History of the Atlanta Sky Hi Club
by: Georgiana McCall
from: Hi Notes Newsletter-April, 1997
The Atlanta Sky-Hi Club was founded in 1948. Early club records were lost so in the 70's charter member Louise Leonard sat down and penned her recollections which we reprinted last year. Both Louise Leonard and Ann Atwater had worked hard in 1952 to get our club chartered in the Affiliated Tall Clubs of America, now known as Tall Clubs International. Our club name was the Atlanta Ski-Hi Club but people confused us with skiing-as on snow-so the "Sky" came about and today we're only confused with the "Mile-Hi Club!"
I visited Louise Leonard and her brother, Charles, recently at her Fayetteville home. Louise, a delightfully tall and energetic lady, shared her wonderful memories, photos and newspaper clippings with me for this story. Louise has led an interesting, busy life. Her grandfather was a railroad man so she developed a life long love of trains. In 1983, Louise and another tall club member, Mary Armstrong, opened "Bodies in Motion" to train and help get aerobic leaders certified then contracted out to teach in the DeKalb County Parks and Recreation Department, metro Atlanta YWCA's, and in retirement homes. Also since 1983, Louise has taught the same exercise class to women with special needs.
Louise and Ann's efforts to get our club chartered in 1952 were successful. Louise's brother, Charles and Olive Ann Burns, then a young Atlanta newspaper reporter, were both made "honorary" club members in 1952 as they helped get the club going. (Our club almost disbanded in 1950.) Charles, tall enough, didn't meet the 21 year age requirement and Olive Ann, who wrote in later life the book "Cold Sassy Tree," was 2 inches short of the then 5'll" height requirement for women. Charles did much of the legwork for the club and Olive Ann got publicity writing feature stories for the paper. Several years later, Charles, old enough by then, became an official member when he got out of the Navy. Charles states he "tried to date as many tall women in the club as possible" until meeting, falling in love with and marrying his longtime tall mate, Kay, through the club.
Louise and Ann attended the 6th tall club convention in Denver in 1952. Wearing their "Sunday best" and hats and gloves, the two young women rode the train from Atlanta to Denver stopping along the way for members of the Paramount Tall Club in Chicago to board. Among the Paramount members was Don Koehler who, at 8'2" was (and still may be) the tallest man in the world. Louise has a picture of she, Ann and Don taken at the train station...Don towered above them. Louise recalls they pushed three tables together on the train for Don to sleep on. In Denver, of the 270 delegates, Louise and Ann were the only ones from South of Philadelphia or east of Texas. Everyone wanted Louise and Ann to "talk", a request I've frequently gotten while on my out-of-the-south trips. The "girls" wore identical white caps with "Atlanta" in red letters, black and white pedal pushers and red t-shirts. Louise showed me her convention name tag-a miniature cowboy hat and chaps made of real leather!
In the beginning meetings were held in people's homes. The first official meeting place was over the Masonic Lodge at Stewart Avenue and Dill Street. No drinking was allowed and the average age was 21 to 30 years old. Genders had to be balanced thus causing Louise to have to be on a six month waiting list to join in 1949...a man had to join at the same time as a "girl." Prospects were often found by having a "scavenger hunt" where members drove around Atlanta stopping tall people on the street and talking them into coming to a meeting! A meeting at Dill and Stewart!!
Louise Leonard was a club officer numerous times. President several times, vice president, treasurer. In addition to the Denver Convention in 1952, she attended the Minnesota Convention in '55. Miss Tall Atlanta, Gail Mills was elected in 1959 and Louise was one of the many participants at the first pageant held at the Heart of Atlanta Motel. A full page article on June 8, 1959 showing Louise and the other participants in bathing suits around the pool was my first knowledge of the Atlanta Sky-Hi Club and I would see my way clear of husbands and children and get my wish to be a member many, many years later. I feel I've come full circle sitting here today writing about a time Louise Leonard and I shared in such different ways and, share again today.
