by Rebecca Hightower
The Barron family has provided a generous gift of $25,000 to establish the Lindsey and Genet Barron Business Scholarship. The two sons of Lindsey and Genet Barron, Frank and Chip Barron, established this scholarship to honor their parents’ memory and life-long commitment to education.
Frank and Chip Barron sign the scholarship agreement honoring their parents as UWG Newnan Director Cathy Wright and Senior Director/Chief Administrative Officer of Off-Campus Programs Dr. Robert Heaberlin look on.
Genet Heery Barron, born in Hapeville, Georgia, earned her teacher’s certificate from the University of West Georgia and spent her lifetime committed to the well-being and empowerment of young people. She served as the president of the Women’s Missionary Union of the Georgia Baptist Convention and as vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention Board of Foreign Missions. She went on mission trips to China and Africa. For many years, Genet served as director of the Girl’s Auxiliary at the First Baptist Church of Newnan. She served on the Board of the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home in Palmetto, Georgia, was a pink lady at old Newnan Hospital, and president of the Newnan Reading Circle. She was a founding member and president of the Coweta Ladies Kiwanis club.
Lindsey Barron, born in Greenville, South Carolina, graduated from Newnan High School in 1940 before graduating from Emory University. Lindsey was a member of the prestigious DVS Honorary Society at Emory University, and he served as president of Sigma Chi Social Fraternity. He entered the U.S. Navy in World War II, seeing battle action at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, as well as other islands in the Pacific Theater.
After the war, Lindsey started a bottling plant in Woodbury, Georgia, and later owned the Pepsi Cola franchise for 16 counties in the west Georgia area. He also had a plumbing and electrical contracting business and a furniture store on Jefferson Street in Newnan where the Newnan Times-Herald is presently located. Lindsey grew a successful real estate business developing many subdivisions and restoring many commercial buildings in Newnan including the Wesley Woods of Newnan/Peachtree City. Like his wife, Lindsey actively served his community acting as president of the Newnan–Coweta Chamber of Commerce, the local United Way, the Newnan Kiwanis club, and as chairman of the deacons of the First Baptist Church of Newnan.
Frank and Chip Barron hope to continue their parents’ tradition of commitment to UWG Newnan.
“Our parents did so much for us and for our community, Frank and I wanted to do something to honor them locally,” explained Chip. “The University of West Georgia Newnan was a natural fit because we all have so much history at the old Newnan Hospital, plus my mother got her teaching certificate from West Georgia, and I was honored to serve on the local advisory board when the first West Georgia campus was opened here. Our whole area has been blessed by the University of West Georgia, and we know that our parents would be so pleased with the new facility and its location in Newnan.”
The scholarship recipient must be majoring in business and be from Newnan.
“We want to help our local students as they seek to obtain their education at the Newnan campus,” Chip said. “Our father majored in business in college, and he was a self-made businessperson and entrepreneur. Therefore, business is the area that we thought would be best for the scholarship, particularly real estate, which has been our family’s business locally for many years. Our mother obtained her real estate license in 1968, and our father was a licensed real estate broker for many years. He founded our firm, Lindsey’s, Inc., in 1948. Frank and I have been licensed in real estate since the late 1960s, and we bought our company from our father in 1978. We have operated the brokerage since that time as co-owners. My son, Tom Barron, and Frank’s son, Jess Barron, have also joined the firm and continue the family’s real estate business heritage. To any scholarship recipient, we would like for that person to succeed in business by following the Golden Rule of treating others as they would like to be treated. That was the hallmark of our parents’ lives, and that is the way we were taught by them.”
Do you have a comment or opinion about this story's topic? Perspective Online wants to hear from you. Submit a letter to the editor today.
