George William Ramsey Jr., 91, a native of Covington, died on April 23, 2016, in Columbia, Maryland. George was born in 1924 into a long line of local merchants, farmers and school teachers. When he was 10 years old, his family moved to a farm on Salem Road in Newton County. After completing high school, George worked at the Porterdale Mill for a year.
His ancestors were among the founders of the Salem Camp Meeting, and it was there one summer that George met Jacqueline McCollum of Conyers. In 1945, after he served three years in the U.S. Navy as a pharmacist mate on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific during World War II, they married. They moved to Conyers, where their sons George William “Bill” Ramsey III (Joyce Hollyday) and Jack McCollum “Mac” Ramsey (Debra Mangione Ramsey) were born.
After completing a business school certificate program in Atlanta, George was hired by the F.W. Woolworth Company and began a 35-year career as a financial officer. He received a succession of promotions that took him to Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Manhattan, where his longstanding sense of integrity was recognized by being named Woolworth’s ethics officer, and where he rose to become a company vice president.
In 1983, George and Jacqueline retired to a home on Lake Hartwell near Lavonia. He finally owned a plot of land sufficient to nurture his life-long love of gardening and a home where his and Jacqueline’s generosity and talent for hospitality could become a way of life. They also enjoyed golf and travel with friends. George volunteered as a tutor in a Hart County literacy program. Over the years he was an active member of United Methodist churches in Covington, Salem, Conyers, Hartwell, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Westfield, New Jersey.
Their eight grandchildren were always among George and Jacqueline’s most special guests on Lake Hartwell. They are Coe William (Kelly) Ramsey, Matthew Ammon (Becky) Lane-Ramsey, Cara Jacqueline (Michael) Haddaway, Amanda Jane (Seth) Williams, Douglas Jackson Ramsey, Anna Leah Ramsey, Megan Catherine Ramsey and Jackson McCollum Ramsey.
After returning to Conyers to live at Remington House, George and Jacqueline were blessed with six great-grandchildren: Jacqueline, Lilly, Tara, Lana, Macy and Everett. George cared for Jaqueline with great love and devotion during several years of illness that preceded her death in 2006. Later he married Dorothy Hardeman. George and Dorothy enjoyed seven years together until her passing in 2014. He then moved to Columbia, Maryland, to be close to son Mac and his extended family.
George was predeceased by his mother, Mary Sue Hull Ramsey; his father, George William Ramsey, Sr. and his sister, Susie Ruth Kemp, and is survived by his sisters, Betty Kincaid and Ann Cook.
George Ramsey’s memorial service will be held on Saturday, June 25, under the Tabernacle at Salem Camp Ground (3940 Salem Road, Covington, GA) at 11 a.m. Memorial gifts may be donated in his memory to the Nancy Hart Literacy Council, 110 Benson Street, Hartwell, GA 30643; or to Salem Camp Ground, P.O. Box 243, Conyers, GA 30012, or online at salemcampmeeting.org.
