. B. where he was working at a hospital. “He was drafted,
but because he wouldn’t carry arms, they had to find him service work,” said Margaret. At the end
of his two years of service, they returned home and soon found work in Vidalia. J. B. went to work
at the Ford dealership and Margaret at Oxford industries in the shirt factory. By this time, they
had two children, Debra and Ellis. “At first, we lived in the projects government housing. We
were just getting our feet on the ground financially,” said Margaret.
In 1960, J. B., his brother Lamar Collins, and a friend, Earl Witt, started an upholstery
business called Witt and Collins Upholstery. Not long after, J. B. heard about a piece of property
that was for sale in Ailey, Georgia. “We couldn’t afford the whole thing at that time, so we just
bought three acres of it at first. It was $50 an acre.” In 1964, they built a house on their new
property. By that time, Mike and Cindy had been born. In 1974, Lisa, the baby of the family,
finished the pack.
Late one evening while Margaret was working in her yard, she looked up to see two young men
walking toward her on the dirt road in front of her house. As they got closer, she realized it was
two of her nephews. “They had walked and hitchhiked all the way to my house from Lakeland,
Florida. The hems of their pants were ragged from the long walk. The boys were 13 and 14 years
old at the time.
The boys asked their Aunt Margaret if they could stay with her. “I told them, ‘On one
condition. You have to go back to school.’ Both had already dropped out of school.” They agreed,
and the small three-bedroom house already filled with five children of their own made room for
two more.
Two weeks later, Margaret got a call from the Department of Family and Children Services
(DFCS). “They asked if we would take in three more of the children?” Margaret didn’t see how she
Margaret asked
for a kayak for
her eightieth
birthday and has
been enjoying
it regularly ever
since. She has
spent most of
her life caring for
others, so there
isn't much that
slows her down.
80 Toombs County Magazine