By Angie Thompson, Senior Reporter
TIFTON — Janie Hopwood’s dream to write a book recently came true, she said, because of her “dream team” of supporters. The author will sign copies of her dream come true, “The Beck House,” from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Tifton Elks Lodge and the public is invited.
Hopwood was a physical education teacher for 30 years (17 at Annie Belle Clark Elementary School) before she retired. Six years ago she began writing a mystery, crime and romance novel, she said, but after talking with her sister, Deanne Veal, she decided to write something about their maternal grandmother, Rena Beck, who owned and operated a boarding house in Americus from 1931 until the ‘50s.
“She was a courageous and strong woman,” Hopwood said of her grandmother. “She was a feisty old lady, and didn’t much get by her.”
As the book relates, Rena Beck, a twice-widowed woman who had to provide for her family of six daughters, transforms their home into a boarding house where guests are fed sumptuous meals and “roomers” are treated like family. She is a mother hen who protects her daughters without smothering them and an entrepreneur who takes advantage of every opportunity that comes her way, and some she invents, to keep her business going and growing. She is a sympathetic, caring lady who takes on the woes of the world through her colorful boarders.
World War II sees her daughters’ husbands going away and returning to live more comfortably than Beck had ever dreamed.
She then faces the fight of her life. Beck has to go to court in Sumter County to face city lawyers who are representing the county in its efforts to take her land away through the law of eminent domain.
Hopwood, originally from Americus, wrote the book as a collection of short stories. It is a work of fiction, she said, with a common thread being that the fodder for her writing came from interviews with people who lived at the Beck House, veterans of World War II and people from the Depression era, who all shed insight into history and how it shaped society. Some of the “bits and pieces,” she said, are about some people from Tifton.
“I interviewed lots of senior citizens for thoughts and reactions to World War II and Pearl Harbor,” Hopwood said. “Some of them didn’t hear about Pearl Harbor for several days. It wasn’t like us today. Everyone today can remember where they were on 9-11.”
Two of the stories are completely made up, Hopwood said. Four characters in the book are made up of characteristics of different people.
Much of the book, Hopwood said, is about the Depression and how it changed South Georgia.
She said the Rylander Theater in Americus was once an Opera House and Americus itself was a resort city in the ‘20s and one of the largest cities in Georgia at the time. After the war, she said, wealthy people began moving away.
Hopwood said the process of writing a book is difficult but she found support in Veal, her husband, Jerry, her editing team and all of the people who “patiently answered my questions.” The book is dedicated to her daughter, Becky, who died in September, and her daughter’s child, Aiden.
“The Beck House” is available locally at High Cotton, Three Graces, Additions and the Cabin Shop.
