Fayette County native and Peachtree City pioneer Floy Farr died early Friday morning.

Walter Floy Farr Sr. was 94 years old and until recently had been in good health.

He was born and reared in Tyrone and had lived in Peachtree City since the 1960's.

Farr got his start running a bank in Tyrone that was part of a feed store and cotton gin; ultimately Peachtree City founder Joel Cowan bought the bank and moved it to Peachtree City.

“He was a renaissance man caught up in a really small town rural environment,” said Joel Cowan, a close friend of Farr’s dating back to 1956. “He always had a way of looking at things in a positive manner instead of a negative one. ... He was a remarkable man.”

Farr’s career had been in banking and he had always been very active in community affairs.

Funeral arrangements are pending with Carl J. Mowell & Son Funeral Home, Peachtree City.

The son of Walter D. and Mattie Ola Trammell Farr was born May 20, 1912. He was a graduate of Fayette County High School, Class of 1930, and was one of the principal organizers of the Coweta-Fayette Electric Membership Corporation. Farr served the organization for 61 years.

Farr married a fellow Tyrone resident, Hilda Bruce Loyd in 1937 and had two sons, Dr. W. F. “Sonny” Farr, 65, and Thomas Emery Farr, who died unexpectedly four years ago at the age of 60. The Farrs were active members of Hopewell United Methodist Church in Tyrone until moving to Peachtree City in 1966. They have been active in the Peachtree City Presbyterian Church ever since.

Farr was one of the original directors of the Fayette County Kiwanis, which chartered in 1951, and was on the Fayette County Board of Education for 10 years in the 1950s as well. He also served on the board of directors of the Fayette County United Appeal in the 1960s.

In later years, Farr’s wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease and Farr and Elaine Gaillard, director of Ashley Glen in Peachtree City, put together the first Alzheimer’s Walk in Fayette County.

Farr has been honored at a number of occasions. He was:
-- Named Citizen of the Year in 1966;
-- Honored at an elegant dinner in December, 1975 for “an outstanding humanitarian, a conscientious citizen, a solid church man, and a friend to all”;
-- Awarded the Georgia Banker’s Association’s Fifty Years in Banking Award, 1980;
-- Named Business Person of the Year through the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce, in 1983;

In April 1989, a section of Georgia Highway 54 in Peachtree City was dedicated as the “Floy Farr Parkway.” Said then-mayor, Fred Brown, “he has done a tremendous amount of good for the community beyond just its founding. He is a mainstay of our community and I’m a firm believer in honoring people while they’re still alive.”

Farr is a past president of the Peachtree City Rotary Club and in 1987 was awarded recognition by the Rotary International. The main meeting room at the Peachtree City Library is also named for Farr.

Cowan said Farr and the bank he ran played an important role in the early beginnings of Peachtree City, helping fund builders who came to the area.

“It was very vital to the start (of the city),” Cowan said. Without even a grocery store in Peachtree City at the time, the bank was one of the few businesses visitors could be pointed to, he added.

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