Illustration by Colleen O’Hara
One of the first things I remember about my hometown of Folkston was wanting to get out. Everyone did. It was a small South Georgia town, remote and poor. But as badly as I wanted to escape as a kid, I have fond memories of the place that keep me connected to those roots to this day.
My mom and dad grew up there, and he joined the military as his way out. After being stationed in Germany, he moved the family back to work for the postal service. I was five or six. Like our neighbors, we didn’t have much, but we didn’t want for much, either. We lived on one of the lots owned by my grandma, Miss Cootsy. She’d take in wanderers and give them a small place to stay. She let them work in her garden or fix things. She had a store that sold bread, chips, and penny cookies out of a jar on the counter. The shop also had a pinball machine and a Pac-Man game. I remember cookouts on the side of the road, crab boils or oysters roasting on a piece of sheet metal atop a barrel fire, barbecue pits smoking. When I go back, I hit Jalen’s Bar-B-Q & Grille to recapture that experience.
Folkston is also known as the “Gateway to the Okefenokee Swamp,” a refuge for wildlife and a place for hiking, camping, fishing, and kayaking. I used to play in the park, and now I’m on the advisory committee for our bid to make the swamp a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I try to give back in other ways, working with people to make Folkston a place where people want to stay, to come back and visit. I look to Miss Cootsy, an entrepreneur who used what little she had for the good of the community, for inspiration.
Champ Bailey is a Pro Football Hall of Famer who also founded Bailey Companies & Investments and the Champ Bailey Family Foundation.
This article appears in the Winter 2025 issue of Southbound.
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