Joanna Eppard collection

Joanna Eppard (née Gibson), born in Athens, Georgia on July 28, 1892, worked at the Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company from 1907 to 1937. She married Lester L. Eppard in 1918. Southern Bell began operations in Athens in August, 1882, with thirty-six subscribers. It changed locations over its years, moving from the rear of Scudder’s jewelry store to a location at the corner of College and Clayton in 1889, then to the Talmadge Building in 1906, and finally to its own building at 183 West Clayton Street in 1918. A 1922 issue of Southern Telephone News notes that Eppard has worked at the company for fifteen years; she is listed there with the abbreviation “supr,” or supervisor. She was also categorized as a supervisor in the Piedmont Directory Compnay’s 1931 Athens directory. By 1930, there were more than three thousand telephones in the city. After her retirement in 1937, Joanna Eppard continued to be an active member of the Telephone Pioneers of America, a charitable organization comprising active and retired telecommunication professionals, attending national meetings, as documented in this collection. She and Lester had no children. Lester Eppard passed away in 1944, Joanna Eppard in 1968.