With a ready-to-pick corn field as a perfect backdrop for a man born to love farming, community members gathered Monday morning to help dedicate the naming of part of Georgia Highway 46 for one of Bulloch County’s most beloved and respected native sons – Raybon Anderson.
Georgia Department of Transportation Board Member Ann Purcell and Anderson revealed the sign for “E. Raybon Anderson Highway” during an unveiling ceremony at the farm of the Jim Waters family on Harville Road. The section of the road named for Anderson is on State Route 46 between U.S. Highway 301 and State Route 67.
“I am honored. I hope I’m worthy,” Anderson said after seeing the road sign. “I don’t know if anyone enjoyed serving more than I did. The people of Bulloch County and the state of Georgia have always been good to me. There never was a moment that I served that I thought I was doing it. It was never ‘I.’ It was always ‘we’s and us’s.’ Excuse my English. It always had to be a team.”
Among his long history of service and many local and state roles, Anderson served as a district commissioner on the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners from 1991 to 1994, and then was elected countywide as the commissioners’ chairman, serving another a four-year term. During his tenure, the county hired its first county manager and local voters approved the county’s first Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
“It is so overwhelming to see so many people come out today to honor a great Bulloch Countian, a great Georgian and a great American in Raybon Anderson,” State Sen. Billy Hickman said.
A long-time friend, Hickman, along with Purcell, local state representatives Lehman Franklin III and Butch Parrish and others, helped get the road-naming resolution passed.
“Raybon has been a tremendous asset and mentor to Bulloch County, and to so many people not only in Bulloch County but across the state that we just felt like it was only fitting,” Hickman said. “His family farm is right close to Highway 46 down in that area, so we felt like it was another way to honor him for his longtime service to Bulloch County and all of Georgia.”
After growing up on a farm in the Nevils community, Anderson in early adulthood took a job with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, through which he met people from all over the state while working primarily with farmers from Bulloch County and surrounding areas.
Then he founded Bulloch Fertilizer Inc. in 1963, and more than 40 years later, he and his son Mike opened Anderson’s General Store, in 2005. In May, Anderson was inducted into the Georgia Agricultural Hall of Fame.
Elder Randy Waters, Anderson’s pastor at Statesboro Primitive Baptist Church, began Monday’s event with a prayer.
"We're here, Lord, to honor a man we've all come to love, admire and cherish," he said. "We thank you, Lord, for Raybon Anderson and for what you've done to him; that you've given him the character that you have; that you have given him the wherewithal and the courage to do things right. … (He is) a man who has been a servant not only to the Lord, his family and his church, but to his community, as well."
As a first term representative in the State House, Franklin spoke about the inspiration he has taken from Anderson’s legacy.
“There’s a quote that those of us who serve can know the direction to go, they can see the vision before them because they are standing on the shoulders of giants,” Franklin said. “I truly believe this is where we are at with Mr. Anderson. There is no doubt he is a giant in our community. Those of us in leadership and in service can see how to go forward because of his service and sacrifice.”
The DOT signs bearing the “E. Raybon Anderson Highway” name are now posted on the Georgia 46 right of way at both ends of the segment – near the U.S. 301 intersection and the Georgia 67 intersection.
