File PhotoA 1950 clipping from The Valdosta Daily Times captures the Duke and Duchess of Windsor making a stop in Hahira.

HAHIRA — Many important figures have traveled through Lowndes County through the years. President Donald Trump’s December visit was one of a handful by presidents and first ladies.

But Lowndes County has also seen a king come through, albeit a former one. 

In January 1950, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor traveled through Hahira en route to Tallahassee, Fla. Fourteen years earlier, he was King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom.

Not even a year after he acceded the British throne, he abdicated in December 1936 with the support, he said, “of the woman I love,” American Wallis Simpson. He was given the courtesy title of Duke of Windsor, and in 1937, he and the duchess married.

During World War II, King George VI appointed the Duke of Windsor as governor of the Bahamas. Following the war, the duke and duchess lived a jet-set life, spending much time in New York. At some point, they became acquainted with George Baker and his Tallahassee-based Horseshoe Plantation, which hosted many notable names.

The duke liked to golf and he liked to hunt. The area offered both.

The 1950 trip south was not his first. The duke had been to the Baker ranch at least twice before, with trips in 1947 and 1948 getting a bit of publicity.

Press mentions were higher in 1950. Some papers even printed what time the train was to arrive in Nahunta — 8:15 a.m. It was a 16-hour ride from where they embarked on the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in New York City.

Of course, the Windsors were not in the sleeper car with the rest of the passengers. They had their own private car that attached to the train. That car is the most likely reason why the the couple saw Hahira.

Nahunta was the only major stop on the ACL between Savannah and Jacksonville and probably the most convenient for travels to Tallahassee.

There was a crowd when the Windsors departed the train at Nahunta. They posed for a few photographs, made a few comments for the press and the duchess accepted camellias from a Waycross delegation.

They had time.

An estimated 60 pieces of luggage were unloaded from the train and loaded into other vehicles. Three total cars, plus a truck, were needed to take the Windsors, employees and gear. They were escorted by the Georgia State Patrol.

The traveling party went west from Nahunta to Waycross on U.S. 82, then to Pearson. At Pearson, they turned left on Ga. 31 and made their way to Lakeland. There, it seems the route was changed and instead of continuing south on 31, they went west on Ga. 122.

The Windsors apparently were scheduled to go through Valdosta but the Georgia State Patrol called The Times office and alerted the newspaper staff of the route change. Times staff member Chris Trizonis drove Betty Wilkison and Mrs. Lamar Wilson to Hahira to catch up with them.

A mile east of Hahira, beside a cotton field, the two met and the Windsors consented to a brief interview and photograph.

Few bits of the interview itself made it into The Times. The duke compared reporters’ cameras and the power of the press to the hydrogen bomb.

“We feel very much at home here,” was the only reported quote from the duchess.

More attention was paid to the people themselves. The duke wore “a tan-and-brown English tweed suit,” according to the Times article. The duchess, a “blue and tan plaid suit.” Wilson gave the Duchess another camellia.

Wilkison reported the two to be genial, shaking hands. They nodded a greeting to nearby highway workers. The two even waved goodbye.

From Hahira, the Windsors drove through Barney and Pavo, then through Thomasville as they headed for the border. The Baker ranch was said to be a few miles south of the Florida line.

The Windsors came back through Nahunta a few times in later years but it seems that only this trip was captured by South Georgians. The Duke of Windsor died in 1972, the duchess in 1986.