Lisa Law
AMERICUS — She was born on Dec. 2, 1908, the same year Henry Ford’s first Model T reached the production line — manufactured and sold for the price of $850. Susie Antoinette Senn Smith, celebrated her 100th birthday at Byne Memorial Baptist Church in Albany with many of her dearest friends and relatives.
Smith was born in Terrell County, in a rural community just outside of Dawson called Pleasant Hill to Flora Gammage Senn and Oscar Homer Senn. She grew up one of eight siblings, on her daddy’s farm.
“He was a tobacco farmer. He grew cotton and corn also,” said Smith as she described her life in Terrell County as a simple life, but full of riches.
“We grew up during the Great Depression, but we did not know it. We had everything we needed. Daddy grew everything we needed in the garden. We shipped wheat to Fort Valley, the closest wheat mill. We ground flour and daddy sold the meal to the surplus stores. Or he would take the surplus to the grocery in Dawson and exchange for what we didn’t have. We had chickens, eggs, fruit trees and strawberries. The only thing mother bought was cheese, and we did not have a pond for fish. We had a smokehouse and my favorite time of year was hog killing. I always enjoyed hog killing. Daddy had tenant houses on our land and all the families would come to the house. They would hang, and clean the fat off of them. We would stuff sausage, and prepare lard and cracklings,“ she said describing hog killing time as a social event full of activity.
Smith also remembers her father’s peach orchard.
“We had fruit trees across the road from the house. The peaches started to ripen in May. We had Georgia Bells and many other varieties. I remember going from tree to tree with a little paring knife. Oh, they were so good,” she said with delight as she remembered the sweet taste of the Alberta peaches and the Indian peach, which she described having a red flesh all the way to the pit.
“Mother made peach pickles. We sure did not go hungry. We were poor and didn’t know it. My daddy had a cane mill. He made juice and syrup. He had his own label — Oscar Senn. Everyone would bring their cane to the mill. Jimmy Carter would bring his daddy’s cane to our mill.” Jimmy Carter later married Smith’s niece, Rosalynn Smith.
After attending Dawson High School, Smith enrolled in a small school in Americus known in the late 1920s as the Third District Agricultural and Normal College, a two-year college, known today as Georgia Southwestern State University.
“I am one of the oldest alumni. It was then a teacher’s college. I received my teacher’s certificate there and went on to teach school in Buena Vista, a place called Sand Hill,” she said describing her first few years at the new school.
“The students wanted to carry me possum hunting. I especially didn’t want to go, but you do things sometimes to make an impression. It wasn’t my first time possum hunting. We would catch them and put them in croker sacks. They were eaten with sweet potatoes,” she said describing herself as a country girl who could take care of herself.
Smith met her husband, Oliver Crawford Smith, through a girlfriend who lived in Plains.
“My girlfriend was dating a boy from Plains; the fellow asked me if I would go on a double-date if he brought his friend along and I said yes,” she said describing a budding relationship which eventually led to marriage and three children.
