Deloras Moon is one of those Yankees who came south, but the 82-year old Michigan transplant blended into Jones County’s culture with no problem more than 40 years ago.
Moon, whose husband, Dr. Bob Moon, passed away in November of last year at age 83, has served in both elected and volunteer positions over the years since moving here in 1982 and serves on one board still.
Moon grew up in New Jersey, and she decided early in life what path she would take.
“I knew probably from middle school on that I wanted to work for the church,” she said. “So I went to Eastern University, an American Baptist Church school.
“And,” Moon shared, “that’s where I met Bob. He was a sophomore. We met the first week of my freshman year. And, he decided right then that I was the one he was going to marry. It took me a little bit longer because I was going to graduate school. I was going to go to the seminary.
“So, I said, ‘I am not going to get serious with anybody because I am going to graduate school.’” However, she gave in four years later, and they got engaged the day she graduated in 1965.
The couple married in 1966 while he was in graduate school, and she was in the seminary. They have two children, Rob, 58, and Allison, 49. He works for the Department of Transportation in Boston, and she is the Planning and Zoning Manager in Douglas County.
Moon graduated a year before her husband and stayed at the seminary working for the dean.
“I was being a housemother for about 40 freshmen that couldn’t fit on the college campus, and they put them in the seminary and asked me to kind of babysit these freshmen in college.”
Bob ultimately became a microbiology professor at Michigan State University, and she was hired as Director of Christian Education at a large interdenominational church that ministered to university students as well as the population of East Lansing.
Moon got her first taste of politics in East Lansing.
“Our neighbor was chairman of the Democratic Party, and he was looking for someone to run for the school board in East Lansing,” Moon recalled. “So he came and asked me because he knew I was at People’s Church, which was a good-sized church and had been involved in a number of things. So I said sure.
“I was elected to the East Lansing School Board, and I was there until 1982. In 1980-81, I was president of the board.”
Moon resigned that post in 1982 because they were moving to Georgia. Before leaving Michigan, however, the couple made a purchase.
“We decided that we wanted something up north even though we were going to move to Georgia. So, we bought a cottage on a lake north of where Bob grew up in Pennsylvania. That’s where we spent summers up until last year.”
Why the move from Michigan to Georgia?
Moon said a graduate student of Bob’s who earned his PhD while with him was recruited to come to the new medical school at Mercer.
“He called Bob one evening and said, ‘This is the most amazing place. They have a whole new philosophy of medical education, and I think you would love it. And they’re looking for professors who have grants that they can bring with them, as well as experience in medical schools.’
“We came down and looked, and he was really impressed with the philosophy because it was totally problem-based, small group, no lectures.”
Moon may have had some reservations. “I came along, hesitantly. I am from New Jersey, and we lived in Michigan. So this was a huge, huge change.”
It turned out there was another huge change. The Placement Director at the seminary told Moon there was not an American Baptist Church south of Baltimore.
“So we had to make a big decision, and we became Presbyterian,” she said. “And I was here about two years when the pastor at Saint Andrews Presbyterian Church found out I had a degree in religious education and hired me on the spot.”
The Moons did not move into Macon per se. They searched for a home in River North.
“We couldn’t seem to find a house, and so our real estate agent said, ‘I think you just need to build it.’ And I had a picture of a house that I liked.” She showed it to the builder, and that became their home that she still lives in today. They moved in August of 1982.
Another employment opportunity for Moon came along in 1986 when a Montessori school opened at St. Andrews.
“Because I was already working for the church, I became the administrator,” Moon said. “I worked there until two years ago.” She vacated her other position at the church in the late 1990s but continues to serve on a volunteer basis.
“I am still active in the church and serve on the Session. The Session is the governing body of the church,” she explained, “and I am the clerk.”
Meanwhile, Moon was able to put her school board experience to work in 1984 when a friend of hers got into politics.
“Carol Hensley wanted to run for the school board in Jones County, and I had had experience with the school board in East Lansing, so I told her I’d run her campaign,” Moon said. “So, Carol was elected the first woman to the Jones County Board of Education.”
A few years later, when Hensley’s husband was transferred and Hensley stepped down, Moon went from campaign manager to candidate. She qualified for the open seat and won the election in 1990.
“My campaign director in East Lansing had said, ‘You get the voter registration. You see who voted in the last election, and you go to their house, every single one of them.’ That’s what I did. I went house to house, and people were just genuinely interested, gracious, and wonderful.”
While on the board, Moon became involved in the Georgia School Boards Association (GSBA) and in 2000 ran for GSBA Treasurer. In 2004 she was elected GSBA president, the second Jones County BOE member to hold that title. Ted Stone was president before her and encouraged her to become involved in the GSBA.
Moon also won the Gray-Jones County Chamber of Commerce Volunteer of the Year award in 2004, and she was in Atlanta at the GSBA President’s reception the night of the annual banquet.
“Someone called Ted that night to let him know so he could announce it,” she recalled.
Moon showed at the outset of her BOE tenure that she was not afraid to stand her ground. At her first board meeting, the consensus was to tear down the old high school building, and she said that decision was about to be made.
“I argued ‘let’s try and save it,’ and they didn’t think that was worth it.” The others did agree, though, to give her a month before making a final decision.
Moon called Bert King, who was in one of the volunteer organizations as well, and he agreed to help.
King and Thad Childs organized Save our School (SOS), and the school board agreed to give them the chance to raise sufficient money to prevent demolition of the building. King and Childs spearheaded the effort, and the building now is a multi-purpose civic center.
Moon has always tried to be active in the community and was in the first Leadership Jones class. “And from that,” she pointed out, “we kind of evolved into Jones County Forward 2000. And I was involved in that for quite a while.”
Moon has also been a member of the Old Clinton Historical Society for longer than she can remember.
“I have been on that forever,” she commented. “I am the secretary of the board. The first time I went to Clinton, for whatever reason I can’t remember now, but I was just so impressed that you go one block off Gray Highway, and it’s like a different world. I just was always so impressed with the fact they still had all the same curbs, the houses; so much of it was original.”
Moon recalled that at some point the historic signs at each entrance to Clinton needed replacing. Board members could not find a sign-make in the south to reproduce them with the colonial print.
“I found a sign-maker in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, that specialized in historic signage,” Moon shared. “I ordered them, and on our way back from the lake several summers ago, Bob and I stopped to pick them up.”
Moon served on the school board for over 20 years, retiring in 2014.
“Bob was retired, and we wanted the flexibility to not have specific schedules,” she said. Stone had already left, and another board member was retiring. “So it seemed like a good time for new leadership.
“I loved serving on the board and did miss it,” she reflected. “Such wonderful people in the schools and the community. Couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity for a Yankee transplant to serve.”