What did the club activities include back then? Much of what we do today. House parties, card parties, games, movies, bowling and yes, Steve Siegmann, picnics at Red Top Mountain just like you sponsor today. Roller skating at the old Rollerdrome off Ponce and across from the Krispy Kreme Donut Shop was fun as well as Mrs. Rousea's country farm house spaghetti suppers. Weekends were held at the Flying "S" Dude Ranch in Villa Rica and the Dillard House in the north Georgia mountains where a two night package including meals cost $8.00! Club members lobbied for free at the few local tall shops and called on city officials to raise canvas canopies jutting from downtown buildings to keep them from bumping their heads.
Don LaVert held the first club reunion in 1966 in the backyard of his mother's home. About 20 members attended. Our most recent reunion occurred in 1989 and Charles Leonard was kind enough to provide me with a roster. During the 50's our club swelled to around 50 members but had about 150 by the early seventies.
I always tell people of the wonderful friends I've made in the tall club and how being a member has enhanced my life. I have obtained a great deal of satisfaction delving into our club history through the mind of Louise Leonard. Even more, I find joy in getting to know, after all these years, such a special tall friend.
Early in 1951 we received an invitation from the Denver Timberline Club to attend convention in July at Troutdale in the Pines. We knew nothing about the AATC (American Affiliation of Tall Clubs), now called TCI. We wanted to find out more, so two of us went. We had a ball....everyone just flipped over "Georgia" and "Georgia-Lee." As Co-President of Sky-Hi Club I was invited to sit in on the delegate's meeting and became convinced that we should join AATC. We really had a job when we returned. First we had to convince the membership that joining would be a good thing (ask Don LeVert about some of those wee small hours sessions we had). The membership was polled and in writing agreed to join. This brought up our second problem - our Constitution had to be completely rewritten to comply with AATC requirements. We left the girl's height at 5'11", raised the men's to 6'2", added a few other officers and applied for membership. We were accepted. In the early days, whoever could afford the convention trip went and represented us as queen and/or delegate.
Our club house was acquired in 1953. (We had 35 to 40 members and needed more space for parties.) The man in charge of the stables at Adams Park offered us space in a club house next to the stables (rent free). Naturally we leaped at the idea and knocked ourselves out cleaning up the place, only to be ousted by the City of Atlanta. The man had no authority to let us use the place. Our President, Phil Latta, got busy and found us space over a drug store at Stewart and Dill Avenues. The $25.00 per month rent was quite a strain on our treasury, but we were determined. We scrubbed and painted and decorated and had a really great place when we finished. People donated old games, furniture, etc. We had a game area, dance space - we even had the heights for measuring prospects permanently etched on a convenient post. At this time we acquired our youngest member, Charles Leonard(author's younger brother) who, at 15, was made an honorary member until he reached due paying age. We really used that club house and everything went well until the management decided they wanted the hall back and we had to abandon, to my knowledge, what was our last club house.
Our membership was not large, by present standards, but we usually had a good turnout for parties. We had two house parties a year - the Flying S Ranch at Villa Rica, Georgia and the Dillard House at Dillard, Georgia-two of my favorite spots. Anything to do with food was popular like spaghetti suppers at Mrs. Russo's, progressive diners, house dances (at Don LeVert's we had to leave shoes at the door) and midnight suppers. Business meetings were at Thad's and we usually scheduled our Climb Stone Mountain parties for rainy days or nights. We had two photographers during this time ...Gery Mitchell and Doug Buckner. They recorded most of our parties on film and generously gave prints to the club. Most of these were also in the now misplaced scrapbook.
