The January meeting of the Thomasville Chapter National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) featured an interesting program by Marta Jones Turner on the 100-year history of Flowers Foods. 

Chapter Regent Charlotte Brown introduced the speaker. Turner has a degree in Public Relations from the University of Georgia. During her 40-year career in public relations with Flowers Foods, her responsibilities included corporate communications, investor relations, consumer relations and crisis preparedness. 

As a corporate officer of Flowers Foods, she served as a member of the top executive team for more than 20 years. Upon retiring in 2017, Turner led a two-year project to create an interactive exhibit celebrating the story of Flowers’ 100 years in business. 

Turner spoke about the Flowers Heritage Center and the restoration of the historic 1915 Post Office building located in downtown Thomasville. The building was purchased by Flowers Foods in 2015 from the Genealogical Society. 

Extensive engineering work was done and a local architect with expertise in historic preservation assessed the building and created the plans for the renovation of this historic property. Some of the original plans from 1915 were also used for reference during the renovation. 

The Flowers Heritage Center’s main floor includes the History in the Baking exhibit and a large meeting room used by Flowers. Offices are located on the lower level. The top floor has been modernized but in keeping with the original building design and includes beautiful marble floors, large windows and additional office space. 

During the two-year renovation of the historic Post Office building by Flowers Foods, Turner was also working with a design team to create the Flowers history exhibit. Flowers began as an ice cream company and opened its first bakery in 1919. The History in the Baking interactive exhibit illustrates Flowers Foods 100-year history and focuses on the contributions of employees, both past and present and the company’s culture from 1919 to 2019. 

To tell the Flowers’ story, Turner did video interviews with hundreds of people and extensive research and organization of the company’s archives. The exhibit includes a full-size truck that was created from a 1940s photograph to show what the bread salesman used during that time period. There is a 10-decade panel that captures the story of the management team, the people, the bakeries, history of Thomasville and a timeline of the Flowers family from 1500 to the present. 

There are displays about the Sunbeam brand, which includes the Miss Sunbeam doll and other Flowers’ memorabilia. Turner said she really enjoyed working on this historical project for Flowers Foods.

After the program, Thomasville Chapter DAR Regent Charlotte Brown thanked Turner for her presentation. Brown said, “Since one of the missions of DAR is to promote Historic Preservation, the Thomasville Chapter would like to recognize Flowers Foods for their achievements in this area.  They have not only preserved their 100-year history through the History in the Baking Exhibit but have also restored the historic Post Office building as the Flowers Heritage Center. Regent Brown presented the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution Excellence in Historic Preservation Certificate and Medal  to Flowers Foods. Turner accepted the award on behalf of Flowers Foods and thanked the Thomasville Chapter for this recognition. After the meeting, chapter members toured the History in the Baking Exhibit at the Flowers Heritage Center. The exhibit is currently closed to the public.

The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution was founded in 1890 to promote historic preservation, education, and patriotism. Its members are descended from the patriots who won American independence during the Revolutionary War. With more than 190,000 members in approximately 3,000 chapters worldwide, DAR is one of the world’s largest and most active service organizations. More than one million women have joined the DAR since it was founded. To learn more about the work of today’s DAR, visit www.DAR.org.

For more information about the Thomasville Chapter DAR, visit thomasville.georgiastatedar.org or the Chapter’s Facebook page at facebook.com/ThomasvilleChapterNSDAR.