Paul Payne Patten
Paul Payne Patten, son of Ida Lou Hall and James Marcus Patten of Ray City, GA, married Marion Inez Lanham of Atlanta.
On Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1936, Ray City, GA and the rest of the country were still in the midst of the Great Depression. Ed Rivers had just been elected governor of Georgia and Franklin D. Roosevelt re-elected to his second term. It was the first Thanksgiving ever celebrated by a U.S. president abroad; Roosevelt had Thanksgiving dinner in the south Atlantic on board the battleship USS Indianapolis on his way to the Inter-American Peace Conference in Buenos Aires. Marion Inez Lanham and Paul Payne Patten celebrated Thanksgiving by getting married.
Marion Inez Lanham engagement photo 1936
The bride was the 24-year-old daughter of Charles Marion Lanham and Myrtle I. Prichard. Her father was a dispatcher or “trainmaster” for steam trains on the Seaboard Rail Road. He was a Presbyterian and a member of the W. D. Lucky lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons. Her mother was Myrtle I. Prichard, daughter of Dr. John Emory Prichard. Marion Inez Lanham was a graduate of the Girls High School, an all-white, girls-only public high school which had been established in Atlanta during Reconstruction.
Girls High School building, Atlanta, GA. Photographed 1956.
The groom was Paul Payne Patten, born July 4, 1910, the son of educators who taught at the Ray City School and other community schools in the area. He was 5’6″ inches tall, 150 pounds, with brown eyes, brown hair and a ruddy complexion. Paul and his brother Edwin James Patten attended the all-white Georgia School of Technology, now Georgia Tech, in Atlanta, GA; The brothers graduated together in 1934, both receiving degrees in mechanical engineering.
Paul Payne Patten of Ray City, GA
Georgia School of Technology, now Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA
After graduation, Paul Patten obtained a job with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service. He worked at Camp Lucretia, near Villa Rica, GA, which was part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs to provide work for unemployed men. During the Great Depression, the unemployment rate was at 25 percent. The camp was one of the 2,650 Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps that employed more than 600,000 men across the nation from 1933 to 1942. Ray City men served at the CCC camp at Homerville, GA. Even though the federal law creating the CCC declared “no discrimination shall be made on account of race, color, and creed,” the National Park Service documents how in Georgia, African-Americans were excluded from CCC camps. The CCC opportunities were for white men. Under pressure from federal authorities to enroll black applicants, Governor Eugene Talmadge suggested in late 1933 that a black CCC camp be opened in Berrien County, GA. While this location was rejected, there were eventually four segregated CCC camps for black men located on US Army bases in Georgia.
According to Georgia Department of Transportation archeologist Terri Lotti, the work at “Camp Lucretia included seed collection, building terrace outlets, gully control and road construction within a 10-mile radius of the camp in Carroll, Haralson, Paulding and Douglas counties. The young men of the camp also built furniture using lumber from land-clearing operations in the area, selling the furniture in town…vocational training and other education was one of the most important aspects of CCC camp life [at Camp Lucretia] because it gave the enrollees a better chance to find a job when they discharged. Education initially included courses on adult literacy, typing, first aid, salesmanship, citizenship, arithmetic, reading, writing and leathercraft, but were later expanded to include algebra, astronomy, civics, auto mechanics, carpentry, cooking and photography.“
Men of Camp Lucretia. During the Great Depression, Camp Lucretia SCS-4, provided work and education for unemployed white men in Villa Rica, GA.
Marion Inez Lanham and Paul Payne Patten had announced their engagement in the October 18, 1836 edition of the Atlanta Constitution.
Engagement of Marion Inez Lanham to Paul Payne Patten 1936
Atlanta Constitution
October 18, 1936
Miss Lanham Weds Mr. Patten at Thanksgiving Ceremony
Miss Marion Inez LanhamAnnouncement is made today by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Marion Lanham of the engagement of their daughter, Marion Inez, to Paul Payne Patten, the marriage to take place on Thanksgiving Day.
Miss Lanham is the eldest of three daughters, her sisters being Misses Carolyn and Eleanor Lanham. Her mother was formerly Miss Myrtle Prichard, daughter of the late Dr. John E. Prichard, prominent north Georgia physician, and the late Mrs. Sallie Prichard. The bride-elect graduated from Girls High School. Mr. Patten is the son of Mr. and Mrs. James M. Patten, of Ray City, Ga. His sister is Miss Ruth Patten, and his brothers are Hall Patten, of Ray City; Edwin Patten of Villa Rica. His mother was before her marriage Miss Ida Lou Hall. He is a graduate of Georgia School of Technology, in the class of 1934, and is connected with the United States Department of Agriculture.
Six weeks later the couple were married.
Marriage of Marion Inez Lanham and Paul Payne Patten reported in the Atlanta Constitution, November 27, 1936.
Miss Lanham Weds Paul Payne Patten At Home Ceremony
Of interest was the marriage Thanksgiving afternoon of Miss Marion Inez Lanham, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Marion Lanham, to Paul Payne Patten, which was solemnized at 5:30 o’clock at the home of the brides parents on Wesley avenue, in the presence of an assemblage of friends and relatives. Dr. E. T. Wilson, pastor of the Peachtree Road Presbyterian church, performed the ceremony.
A musical program was rendered by Mrs. J. Stephen Hughes, pianist, and J. G. Bentley, vocalist, sang “I Love You Truly,” “Because” and “The Sweetest Story Ever Told.” The improvised altar in the living room was banked with foliage plants and palms and combined with pedestal basket trimmed with Easter lilies and pompoms and seven-branched cathedral candelabra holding burning white tapers.
Miss Carolyn Lanham, sister of the bride, was maid of honor. She was lovely in a princess model of pale green brocaded satin and she carried talisman roses. Little Miss Ann Lou Patten, niece of the groom, who was a flower girl, wore a princess model of pink taffeta and she carried a nosegay.
Entering with her father, by whom she was giving in marriage, the bride was met at the altar by the groom and his brother, Edwin Patten, who was best man. The bride wore a beautiful gown of white satin, made with a tight-fitting jacket of lace which extended in the back to the full length of her long train. Her bridal veil of misty white tulle was held to her hair by orange blossoms. She carried a bouquet of bride’s roses and valley lilies.
Mr. and Mrs. Lanham entertained at an informal reception after the ceremony. Assisting in entertaining were Mesdames Hall Patten, Edwin Patten, Luther Hamilton, R.R. Lanham and Misses Ruth Patten, Maybelle Prichard, MayBeth Prichard and Mary Curtis. Miss Eleanor Lanham, sister of the bride, kept the bride’s book. She wore peach taffeta. Mrs. Lanham was handsomely attired in a wine velvet gown and she wore a shoulder bouquet of white rosebuds. Miss Ruth Patten, sister of the groom, wore royal blue velvet and her corsage was pink rosebuds.
Mr. Patten and his bride left for their wedding trip to Florida and upon their return they will reside with the bride’s parents on Wesley avenue. For traveling the bride wore a smart three piece suit of gray wool trimmed with Persian lamb and her hat and accessories were gray.
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