2744 and more Fantastic, Fascinating, Freaky, Famed, Favorite, Foremost, Fateful, Fabulous, Forgotten, Funny, & Phenomenal FEATS & FACTS ABOUT THE FINE FOLKS OF DUBLIN AND LAURENS COUNTY, GEORGIA By: Scott B. Thompson, Sr. @ 2021 THIS IS A COMPILATION OF THE OUTSTANDING ACTS OF NATIVE, SHORT TERM, AND LONG TERM RESIDENTS OF DUBLIN AND LAURENS COUNTY, GEORGIA. FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS COMPENDIUM, ONLY ACTS OF STATEWIDE, SOUTHEASTERN, NATIONAL, AND WORLD ACCOMPLISHMENTS ARE LISTED. VOLUME 2 WILL CONTAIN MORE FEATS ON A LOCAL LEVEL. THERE ARE HUNDREDS, PERHAPS THOUSANDS MORE ACTS WHILE NOTEWORTHY, DO NOT MEET THE CRITERIA SET OUT ABOVE. IF YOU HAVE MORE EXAMPLES OF FANTASTIC FEATS, PLEASE EMAIL ME AT SCOTTBTHOMPSONSR@YAHOO.COM THE LIST WILL BE POSTED ON THE INTERNET AND WILL BE UPDATED ON A REGULAR BASIS.
330. Dublin High School and U.G.A. scholar-athlete, Tina Price Cochran, was a state high school and college tennis champion at Dublin and the University of Georgia. (326) Tina was the first female to obtain an athletic scholarship at the University of Georgia. (327) She set several records for the women's basketball team at Georgia. (328) Top 15 draft choice in the first Women's Professional Basketball League in 1978. (329) In 1978, Cochran was selected to the all state among Georgia universities and colleges (329A).
330. Dublin and West Laurens pitcher, Mickey Register, was named to the All S.E.C. Baseball team in 1975. (UGA)
331 . Ira Welborn, a former Dublin High track star, shattered the American record for pole vaulting by a man over thirty with a vault of 14 feet 9 inches at the Master's Track and Field meet in 1976.
332. Lt. Kelso Horne, a Laurens Countian and a graduate of Dublin High School appeared on the cover story of the Allied invasion on D-Day. Still after seventy five years, that August 14, 1944 cover is highly popular among collectors. Historian Steven Ambrose credits Bob Mathias as being the oldest paratrooper on June 6, 1944. However, it is an historical fact that Horne was some three years older than Mathias, making Horne the oldest American paratrooper on that world changing day. (333)
334. Ensign Shelton Sutton Jr., of Brewton and Vidalia, Georgia was a starting center for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets from 1939 to 1941. Sutton played in the 1940 Orange Bowl (335). Sutton was killed aboard the U.S. Juneau in 1942. The United States Navy honored Sutton for his heroism aboard the doomed ship by naming a destroyer Escort, the U.S.S. Sutton, in his honor. (336)
337. Dublin High’s Wexler “Wex” Jordan, was an All Southeastern guard in 1941, one of only two Georgians on the team. Jordan was awarded the Rhodes Trophy as Georgia Tech’s Most Valuable Player in 1941. (338) Jordan was killed in a training accident when his fighter plane accidentally crashed on November 11, 1943, the 25th anniversary of the end of World War I.
339. Lt. William Arlington Kelley, a former Dublin High School football coach, was the first Army Air Force Pilot in the Pacific Theater in World War II to complete his service ending 30th Mission. Kelley and most of his crew were killed in a crash while returning home aboard the “Dauntless Dotty,” the first B-29 bomber to complete 30 missions. The “Dotty” was first flown by Col. Robert Morgan, the famous pilot of the “Memphis Belle,” which was the first B-17 to complete its limit of 25 missions in Europe. Kelly and his crew were scheduled to headlining the last War Bond Drive of the war. (340) Kelley was a star running back and baseball player at Duke University in the mid 1930s. (341)
343. Steve Barber, a hard throwing left handed pitcher for the Dublin Orioles in 1958, led the American League in shutouts in 1962. In his rookie season, Barber was recorded as the fastest pitcher in Major League Baseball. (344) Barber played in the Major Leagues for 15 seasons with several teams, including the Orioles, Yankees, Braves, and the Seattle Pilots. (345). Barber, who was one of the famed group of young Baltimore Orioles pitchers known as the “Baby Birds,” was a hard throwing strike out pitcher. On September 30, 1967, Barber held the Detroit Tigers no hits until the top of the 9th inning. Fighting tendinitis, Barber walked two and allow a sacrifice bunt followed by the catcher allowing a pitch to get away from him, an error which tied the game at 1. Usually dependable Stu Miller came in to relieve Barber and save the game. Miller pitched well, but a bobble of a ground -1 ball by Oriole shortstop Mark Belanger caused the lead run to score. Barber whose runner scored the winning run was saddled with the loss although the gave up not a single hit in the game. At the time, Barber and Miller’s efforts gave them the 159th no hitter in major league history. (346) As of the end of the 2019 season, there have been 303 no hitters, 14 of them were by a combination of pitchers. (347) Barber and Miller made history in the game. Not counting a game which Babe Ruth started but did not finish the game and the reliever pitched 9 innings of no hit ball, this was the first true combined no hitter in major league history. (348) Since 1967, there have been 12 combined no hitters. Barber and Miller set an unenviable record as the first and one of only two combined no hitters where they lost the game. (349) On a cool day on September 28, 1960, Barber got the starting nod against the Red Sox at Fenway Park. An aging veteran playing in last game managed a walk in his first at bat, flied out to deep center twice for 0-2 record. Barber was pulled in favor of Jack Fisher who gave the old man a fat pitch which he blasted into the stands for a home run in his last at bat. That man, of course was Ted Williams. (350) Barber, a member of the Orioles Hall of Fame (351), was a two-time All Star. (352)
353. George Werley, a pitcher for the 1958 Orioles, pitched one inning or the parent team in the waning days of 1956, just three weeks after his 18th birthday. He never played another major league game.
354. Rubye G. Jackson was the first woman to serve as an assistant Attorney General of Georgia in 1966. She began her legal career in Dublin.
355. Major General George T. Powers, a short term resident of Dublin, III was promoted to Major General in the U.S. Army by John F. Kennedy in 1963. Gen. Powers commanded Fort Bliss from 1965-1967 and followed in the footsteps of Generals James Longstreet and John J. Pershing. (356)
357. Dr. Eleanor Ison Franklin, a native of Dublin, was named a director of a medical department at Howard University Washington, D.C. Dr. Franklin was the first woman to serve in that capacity. Dr. Franklin was also the first woman, (358) black or white, to head a medical department in an American university. (359)
360. One of the first African-American scientists to work at NASA, Dr. Robert E. Shurney, a native of Dublin, was one of the agency’s top physicists, (361) receiving honors for his designs of the tires for the lunar rover on the Apollo 15 mission, (362) as well as his training in weightless environments (363) and his innovative designs of the toilet for the Skylab space station (364) in addition to his designs of eating utensils and solar panels for the Skylab. (365) This widely heralded scientist accomplished all of these feats without the benefit of a high school diploma. (366)
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