[This is the second part of a two part story on Floy Farr. To read part one, log onto www.TheCitizen.com/node/7132]

Walter Floy Farr was born in the Fayette community of Stop on May 20,1912. He was reared in the nearby town of Tyrone, where he lived until moving to Peachtree City in 1966.

Farr was among the first young men from the western side of the county to attend and graduate from Fayette County High School. While there he played high school baseball, along with famed Washington Senators player and three-time all-star game player, Cecil Travis. Farr played first base and Travis played shortstop.

Farr worked during the day at the bank/fertilizer/cotton plant in Tyrone and made the trek into Atlanta in the evenings to attend a business school. After graduating, he became manager of the aforementioned business, operating it out of a cubbyhole in the bank.

When Southern Bell wouldn’t extend a telephone line to Tyrone from Fayetteville, he persuaded neighborhood farmers to cut poles, dig the hole to put them in, and had wire strung along the 10 miles.

In the early 1940’s, Farr helped engineer the opening of the first rock quarry in the county, which is still in business outside of Tyrone.

He was one of the principal organizers of the Coweta-Fayette Electric Membership Corp., serving as president from 1976 to his retirement in December, 1995. It began with 600 members in the mid 1940’s and now has 70,000 members.

When the Fayette County Kiwanis chartered in 1951, he served as one of the first directors, he was on the Fayette County Board of Education for 10 years in the 1950’s and he served on the board of directors of the Fayette County United Appeal in the 1960’s.

Pete Knox, a builder from Augusta, was in the pre-fab home business. He sent two real estate men to find acreage to build a town and they popped into Farr’s bank one day in the late 1950’s. He directed them down the road to the community of Shakerag and suggested they see Bob Huddleston. Huddleston owned just over 5,000 acres.

Farr also suggested to the men, and to Knox, that a large source of funding be obtained, since he was not quite yet convinced that they were genuinely looking for 15,000 acres to build a new town. Over $330,000 was pledged to back the initial project, and Knox and Floy formed a company.

Pete Knox had a son who was a senior at Georgia Tech. The son had a roommate, Joel Cowan, of Cartersville. Cowan was hired to come up with the planners for a new town and to oversee the whole project.

Knox began to realize the project was going to require more capital than he could muster, and Cowan found the necessary funds at Phipps Land Company.

“Joel brought in planners, as well as being a good planner himself,” said Farr “and he made the new pre-planned city work. He oversaw the project with a steady hand, always sticking to the original plan of only allowing a certain percentage of land a year to be developed. If you look at the original plan of Peachtree City, you can clearly see that what was written down then is there today.”

The Redwine Bank that Farr operated in Tyrone had been founded in 1908, but was a private bank. Farr realized that it needed to be made a state bank under federal rules so deposits would be insured. He worked things out with the Redwine brothers and Mills Lane of the C&S Bank, and in January, 1965, it became a state bank and was moved to Peachtree City.

Farr and his wife, Bruce, moved from their lifelong home in Tyrone to Peachtree City in 1966. Fifteen years go, Bruce began the descent into Alzheimer’s and is currently at Ashleigh Glen in Peachtree City.

Seven years ago, Floy Farr and Elaine Gaillard, director at Ashleigh Glen, put together the first Alzheimer’s Walk in Fayette County. They originally supported the one in North Atlanta, but getting up at 4 a.m. didn’t seem practical. The first walk in Fayette County saw 450 people participating and it raised $75,000 for the cause.

Former Mayor Fred Brown and Peachtree City resident Iola Snow, have taken over the local walk. There are now over 11,500 people participating, and it now raises $200,000. The Alzheimer’s Walk in Fayette County this year will be on October 2.

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

As Fayette Countian Jim Minter wrote in 1996, “Floy Farr ought to write a book.”

“Memories are wonderful,” said Floy Farr, “but good things are happening now, and they’re going to keep on happening.”

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