stayed with my sister in Statesboro
for a few months during the trial.”
Frances was a witness in the trial
in which the man was tried and
convicted.
After that happened, she sold the
properties and moved into a senior
living apartment in Savannah. “She
was younger after that day than I
remembered her through all my years
of growing up. She took up dancing,
painting, and taught tatting,” a kind
of knotted lace made by hand, “in a
local embroidery sewing shop,” said
Shelly.
Frances never remarried. She
lived on her own in Savannah until
1999, her ninetieth birthday. “Mom
was the only one out of all her sisters
that didn’t eventually have a stroke
like their mother. She lived with Tim
and me until we and a day nurse
could no longer provide safe and
adequate care.” Frances was Miss
Bethany Home before she died in
July 2003, just three days after her
94th birthday.
“This is the irony: My daddy
never got to go to school,
but he valued education
more than anything. He said to all of
us constantly, ‘The only way for you
to make anything of yourself in this
life is to get educated,’” said Shelly.
As strongly as George Saba
impressed on his children the
importance of education, he also
demonstrated the necessity of
hard work. Even so, it was the
attitude with which he worked that
influenced them most of all. “He had
such tremendous gratitude for our
country and for the opportunities he
received here.”
After graduating from Groves
High School in Savannah, Shelly
earned a B.S. in Education at Georgia
Southern University and a master’s
degree at Indiana University. In
1973, she returned to Georgia to
teach at Central Middle School in
McRae where she met fellow teacher,
Tim Smith. In 1975, Shelly was
recruited as language arts consultant
at First District RESA, a regional
educational service agency, and she
and Tim married that same year.
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“And the rest, as they say, is history,”
said Tim from his chair at the other
end of the table.
Tim was offered a position in
1978 as Curriculum Director in
Crisp County, and the couple moved
to Cordele. After the birth of their
daughter Tiffany, Shelly had no
plans of going back to work. “But
when the school found out that I had
been a consultant for a RESA, they
asked me if I would just come help
them straighten out their reading
program,” said Shelly. She would work
as the Federal Programs Director in
elementary education until 1983 when
the couple moved to Vidalia. Tim
took a position as Tom Hutchison’s
Assistant Superintendent for Vidalia
City Schools, and Shelly went back to
work with RESA.
While serving as a consultant to
Jeff Davis County as a part of RESA,
she became their Curriculum Director
from 1992-1995. After returning to
RESA in 1995 as a consultant, she took
the position as the assistant director
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