Long-time member of the Darlington community, Gaynelle Grizzard, whose children and grandchildren have attended the School, recently authored a two-volume history of her family’s involvement with Southeastern Mills and its predecessors. Upon publication, Grizzard donated a copy of the books, released by Chapel Hill Press Inc., to Darlington School.
“One day I realized that I was the only person living who could write down the facts and memories of my family’s involvement in the business world. So I started the project,” wrote Grizzard in the introduction of volume one. “Entrepreneurial drive made possible the tale that is recorded in this history of a three-generation business. A truer description would be the story of a family’s businesses since, as Bob Grizzard characterized it in 1997, it is more a collection of short stories than a novel.”
The work includes reflections and memories of various people involved in establishing the business, as well as newspaper articles, photographs and other historic documents.
The first volume, titled “A Vision,” dates back to April of 1926 when Grizzard’s father, Claude Umstead Parrish, began working as a Merita Bread salesman for American Bakeries Inc. in North Carolina. After working his way up the ranks at a number of bakeries in the South, Parrish opened a plant in Rome, Ga., in 1956 – Parrish Bakeries of Georgia Inc.
“My father asked Vernon and me if we would like to operate the plant for him. We said yes,” Grizzard wrote. “My father and Vernon toured the area and asked a service station attendant in Rome, Georgia, about an empty building they had seen. The attendant recommended that they call Mr. Harold Clotfelter of Hardy Realty. Mr. Clotfelter has said that he never finished his breakfast that morning. Instead he met Daddy and Vernon and convinced them to select Rome as the site for the new bakery.”
The second volume, “Hard Work,” concentrates specifically on Southeastern Mills and Milner Milling, which was incorporated into Southeastern Mills in 1990.
“The wisdom of the decision to move to Rome now seams clear, judging by the tremendous long-term success of the business. Good management, adequate financing and continued hard work have enabled this 1930 state-of-the-art, fireproof facility of my father’s generation to thrive for many years,” wrote Theo. (Ted) Stivers Jr., whose father founded Theo. Stivers Milling Co., the successor to Southeastern Mills Inc. “To our families, both now and future generations, the mill will stand as a memorial to the foresight, sacrifice, perseverance, and hard work, as well as the talents and willingness to risk it all, of Theo Stivers and his brother Fred …”
