It is hard to imagine a time when the closest person to an immigrant in Marietta was someone from California. But that is exactly how Betty Hunter, councilwoman for Ward 1, felt when she arrived to Marietta from California with her family at the age of seven in 1947. Ward 1 was a thriving development then, built in 1943 by private entrepreneurs for employees of the former Bell Bomber Plant of the Bell Aircraft Company. Hunter remembers the small houses of her neighborhood that were painted with army surplus paint.
"They were ugly,"Hunter says. "Pea green and yellow ochre. And there were small elm trees planted on each side of every house."
Hunter's father, who was originally from Blue Ridge, Ga., relocated his family to Marietta to be closer to his parents and in-laws. At first, he worked for Atlantic Steel in Atlanta and received very low wages. Hunter remembers those hard times when her father would bring home wooden nail crates to burn for heat in their house.
During warmer months, Hunter remembers riding her bicycle with other neighborhood children up and down the hills of her neighborhood. Since the Bell Bomber development was relatively new, Hunter says there were no grass or flowers in the yards, and she and the children would ride through their neighbors' muddy backyards at night with their fancy bicycle lights to guide the way.
"That was our entertainment around here," Hunter says. "We had a great time. Everybody knew each other. It was a nice neighborhood."
Hunter's first home is three houses down the street from where she currently resides with her husband, Randall, on Lakewood Drive today. While most of the houses on Lakewood Drive are currently renter-occupied, the homes were owner-occupied in the forties and fifties by the blue-collar workers that Hunter remembers.
"There was a butcher that lived on one side of us and a military man who lived on the other," Hunter recalls. Even though Hunter says she always struggled to maintain her C-average in school, she graduated from North Georgia College in Dahlonega with a bachelor’s degree in biology on the pre-medical track.
"I don't know why I chose such a difficult major," Hunter says. "My dad wanted me to be a dentist but there was no way I'd be accepted into dental school, so I went to Charity Medical School of Technology in New Orleans for more training."
Hunter returned to Marietta in 1964 after marrying Randall Hunter in 1961 when they purchased her childhood home on Lakewood Drive. After having three boys, Randy, Robby and Russell, Hunter decided to stay home to raise them. However, that did not stop her from being busy. She became very active in the parent and teacher's association (PTA) at Wright Street Elementary School where her children attended. After being appointed president of the PTA, Hunter became instrumental in saving the school's band program in which her son, Randy, played the saxophone. The school had threatened to remove the band program, and Hunter could not allow it to happen. She had played clarinet in the first elementary school band in Marietta and she did not want Randy and other children to miss out on that same opportunity. She brought the PTA together to write letters of protest to the school board and encouraged parents to take a stand. Their perseverance was rewarded when the school promised not to remove the program. Randy continues to play the saxophone today and has taught over 30,000 music lessons in his musical career, partly due to his mother's spirit to make a difference.
Hunter continued her involvement as a leader in PTA until she was appointed the president of the PTA counsel over all the schools in the city of Marietta and the fourteenth assistant director of the PTA counsel for Cobb, Cherokee, and Paulding counties. During that time, she lobbied to fight for the children and in one school, helped to keep the physical education programs from being removed. She started to participate in the city council meetings when school related issues were decided. Other council members and elected officials in Marietta encouraged Hunter to run for council and in 1981, she ran. Despite the fact that she walked door to door in her district, which was named Ward 3 at the time, to campaign for the office, Hunter lost.
Hunter was disappointed. "I didn't feel like a winner. There goes my popularity. My husband was more upset than me. He told me that he didn't want me to run again, that I'd never win."
She had run against incumbent Bill Peak, councilman of Ward 3 for 18 years, and in Hunter's opinion, he had done an excellent job. Still, council members continued to encourage her to run again. In the midst of her discouragement, Hunter was reading Robert Schuler's book, "Winning is Trying." She read that you win because you try. So, she decided to try again for 1982.
This time, she had the children on her side. Through her work as a substitute teacher and PTA involvement, Hunter had formed close relationships with the children she met. In fact, one principal begged her to earn her teacher's certificate so that he could hire her as a full time teacher.
