When Ethel Warren Spruill married Stephen Spruill in 1933 and moved to Dunwoody, she became a member of the Dunwoody Home Demonstration Club. At the time, Katherine Strong Rudeseal was the Home Demonstration Agent for DeKalb County. (“Story of Dunwoody,” by Elizabeth L. Davis and Ethel W. Spruill)
Home Demonstration Agents traveled around their assigned county demonstrating methods of preserving food, such as canning or freezing. They sometimes shared other skills including sewing. Many counties in Georgia had agents, but not all.
Early Home Demonstration agents often traveled by horse and buggy. If the visit involved a lesson in canning and the group had no canning equipment, the agent brought a canner. (Atlanta Journal, May 10, 1959, “Canning was main topic in buggy days, she recalls”)
Rudeseal shared her memories of the Dunwoody community when Ethel W. Spruill and Elizabeth L. Davis wrote their book, “The Story of Dunwoody.” Rudeseal recalled that Nettie Austin was principal of the Dunwoody school when she first started visiting the community.
One of her first projects for the county was to have 4-H members make a birthday cake for the County Commissioner of Roads and Revenues, Mr. L.T. Y. Nash. The only DeKalb County School with a homemaking department was Chamblee High School. The students baked the cake on an old oil stove. It was a round pound cake with birthday trinkets baked inside.
On the way to Mr. Nash’s office, Rudeseal “…pulled my Model A coupe over on the side of the road around Peachtree Creek, stuck a knife in it and out poured raw batter. I dumped it into the creek and returned to Decatur about noon with no cake and the guests due to come. The cake we had baked was a round cake and there was not a round cake to be found in any DeKalb bakery. In desperation we took a square cake and poked the trinkets inside and put on another coat of frosting. When the girls came to help, they looked at me and I looked at them but not a word was said.”
Rudeseal also remembered Lois Pattillo Bannister of Dunwoody, who had all red animals on her farm, today’s Donaldson-Bannister Farm. She had Rhode Island red chickens, red Irish setters, and red horses.
She recalled Dr. Fischer and Flowerland of Chamblee. “The fence along the side of the road was lined with Blaze climbers, the creek bank was lined with rhododendron, and there were thousands of roses in the gardens.”
Rudeseal remembered the Norris family, owners of Norris Candy Company, who also owned a nursery between the Kellogg property and the Spruill property.
Katherine Strong Rudeseal is pictured in the center of this 1965 Avondale High School Yearbook page.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Rudeseal taught Home Economics at Avondale High School. She was also Dean of Women Students. She attended the University of Georgia for her undergraduate degree and Emory for her Masters degree in Education.
In 1957, five individuals were honored as finalists for the DeKalb County Teacher of the Year. A tea was held at the Avondale American Legion home. The finalists included Katherine Rudeseal, who was head of the Home Economics Department at Avondale High School and Harold Smith, head of the vocational agriculture department at Chamblee High School. Other nominees were Sarah Coleman of Briar Vista Elementary School, Betty Ellington of Clarkston High School and Zella Potterfield from Skyland Elementary School. (Atlanta Constitution, Feb. 27, 1957, “DeKalb Tea Honors 5 Teacher Finalists”)
Which of these educators won DeKalb County Teacher of the Year in 1957? I didn’t find that answer, but Rudeseal was Teacher of the Year for Avondale High School. This was announced in her hometown paper, the Times-Herald of Newnan, Georgia.