Barbara Smith has lived in Jones County since 1986, when she and her late husband, Buck, bought 50 acres and moved from their longtime home on Boulevard Avenue in Macon.
Smith, the former Barbara Union, grew up on that same street. The family home was within walking distance of what was known as Baconsfield Park, which faced on Emery Highway right at what is now the Spring Street/I-16 interchange.
Smith, 86, remembers a lot of good times at the park, both as a youngster and young mother.
“They had kiddie pools, they had food, they had some animals in cages,” she recalled. “I can remember as a child when I could walk down there, and I can remember taking my children down there.”
The property, however, became the subject of litigation following the owner’s death.
“Mr. Bacon left all that property for the use of white women and their children; that was in his Will,” Smith said, adding that, with the beginning of the Civil Rights movement, a lawsuit was filed contesting its provisions.
The will was broken, the park closed, and the property eventually sold, she said.
Smith’s parents were Lebanese, and she grew up in the Catholic church.
“I went to Saint Josephs in grades one through five, then went to Mount de Sales,” she said. “That was an all-girls school then, run by the nuns, and it was a boarding school.”
The school was very popular – and expensive.
“Girls came from all around for that school; they came from other countries,” she noted. “I met one of my good friends there who was from South America. A lot of wealthy girls went to school there.”
Smith added that, living in Macon, she was only a day student.
Following graduation from high school, Smith continued her education for a while in Milledgeville at Georgia State College for Women, now Georgia College & State University.
“I left an all-girls high school and went to an all-girls college,” Smith chuckled.
She acknowledged she had only a limited social life with boys before she met her future husband and explained how that came about.
“I was out at a little tavern on Jeffersonville Road that everybody called the Little T,” she began. “I was there with a guy who was just a friend, and that is when Buck spotted me. He asked somebody ‘who is that girl over there?’ They told him Tommy Union‘s sister. He said, ‘I’ve got to meet her.’
“I guess he approached Tommy to see if he could approach me,” she laughed. “But that is how Buck and I first got together.”
Within a few months after they met, the couple decided they couldn’t wait any longer to tie the knot.
“We ran off and got married by the Justice of the Peace,” Smith said. “I told him, ‘I’m not going to live with you unless I’m married to you.’” Once one of Buck’s sisters heard about their escapade, she went to Barbara’s father, Thomas Union Sr., who was a man of strong will, his daughter pointed out. Once he heard the news of their marriage, he immediately got involved.
“He said, ‘You tell them to come home. We’re going to get them married in the church. And I am going to help them.’ And he did,” Smith added.
Following the “proper” church wedding, her father, with Buck’s help, prepared a small home for the newlyweds.
“He fixed up a place in his backyard. He turned it into a one bedroom, bath, kitchen/living room together, and I had a small area that was like a utility room.”
Smith said the family stayed there after their oldest daughter, Jana, was born, but when she got pregnant with their second child, Stuart, she decided something needed to change.
She told her father the family was going to go look for a home in North Macon, and that didn’t go over well.
“He said, ‘No you’re not. You’re not taking my grandbaby away from here. I’ve got a lot I’m going to give you.’” The Smiths eventually built on that tract on Boulevard and lived there until they moved to Jones County.
“He loved his grandchildren,” Smith affirmed. “He wanted to be close to them.”
Smith worked first for the State of Georgia in the Department of Labor for a short while and in real estate before she eventually went to work in the distilled spirits business. Her father was a wholesale distributor and ended up with a liquor store.
Following her father’s death, other issues arose with the operation of the store and, since both of Smith’s brothers were doctors, Buck, a car salesman by trade, left that business temporarily to manage it.
Barbara knew her husband was not enjoying his new job.
“I remember going in there one day and saying, ‘Buck, I want my husband back.’ He was not happy in there. He enjoyed being out and about.”
Smith took over operation of the store, Cherio’s, and eventually bought the real estate. She managed the business for more than 20 years, until the late 1990s.
“I was on the only female in Macon running a liquor store at that time,” she recalled.
She also remembers that she had a unique feature as part of her business.
“I decided I wanted to do something different, other than just selling liquor. That’s when I came up with the idea of making gift baskets with liquor, beer and wine. I was the only one in Macon doing that.
“I put Cherio’s on the map when I started making the baskets,” she added. “Men ran all those other stores, and they weren’t going to make gift baskets,” she said with a smile.
Smith put in a lot of time at the store, usually during normal business hours, 9 to 5, and she always had someone with her since it took two people to handle both the beer and liquor sales. She shared that she had only one serious incident and threat of violence – an attempted armed robbery – in the 20-plus years she worked there.
“I told the police I don’t remember the guy walking in the door, but he was at the end of the counter,” Smith recalled. “He said, ‘give me all your money.’” The robbery attempt ended with the death of the assailant.
The incident attracted some attention but not any particular loss of business, and the store owner said over the years she had female customers as well as men.
“They liked their wine. They weren’t interested in beer or stuff,” she said. “But, they didn’t want other people to know they were drinking!”
There were times occasionally when she would help out some “needy” customers.
“There was this one lady on Riverside Drive,” Smith remembered, “one of those ‘closet drinkers.‘ She would always call me up and say, ‘Miss Barbara, what time are you getting off work today?’ I would say, ‘what do you need?’
“She would tell me what she wanted, and she would say, ‘you figure it up and tell me how much I owe you. I’ll try to have the right amount for you, and, if not, I’ll tell you how much I have, and you can bring your change with you.’” How often did she call? “About once a week,” Smith laughed.
Prior to Buck’s death in 2020, the couple was very active in the Al Sihah Shrine in Macon. That local chapter is part of the nationwide organization that supports the Shriners Hospital for Children. Volunteer members, among many other services, drive families to the hospital when needed.
The local chapters are very structured, Smith explained, adding that she and Buck were the Potentate and First Lady in 2007.
She said the experience was rewarding.
“We went to different temples, and I was able to meet a lot of people,” she shared. “I still have friends that I met and got together with while Buck and the men were meeting.”
Smith’s life was interrupted in January of 1997 by a familiar disease: cancer.She was diagnosed with colon cancer, and her treatment included chemotherapy. She was one of the lucky ones who defeated the disease. Her daughter, Tanya Williams, said the treatment was a two-part process.
“They surgically removed the cancer, and then she had to go through chemo,” Williams explained. “1997 was a rough year for her; she had lots of side effects from the chemo.”
Smith said, once she got into remission, most of the time was spent going to the doctor’s office for checkups.
“I hadto go every week, and they would take samples, check me out. Finally, the doctor said you’re good to go. You don’t have to come back.”
Jana was not as fortunate as her mother. Following a lengthy battle against the disease, she passed away in 2024 with cancer. Smith was devastated.
“That was the hardest thing, losing a child,” she lamented. “I’m not supposed to bury them. They’re supposed to bury me.”
With the help of Tonya and her husband, Allen, as well as Jana’s husband, Jeff Daughtery, Smith is trying to move on. She is still a member of the Shriners’ ladies group, the Red Hat Society, and they meet once a month for various activities.
Smith said some of the women, including widows, attend dances at the Shrine Temple, but she does not.
“I’m not looking for a man. I don’t want to get up and dance with anybody,” she declared.
She did acknowledge that some women do remarry following their husband’s death. Not her, though.
“I had a good man, and he’s always with me. So, I am happy with what I’ve got.”
