Ashler to present history of Birdsong and the surrounding Duncanville district at Historical Society meeting

Grady County Historical Society will meet at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, September 10, at the Cairo City Council Chamber in the Roddenbery Building with Betty Ashler, member of the Society and Birdsong Board member, sharing an interesting PowerPoint presentation about Birdsong’s Dickey Plantation era. 
Her Master’s thesis involved studying the Behavior of the Purple Gallinule and she did her field observations at Tall Timbers.  There she met  Dr. Ed Komarek, the Executive Director of Tall Timbers, who later asked her to work as the Science Education coordinator at both Tall Timbers and Birdsong (the Komarek’s home).
Birdsong Nature Center has had a long and rich history, featuring many interesting people and a legacy of excellent land use and care.  Over the past year, Betty Ashler, with assistance from Kathleen “Galbaby” Scott, has undertaken a major project and examined and sorted the archival collections of papers found and saved by Betty and Ed Komarek, Birdsong’s founders.  Betty has actively reviewed all these papers, especially those relating to the early years of ownership by the Dickey family.  She has discovered many fascinating personal letters and other family writings, put together a detailed family tree, and made connections with many living relatives as well as doing research at numerous historical societies and facilities in the state of Georgia.
Selected Dickey letters and poems will be on display.  If you are interested in local history, or just interested in Birdsong, you will find this to be an intriguing and enlightening program.
If you haven’t had a chance to visit the museum, please join us for this meeting to hear this informative program.  All members and friends of the Historical Society are encouraged to come and bring a friend.