50 years of family’s history with DHS ends this year
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Fowlkes family
This picture of the Fowlkes family was taken in 1967, eight years after they moved to Decatur.
April 17, 2010 • Safia Mohamud, Staff writer
Filed under Features
What is Decatur to me?” retired teacher Eddie Fowlkes said. “Decatur is home.”
The Fowlkes family has been a part of Decatur for the last 51 years. The Fowlkes’ five children weren’t all born here but they have little memory of anywhere else. “I have three older brothers and an older sister,” Jimmy Fowlkes said. “We all graduated from Decatur High School and there was somebody here at the school named Fowlkes from 1959 until 1977, and then my brother started teaching in ‘78. When he retired, I took over.” The Fowlkes family has lived here for about half as long as the high school has existed.
Gwen and Doc Fowlkes and their children, Buddy, Lynne, Eddie, Dave and newborn Jimmy settled into
Decatur from Pennsylvania, after years of moving around. “They just liked Decatur. It’s just a small town and it’s very close to Atlanta,” Jimmy said. His parents are both in their 80s right now and their oldest kids are in their 50s.
Their kids grew up in Decatur. “A lot of people liked coming over because my mom treated everyone like family…she would make everybody lemonade and cookies.” Jimmy continued, “When she runs into people who are now 40-45, they still call her Momma.” Everyone knew their dad as well. “And it was the same thing with my dad, everyone called him Doc because they thought he was a doctor but it was actually his real name!”
The Fowlkes lived around the corner from Decatur on Columbia Dr. Growing up in a house built in 1870, and blessed with a backyard big enough to satisfy any family of baseball lovers, the five Fowlkes kids grew up with bats in their hands rather than video game controllers. Their backyard, the Fowlkes-o-dome, as their neighbors called it, was the prime hangout spot on weekends and weekday afternoons. “My dad also built a basketball pole for us [in the backyard] and fixed it so it was like a real basketball net. People came over and played.” The Fowlkes loved all these games, but Jimmy couldn’t always play because he was the youngest. “Me and my brother David got into a fight one time and Eddie took up for me. He started hitting David. David put his hand through a glass door and almost cut off his thumb. But Eddie took up for me.”
After graduating from Decatur, Jimmy attended Georgia State. Before coming to teach at Decatur, he worked a family business called Rice Printing Company that his grandfather started years ago. Jimmy then opened up some batting cages in Gwinett county and also managed Kroger before replacing his brother at Decatur. He married two years ago and now has a baby boy. Since he lives in Marietta, this may be his last year at Decatur. “I’m looking for something else because, this morning, it took me two hours to get to work … I have a baby now and I’m anxious to get home everyday,” Jimmy said. “So that’s why I’m going to look for something else starting next year, something closer to home, maybe start my own business.”
When Jimmy started teaching here in 2006, his brother, already retired, continued to teach until a new teacher came. “They always called Eddie ‘CoFo’ so it was funny that they had a graphic arts class and they didn’t have to learn a new name, that it was ‘CoFo’ again,” Jimmy said. “He was glad to get out of here.” Jimmy took a quick glance at his brother. They laughed. “We were actually teaching in the same class for eight days!” Eddie stayed for another week while he showed Jimmy how to manage things, but was eager to retire from teaching. After 28 years of high school, Eddie was finally ready to take a break. In his years of teaching, he came to know Decatur like family.
In the time the Fowlkes have lived here, Decatur has changed considerably. Eddie Fowlkes’ graduating class of 1971 was the first year Decatur was fully racially integrated. “At that time, a lot of people left Decatur because of integration… but our family and others stayed and continued to support the school and the community,” Eddie said. “When Buddy, my oldest brother started here, there was a white school and a black school. By the time I graduated, Decatur was 80 percent black. I was the only white kid on the basketball team,” Jimmy added.
After college, Eddie taught Graphic Arts in Decatur for 28 years straight and only two days off! “I took off the Friday before my wedding and we were both back on Monday.” His wife, Anne Fowlkes, worked here for 26 years. They met when Eddie was going to Georgia State and Jimmy was still a student. “I inadvertently introduced them,” Jimmy added, laughing. When Eddie and Anne got married, they taught at Decatur together for more than 20 years. “She was my art teacher for four years before she became my sister-in-law.”
“I still have family here and I’ll come back to visit,” Jimmy said, “I always laugh when people say this is the legacy of the Fowlkes family. It’s only because my parents didn’t move for 50 years.”
Now Jimmy is the last of the Fowlkes and there’s no one in line to take over. Next year Decatur will have no Fowlkes for the first time in 51 years. As Jimmy puts it, “The legacy ends.”
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