Gris Lists:  Vets, flicks and afterlives

Six Macon veterans you should know for Veterans Day

1. Macon native Gen. Robert L. Scott was a famed aviator and war hero who flew hundreds of combat missions over Burma and China during World War II. He was the author of 11 books, including “God Is My Co-Pilot,’’ which was made into a movie starring Dennis Morgan and Janis Paige. It premiered in Macon at the Grand Theatre (now the Piedmont Grand Opera House) on Feb. 21, 1945. He was a tireless promoter and fund-raiser for the Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins. A six-mile stretch of Ga. 247, near Robins Air Force Base, is named in his honor.

2. Oliver Bateman flew combat missions over China with the famed Flying Tigers during World War II. Following the war, Bateman returned to  Macon to operate his family’s peach-packing business. He became a political leader in Bibb County, serving four terms as a state senator and six years as a Republican minority leader. He declared himself a candidate for governor in 1970, the year Jimmy Carter won, but withdrew before the election. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Flying Tigers Exhibit at the Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins.

3. John Grinalds, a 1955 graduate of Macon’s Lanier High,  was president of The Citadel for eight years.  After graduating from the U.S. Military Academy in 1959, he became the first graduate in 150 years to be commissioned as a Marine.  He studied at Oxford University in England, where he was the first Marine to be named a Rhodes Scholar.

4. Macon-born William Benson was an admiral in the Navy and became the first chief of Naval Operations when he was named to that post in May 1915. A street in Charleson, S.C., is named in his honor. When his mother, Catherine Brewer Benson, graduated from Macon’s Wesleyan College (then known as Georgia Female College) in 1840, her name was called first alphabetically, making her the first woman in the world to earn a college bachelor’s degree.

5. Macon’s Wiley Baxter went to Europe with the 3rd Infantry during World War II. He was engaged in heavy fighting in France, near Strasbourg.  An artillery shell hit his bunker. The two men in the bunker with him were killed. Baxter was critically injured and his right leg had to be amputated above the knee. After spending more than two years in military hospitals, he  was discharged in  1947. He moved to Macon with his wife, Fran,  in 1951, and  he began working with munitions at the Naval Ordnance Plant on Guy Paine Road. He became the inspiration for the peg-legged caveman in Johnny Hart’s “B.C.” comic strip, which was drawn by his brother-in-law, Johnny Hart.  The character “Wiley” was the grubby baseball coach and poet resting beneath a tree. The strip once appeared in more than 1,300 newspapers worldwide and reached more than an audience of 100 million readers. 

6. Thomas Kilgore. (See story on page 1A)

Fifteen movies with scenes filmed in Macon

1. “Trouble With the Curve”

2. “Rampage”

3. “Watchmen”

4. “Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot”

5. “Superman”

6. “42”

7. “The Rose and the Jackal”

8. “Black Widow”

9. “Need for Speed”

10. “Zombieland”

11. “Double Trap”

12. “I, Tonya”

13. “Hillbilly Elegy”

14. “The Fifth Wave”

15. “Wise Blood”

The previous lives of nine Riverside Drive businesses

1. Bashinski Fine Gems & Jewelry at 1126 Riverside Drive was once a  Lee and Eddie’s Barbecue restaurant, as well as a Kentucky Fried Chicken.

2. New City Church at 3500 Riverside was once Lake Bridge Behavioral Health Systems and Charter Lake Hospital.

3. The Bibb County School District’s Central Kitchen at 2011 Riverside was formerly the Hutchings Career Center. Before that, it was a KMart.

4. Gottwal’s Books at 2834 Riverside, was once a women’s clothing store known as The Crate.

5. The Atrium Health billing office at 2490 Riverside was once Key Catalog Showroom.

6. Northside Auto & Title Pawn at 2926 Riverside was a Pizza Hut in a previous life.

7. Moore’s Furniture (soon to be Poppy’s of Macon home decor) at 2590 Riverside was the former home of Riverside Theaters.

8. Fitness Xtreme at 2974 Riverside is in the same building once occupied by a  Winn Dixie grocery store.

9. Mandarin Chinese Restaurant at 3086 Riverside is located in the old Steak and Ale restaurant.

Four “gee whiz” facts from Mulberry Street

1. In the early 20th century, a “skyscraper’’ was defined as any building with 10 or more floors and an elevator. When the American Federal Building at 544 Mulberry was built in 1906, there were six “skyscrapers” in New York City, and Macon’s American Federal was considered the tallest concrete building south of the Big Apple.

2. At 90 feet deep and 58 feet wide, the stage Grand Opera House was one of the largest of its kind in the Southeast in the early 20th century. It was large enough for a horse to simulate a chariot race for a scene in a production of Ben Hur. The stage still has a trap door specially made for the disappearing act of Harry Houdini, the renowned magician/escape artist.

3. The  Cannonball House was the only house in Macon to sustain damage during the War Between the States.  Union troops fired a number of cannonballs from across the river. One hit a column on the front of the house, went through a wall and rolled into the front hallway, where it remains to this day.

4. Mulberry United Methodist Church, at the corner of Mulberry and First, is the Mother Church of Methodism in Georgia. It opened in 1826, and has beautiful stained glass windows that depict the life of Christ.