Hunter told him, "I'm just an average person with average intelligence, why would you want me?" Her so-called average intelligence is precisely the reason the principal thought she would make an excellent teacher, to reach out to those who struggle in school. However, Hunter had different plans. To campaign for her second attempt, she walked the streets of the district to post signs. Hunter says the children would stop and say, "Mrs. Hunter, what are you doing?" When they learned she was running for office, they would run through the neighborhoods and pick up her opponent's signs and would tell their parents to vote for Hunter.
This time, she won. It was a sweet victory, an 85 percent landslide against the 19-year incumbent, Bill Peak."I was astounded. When they were counting the votes I thought I didn't have a chance. On election night at the city council party, I met so many people that I thought, how will I ever remember all of these peoples' names?"
Yet many problems faced Hunter as she took her place as a councilwoman. In the past five years, many of the homeowners in her neighborhood moved out of the city. Many children were denied bus privileges once Waterman Street Elementary school was shut down and children were transferred to Wright Street Elementary school. Hunter says that landlords bought the duplexes to rent them, changing the dynamics of the neighborhood from a stable, involved population to very transient and uninvolved. Hispanic workers and families moved to Marietta in the late eighties and rented the duplexes in Hunter's neighborhood.
Police commander, David Lee, says the police received "about 300 service calls a month concerning public urination, people drinking beer on a couch in their front yards, leaving the cans on the lawn, playing loud music outside and fights."
Hunter also received complaints. She teamed up with Aida Gonzalez, head of the Cobb County Latin American Association and Lee to solve the problem. Gonzalez held meetings for the Hispanic residents to teach them about American culture and acceptable behavior. Gonzalez then worked with Hunter's neighborhood association, the Loop Group, to speak about Hispanic culture and the struggles they face with earning money and the language and cultural barriers.
The Loop Group, named for the 120 Loop highway that surrounds the city, busied themselves with trash pick-up and park restorations. Hunter says there were some days when she went through the neighborhood herself to pick up other's garbage.
She said, "When the people saw an old lady picking up their trash, they felt really bad and the trash problem improved." Yet Hunter was still not satisfied with the relationship between the Hispanics, whites and blacks, so she worked with the police and fire departments, the Loop Group and Gonzalez to plan a neighborhood block party for September of 1998. She walked every street in her neighborhood to hand out invitations door-to-door to invite families. On the big day at Glover Park, along with several white families, only one black family and two Latino families participated in the activities with the firemen, policemen, games and food.
"I was so discouraged," Hunter said. She thought the party was a failure. However, residents Adelfa and Delfino Govea, who had heard of the first party but did not attend, liked the idea of a block party and promised they would bring some of their famous Mexican dishes if she would hold another one. Adelfa worked with Hunter to pass out invitations to invite the Hispanic residents to the next party for May of 1999. Adlefa says that it is difficult to involve Hispanics in the neighborhood events and meetings because, "many of them are renters and basically, I think, they just don't care. When you own something, you take pride in it."
However, Adelfa also thinks that if you tell people there will be food and games for their children, they will come and in May, they did. The second party, held in Hunter's front yard, was a success. Over 150 residents from all ethnic backgrounds attended as barriers decades old were broken. In December, the neighborhood celebrated both American and Hispanic versions of Christmas and even Kwanzaa with a Christmas parade and a progressive dinner party.
"The block parties are my biggest accomplishment I've made in my 24 years on council," Hunter says. The police department's MSTAR program, which works with residents in community outreach programs to nip crime since 2000, modeled their approach after Hunter's block parties.
Hunter is not sure what the future holds for her, but knows she wants her life to be like that of Mattie Harrion Lyon who was considered to be the mother of Marietta. She worked for the Marietta community until her death at 97, like during World War I when she gathered metal from residents to have it melted down for the war effort. Hunter says, "I don't want to stop. Let me die working."
She continues to serve as the president of the Confederate Cemetary Fund, has written three genealogy books about her family, teaches Sunday school at her church, is on the United Way board, and works on the Cobb Housing Board. Larry Ceminsky works with Hunter for the Cobb Housing Board and says that Hunter "is quiet, but very productive. In her way, she makes things happen." Hunter says that if a person whom she thinks will do her job well steps up, she would step down and give him or her a chance.
Adelfa says, "She does so much for us. I think she's great and I kinda worry about the day she decides she's not going to be councilwoman. I wish we had more neighbors like her! She keeps up with everybody, I'm amazed."
"I've had one of the most rewarding lives anyone could ever have," Hunter said. "A life worthwhile is one that makes a difference."