Elliott Brack Remembers Duluth's Wally Odum Jr.

By Elliott Brack

Don't you feel a certain joy and happiness when you see something done well?

We felt that the other day, at the (June 4) funeral in the celebration of the life of Wally Odum of Duluth. We came away with a feeling of contentment, for the services were done well, marked a life lived well.

Some funerals leave you troubled, as minor aspects mar the services in your mind, leaving you with a feeling that the deceased was not properly sent off. That can make you sad and upset.

Wally Odum is the one person in Gwinnett that I have known longer than anyone else outside of my family. Before we each came to Gwinnett, we were both at Mercer University as students, then we went our separate ways. When I moved here in 1974, I reunited with him and met his extended family, and have enjoyed their presence over the years.

Wally was quite an accomplished individual, though going about his activities in a quiet and unassuming manner. He was soft-voiced, but savvy and had good insights. He seldom seemed to become frustrated, but took life as it came his way, always looking ahead to a better tomorrow.

He accomplished a great deal, and made hosts of friends. Much has been made of his meticulous manner of raising lots of tomatoes, which he shared with friends. Yet the one aspect that sticks in my mind is the way he reached out to people, bringing them into his circle of friends, and staying with them.

The best example may be the "party shack" he and his wife built adjacent to their house in Duluth. Built to serve friends, it was most functional, screened from the mosquitoes and bugs we have around here. It had running water and toilets. Much of the cooking was done on grills behind the building.

It was dubbed "Wild Wally's Party Shack," and the name caused trouble for some people, not realizing the understated nature of Wally Odum. It has been used as large as the Duluth Fall Festival committee to small birthday parties for gatherings, including weddings, all at no cost. It was a true community gathering spot, a gift to the area from Ann and Wally.

On Saturday after the funeral, and the trek to the downtown Duluth Methodist Cemetery (hard by the new City Hall), Wally was laid to rest in a plot dedicated to his wife's predecessors, the Howell Family. (Evan Howell founded Duluth, and is also buried there.)

Then mourners were asked to greet the family at -- you guessed it -- Wild Wally's Party Shack. And so perhaps 100-150 people returned down Lawrenceville Highway, past the Methodist church where services were held, and parked all over the Odum lawn near the party shack. Neighbors had brought in all sorts of food, laid out lemonade, tea and water, for the crowd to drink, needed on a hot Saturday, before heading for the food line. There were big electric fans to combat the heat. People who had not seen one another in months, if not years, reunited with one another, as often happens at funerals. This was Wally's friends delighting in talking with one another, a traditional Southern custom.

Wild Wally's Party Shack was a perfect place to end the funeral activities, a tribute to the way that Wally lived. It was a funeral done right.

A. Wallace Odum Jr., 1933-2011. May you rest in peace.

(Editor's note: From Elliott Brack's column in the June 7 Gwinnett Forum. Reused with permission of the author.)