In 1955 we had a new situation. Suddenly there were seven of us planning to attend convention in Minnesota! So, all the girl's names were put in the pot for Miss Tall Atlanta. The selection was to be made at our Anniversary Party. This brought up another question. We usually had a party in early April designated as the "Anniversary Party" - but no one knew how old we really were. (All the records prior to 1950 had left town with a member long ago.) We contacted as many old, old members as we could find, but still no one knew for sure. Jean Cooper Chesley thinks we may have been in existence as far back as 1945 or 1946. We finally settled on 1948 as a likely date and so celebrated our seventh anniversary in 1955. We had a successful time at convention. Shirly Kallmeyer as our Queen, did not place, but Jack Cook as our King did place second as Mr. Tall America. Jack deserted his harem for a very beautiful girl from the California Tip Toppers who had placed second in the queen contest. After convention he courted her long distance and subsequently married her. Iris Cook was a great addition to our club and has helped us so much since with our contest. Don LeVert could not attend convention that year so he sent his Confederate flag instead and a tradition was begun. Each year the name of the host club was etched on the flag, the flag was flown from a convenient flag pole, then stolen by another club and hidden until convention the following year. His flag actually flew on the Queen's flag pole in Vancouver, B.C. at the 1956 convention. The flag was very popular and last glimpsed at "Dixie in 60." "Dixie in 60" was first mentioned at the Minnesota convention in 1955 and later became a reality.
We were very fortunate in 1957 when we selected Betty "Stretch" Buchanan as Queen. The Journal Magazine did a fabulous article on a fabulous girl and the resulting publicity was fantastic. Every man over 18 and 6'2" within a 500 mile radius was clamoring to get into the Sky-Hi Club. We really grew and for the first time realized that we might just be big enough to swing a convention in 1960. Quite a few went to the Miami convention that year. Those of us who stayed here worked up a never to be forgotten pre-convention party for other clubs passing through on the way to Miami. The party was held at the Waldorf Motel-which has never recovered- and "Dixie in 60" was in.
As a preliminary to our first convention, we decided that we needed to put on a "real" beauty pageant. We turned this awesome task over to Mary Armstrong, one of our more talented members, and she came up with a dilly. Mary had a great deal of help and did a fantastic job of planning, publicity, coordinating, etc. The pageant was held in May of 1959 at the Heart of Atlanta Motel and the pre and post publicity was tremendous. We were again fortunate to have Fred Stover who took many pictures to add to our collection. Some of our members have distinguished themselves in one way or another, and I will mention just a few of these: Jack Dennard is president of his own electronics firm in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and pioneered heart pacing machines. Mary Cobb Bugg is head of the Adult Education program at Emory University. Rufus McCall, attorney, is probably our wealthiest member. Linton Broome, a journalist (picked up on one of our scavenger hunts) later became Mayor of Doraville, Georgia. Jean Peek, woman engineer, has long been our ambassadress of good will from St. Louis, to Atlanta, to San Francisco. Claire Northcross distinguished herself with overseas duty in Japan. Our tallest member during the period of which I am writing was Al Leary, basketball player for Georgia Tech, measuring 6'9". J.B. Angelo Crowe (?) was the first driver education teacher in the State of Georgia and is now consultant to the State of Georgia for driver education. Some of our presidents during this period were: Claire Northcross, Rufus McCall, Bert Wooten (deceased), Louise Leonard, Phil Latta, Bill Parrott, Bill Boumans, Jack Cook, Don LeVert (died 1996...ed), and Earl King. Representing us as queen before the Miss Tall Atlanta Pageant were: Claire Northcross, Shirley Kallmeyer, Pat Inge Welch, Betty "Stretch" Buchanan Nastopolous (she married a greek grocer) and Wilma Hachtel.
I will end this recollecton here hoping that you have enjoyed it.
Note: Above story about the beginning of the Atlanta Sky Hi Club was written by Louise Leonard in the early 1970's after all early club records were lost. I "found" story in 1996 while searching through our history records. Story was reprinted in three parts for HI-NOTES news letters of March, April and May, 1996. Several months later I interviewed Louise Leonard and subsequently wrote an update story printed in HI-NOTES, April 1997.
Respectfully submitted, this date of February 20, 1998, on behalf of the Atlanta Sky Hi Club and with special thanks to Louise Leonard.
Georgiana McCall, editor