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Two large lives called the Demorest area in Habersham County home
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This week our GPB team traveled to Habersham County, Demorest to chat with the 82nd Governor of Georgia, Nathan Deal (more on the interview soon).
Demorest is about 90 minutes Northeast of Atlanta with around 2,000 residents.
The town was named after William Jennings Demorest, a prohibitionist.
Two large lives have called this small hamlet home.
Governor Deal has led a fascinating life of extraordinary success.
This month he is honoring his late wife of 56 years with a children’s book he has written about his cat Veto.
Sandra Deal passed away from cancer two years ago this month, a new Hall County elementary school will be named in her honor in the weeks ahead.
A former teacher, Mrs Deal read to students across all 159 counties in Georgia, 225,000 children reached.
Governor Deal was influenced by the two strong women in his life, both school teachers.
His mother and his wife.
Evidence of their impactful lives can be seen inside the Deal home in Demorest.
In the kitchen, illuminated at the top of the cabinets, beautiful, ornate plates.
The china was hand painted by Governor Deal’s remarkable mother who lived to be 100 years old.
The display was the idea of Sandra Deal to honor her mother in law.
Framed art work from the brush of Mother Deal celebrating Georgia can be found throughout the home.
Governor Deal was an only child and an introvert, his mother pushed him toward public speaking and debate as a boy.
She was an elementary school teacher who never stopped learning, growing, painting, and pushing her son, the future 82nd Governor of Georgia.
I asked, “Was she a Tiger 🐅 mother, or an encourager?” Governor Deal laughed, “she was both.”
And the other famous Georgian who called Demorest home, “The Big Cat,” the Cooperstown Hall of Famer, Johnny Mize.
“Oh Lordy! He was a character!” John Popham knew Johnny Mize for decades.
“He would drive his Cadillac through town, Johnny was a big man who struggled to get in and out of the car with his bad knees,” recalled the 80 something Demorest, Georgia native in his soft southern lilt.
Mr. Popham served 44 years on the Demorest City Council, and served as a pall bearer at the funeral for its most famous son.
The legendary Johnny Mize, Baseball Hall of Fame, Cardinals Hall of Fame, Giants and Yankees great.
Maybe the most underrated MLB player of the 20th century. Mysterious and mostly unavailable.
The baseball version of Greta Garbo.
10× All-Star (1937, 1939–1942, 1946–1949, 1953)
5× World Series champion (1949–1953)
NL batting champion (1939)
4× NL home run leader (1939, 1940, 1947, 1948)
3× NL RBI leader (1940, 1942, 1947)
Two years off for WWII
“The Big Cat”
The celebrated nickname was earned for the way he pounced on bad hops at first base, as well as for the balance of his batting stance, and the way in which he effortlessly avoided brush back pitches.
Opposing dugouts called him, “Big Jawn,” for his distinctive northeast Georgia drawl.
“My daddy went to school with him (Mize), when they were young, Johnny carried a broom stick and hit rocks,” said Mr.Popham.
The legend of “The Big Cat” has always been a part of Demorest lore.
“Johnny had a brother named Pope and together the boys could drive a baseball from (the local ball field) home plate across 441 hitting the church beyond the road, no one else could do that before or since.”
Mr. Mize didn’t have an easy childhood.
His father Edward and his mother Emma separated.
His mother left to work in downtown Atlanta (Rich’s Department Store) and young Johnny was raised by his grandmother in Demorest.
He excelled in tennis as a child then as a high school baseball player joined the local college team (Piedmont).
During his 1981 Cooperstown induction speech, he told the story of the St. Louis Cardinals scouting him as a teen in northeast Georgia.
Mr. Mize was playing for a baseball team in Helen sponsored by a Rochester, New York lumber company.
“The Big Cat” was a marvel, Branch Rickey (signed Jackie Robinson) GM of Cardinals sent his brother Frank to Atlanta via train, then drove to Helen, and off to Toccoa.
There was Mr. Mize pounding the ball.
Frank Rickey couldn’t believe the athlete he saw.
Mr. Mize made his major league debut for the Cardinals in 1936. In 126 games, he hit for a .329 batting average, 19 home runs and 93 runs batted in (RBI).
He later said, "I'm the only guy who played in the major leagues because I couldn't play in the minors."
“He is a quiet, pleasant, easy-going giant,” wrote Dick Farrington in The Sporting News in 1937.
“He would often talk about the old time baseball contracts, getting paid for singles, doubles, triples and home runs,” added Mr. Popham.
Mr. Popham worked for Atlanta Gas Light, he aided with the Mize family as it related to their heat and stove needs.
“He would offer baseball’s, hats and bats, and Johnny would always sit behind me in church on Sunday.”
Mr. Mize was not to mess with. He was first American athlete to sue over the use of his image without consent.
“If he didn’t know you, he wouldn’t deal with you,” said Mr. Popham, “people would always knock on his door for autographs and he would decline.”
Mr. Mize enjoyed coaching boys baseball in Demorest.
“The Big Cat” attended many autograph shows and donated his fees to the Demorest Boy Scouts.
“Once Johnny attended an Oklahoma baseball event with his former Yankees teammate Mickey Mantle and asked Mickey for a bat. Mantle said—sure that will be $600, Johnny replied to hell with you.”
Mr. Mize returned home to Demorest where he gave away all of his Mickey Mantle memorabilia.
He had also had strong opinions about nearby (Royston) immortal Ty Cobb whom he was distantly related labeling the “Georgia Peach” as “ill tempered” and “a man who would sharpen his spikes to break up double plays.”
After retiring as a player, Mr. Mize had businesses in Florida (real estate development, orange groves, liquor store) and occasionally ventured into coaching (New York Giants, Richmond in the minors, and Mexico City).
His wife of 20 years, Jene, died tragically in 1957 – she fell asleep while smoking and later passed from the burns suffered in their Florida home.
Three months later, Mr. Mize married Marjorie Pope and eventually adopted her children, Jim and Judi.
In 1974, the Mizes moved to his boyhood home in Demorest, across the street from Piedmont College, where he died on June 2, 1993. Mr. Mize went to bed after watching the Atlanta Braves on TV and never woke up.
The legend lives.
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