The Hancock County Writers Group report on what is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, virtuous, excellent and praiseworthy in Hancock County.   

Remembering Lara Owensby

Submitted by Jeanette Waddell

          Lara Owensby came and left Hancock County much like a pebble tossed into a pond.  The little splash she made was hardly noticeable, the ripples are continuing to be felt.  Most people in the county never saw her or heard her voice.  Most everyone has witnessed the results of her presence

If you’ve participated or read about the downtown annual MLK Day “a day on, not a day off”, thank Lara Owensby.  If you enjoyed “whole hog barbecue”, sweet tea and peach cobbler at the annual Labor Day Potluck Picnic, thank Lara Owensby.

          Lara was invited to help like minded people of good will find ways to come together for the benefit of the county. Through a friend’s recommendation, she came, all of 95 pounds soaking wet, young and white.  What could she possibly know or understand? She admitted she didn’t know much and proceeded to talk with more than 50 people, in-depth, face-to-face, private interviews. 

          Out of those interviews came two annual events, the MLK Downtown Clean-up and the Labor Day Potluck Picnic.  For the last seven years, I have remembered and wondered, “what ever happened to Lara Owensby.”

          Lara literally vanished, no phone calls, emails, letters, text messages, Facebook page, no contact for the last seven years.  I remember her with appreciation and gratitude.  She stirred our hope and gave us a few tools with which to work.

          After this years Labor Day Picnic, 20 to 25 community members from around the county came together, like Lara planned all those years ago, for the mutual benefit of Hancock County. The meetings resulted in the informally organized clean-up and picnic group becoming the legally organized Sparta Hancock Community Group, Inc.   

Lara, I hope all is well.  Where ever you are, what- ever you are doing, thank you.