By Diane Lehr
ATHENS — About three years ago, I approached a local Athens woman, Doris Estes, because I’d heard she had a passion for genealogy and patriotism.
I approached her at a public downtown event and told her I’d always been curious about my maternal grandfather’s history. I told Mrs. Estes that my grandfather was a family farmer who had a spirit of kindness and a work ethic that I prayed I could emulate in my own life. He was kind, independent, hard working, able, and loved his family in a way you don’t often see anymore.
“I can help you and I can connect you with Pam Waddell, who is associated with me in The National Society of The Daughters of The American Revolution, ” she said. “We will help you find this history if you will consider applying to the organization and work with us to keep its mission growing in Athens.”
Now I must tell you that I shuddered a little because I had lots of preconceived notions about this group, and after all, I simply wanted to find my own history, not take on another project in my life. As I began the process with lots of help and after encountering several roadblocks along the way, I grew to respect this woman and many of the women I met in the local John Wade Keyes chapter of the DAR in Athens.
I really thought of myself as a bit too modern to gel with this group. I mean, I am an artist, I love hip music and I really cannot imagine myself in the middle of a formal group of women who think they are special because they support God, home and country. I’m patriotic too. I married an Air Force guy.
I said yes because it’s hard to say no to Doris, and, as I began this journey, the stories I learned about my ancestors came to life as I developed a clear understanding of their character and sacrifices. It made me realize that honoring them and this country is special.
I also looked at Doris Estes and her history here, and I grew to appreciate the contributions of people like Mrs. Estes to this community. She was born in her maternal grandparents’ house in Pulaski, Tenn., on Christmas Eve 1942. Her father was away at boot camp as he was about to be sent to the Pacific.
Her family first moved to Athens in the early 1950s to the old Drawbaugh house that was built around a log cabin from the 1800s. Her first date with her husband, Buzz, was while she was a freshman at Athens College. It was a blind date and Doris said they became the best of friends as well as lifetime partners right away.
She has since gone on to earn her masters degree in English, from the University of Alabama, and a master’s in plumbing license in order to help the family business. Doris has experience in other careers but has always worked in her husband’s third-generation business, Estes and Sons, in downtown Athens.
While she was pregnant with her second daughter, she served as secretary in the local Athena League and says of her time there, “We came together to foster charitable causes and to develop lifelong friendships. That year, because I was pregnant, and although I was secretary, they told me I was exempt from the Apple Annie sales. After that year, I worked hard with the organization and did make lots of great friends in this community.”
Since that time, Doris has taught in high school and at Athens State University. She has worked tirelessly in a multitude of community groups including service on the board of the Girl Scouts of North Alabama for seven years, and she chaired the Athens- Limestone County Arts Council Children’s Theatre for four years, just to name a couple.
She became passionate about the DAR in 1992. As she told me, she was thrilled to trace her family back to the Revolutionary War and to England in the 1600s. She believes with all her heart in the importance of keeping our history alive regarding how this country came to be. Our country was started by human beings with human faults, but also by many who believed in the principles of courage, family, democracy and loyalty. She became involved with the DAR because they are a group of patriotic women who have shown time and again, these principles to be true.
I was also impressed to learn of the NSDAR real estate in Washington D.C. Their headquarters encompasses a city block and houses one of the nation’s premiere genealogical libraries and foremost collections of American decorative arts, and Washington’s largest concert hall. In Alabama, the DAR supports the Kate Duncan Smith School on Gunter Mountain in the town of Grant, which was established in 1924.
Doris has also made the local John Wade Keyes Chapter proud, as she has won the prestigious honor of Best Publicity Reports on the national DAR level for the last three years. She was also one of three, along with Darlene Kleyer and Pam Waddell, who worked on a yearlong project that found and rededicated the grave of Mary Malissa Favor Reid Christopher. Mary Malissa was a chapter member from this community whose father actually served in the Revolutionary War. I was honored to offer the benediction at that ceremony with some of Mary Malissa’s descendents present on a blustery day in Limestone County.
As I’ve grown older, and wiser in some ways, I’ve grown to appreciate the history and courage of our ancestors as well as the contributions of local heroes to local community, like Doris Estes. I hope that this year more of us will remember Constitution Week, and maybe read a few lines of the document that represents democracy and dignity in “modern” times as well as it did when it was written in support of the freedoms we hold dear. My friend, Ann Crutcher, serves as committee chairperson of Constitution Week for the local DAR, and as she said to me one day, “ I hope some of us are half as dedicated as people like Doris Estes who reminds me of those women who helped establish this country. If we forget our history, we will certainly lose our future.”
