Successful Augusta home seller lived in same Washington Road home for more than 94 years
Few people knew the importance of a home better than Carolyn Gardner.
The longtime Augusta Realtor, who helped countless families find places to live, died Oct. 14 in the historical house she occupied for more than 94 years. Gardner died just eight days before her 96th birthday.
Gardner's house at 3202 Washington Rd., bordered by a white picket fence, still remains a tiny rural oasis as metropolitan Augusta gradually grew around it over the past two centuries. City tax records show the home was constructed in or about 1800.
Gardner’s parents moved into the house when she was just 1 year old. Her maternal grandmother, Lillie West, was married in the home in 1880 and died there in 1963 at age 106. Gardner’s mother, Eva, died there in 1976 at age 86.
Born and reared in Augusta, Gardner’s life was long enough for her to excel in two 30-year careers. In 1945, three years after graduating from the Tubman High School for Girls, she began work at Georgia Power Co., first as a teller in its accounting department.
In the days when Georgia Power ran an appliances division to sell products to rural households, Gardner later became the utility’s leading sales agent for five consecutive years, winning several trips to Mexico, the Caribbean and Europe. She discovered her strong sales ability while she worked her first job at downtown Augusta’s Kress Department Store when she was 14.
'You were the heart of all of us': Friends remember Augusta restaurateur Mark Cumins
Leaving Georgia Power in the 1970s, Gardner joined real estate company Blanchard and Calhoun as its first female agent. By the time she retired in 2008, she had accumulated dozens of sales awards.
The gregarious Gardner’s clipped, no-nonsense business approach was sometimes confused with unfriendliness, but she displayed her kindness in other ways. Blanchard and Calhoun shared just one example:
In 1990, Gardner was handling the sale of one house and the purchase of another for a young physician and his wife, Dr. Daniel and Elena Boone. Days before the scheduled property closing, Gardner learned the couple’s financing had fallen through.
“While most realtors would let the chips fall where they may, Gardner did something truly extraordinary. She personally financed the home for the young buyers so that ... the Boones could proceed with their plans,” according to the realty company’s account. “Every month for five years, the couple hand-delivered their mortgage payment to Gardner’s farmhouse."
“It was the right thing to do,” Gardner said. “Maybe not the smartest thing – but the right thing.”
Her graveside service will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at Westover Memorial Park, with Dr. J. Colin Harris officiating.
Memorial donations may be made to Christ Community Health Services of Augusta, P.O. Box 2344, Augusta, GA 30901.
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Carolyn Gardner, successful Augusta real estate agent, dies at 95
