After his marriage to Bernie in Meno, Oklahoma, Ed returned to Chicago to tender his resignation to Neumann, Buslee & Wolfe.  He would then head to Atlanta where his new bride would join him.

Bernie gave notice to Montgomery Ward in Enid, where she did office work and payroll.  She packed up all her worldly possessions and was excited about her move to the big city of Atlanta, Georgia.

My aunt Beverly, Ed’s youngest sister, remembers going with her mother to the train station to greet her new sister-in-law.  She was instructed to “look for the pretty redhead.”  After Bernie arrived on the train and met her new mother-in-law and sister-in-law for the first time, she was escorted back to the Farrar family home in Atlanta.

Once back in Atlanta, Ed applied for a job with Oakite Products, Inc., self-described in 1949 as “originators of specialized cleaning materials and methods for every industry.”  He travelled to New York City on September 26, 1949 for his final interview.  He was officially hired by Oakite that day and began his training that same day.

Ed Farrar’s First Oakite Company Photo (1949)

With his training completed, on November 14, 1949, he was assigned to the Columbia-Spartanburg, South Carolina territory.  Ed and Bernie moved to Greenville, South Carolina and rented an apartment in a beautiful large stone home.  Bernie took a job doing office work with an insurance company as Ed began his Oakite career.

Home in Greenville, SC where Ed and Bernie rented an apartment, 1949 to 1950 (photographed in 2010)

Ed succeeded as an Oakite salesman in South Carolina, but his dream was to move back to Atlanta.  On November 13, 1950, he received a letter from Oakite that told him the news he longed to hear.  He was being reassigned to the Atlanta territory as of December 1.

After only about a year in South Carolina, Ed and Bernie made the move to Atlanta.  Ed was happy to be back home.  Ed and Bernie bought their first home and dreamed of starting a family, but it would take many years before their first child (that would be me) was born in 1957.  Three and a half years later, my sister, Nancy, was born, completing our family.

Over the years, Ed was offered opportunities for promotion that would have necessitated him moving away again, but he would never entertain any offer that meant moving away from Atlanta, Georgia.

© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2014