“Everything is okey-doke in the Okefenokee.”
–Jerry Reed
Lydia Smith did not scare easy. She stood 6’6 feet tall and always carried a Smith & Wesson pistol. Born in 1864, Lydia grew up poor on Cowhouse Island in the Okefenokee Swamp. She eventually built an empire that included 20,000 acres. Word around the swamp during the early 1900s circulated that Lydia operated as a highly intelligent gangster.
Published in 2003, Lois and Richard Mays tell a gritty tale in the Queen of the Okefenokee. This book documents Lydia’s experience from hangings, Indian Wars and the Great Depression. She raised livestock with her sisters. Their business acumen received attention from newspapers in Waycross, Brunswick and Savannah, Georgia. Lydia dabbled in everything from cotton to moonshine.
Lydia attracted a few lovers. She wasn’t the prettiest gal in town, but she possessed a fortune, so the men folk sniffed at her door. In 1932, authorities discovered one of the largest moonshine stills in the Okefenokee, not far from Lydia’s Cowhouse Island compound. No one was arrested. Locals feared Lydia.
Some say Lydia not only bribed the Governor of Georgia but ripped him off. The story goes she traveled to Atlanta to meet with Governor Eugene Talmadge. Lydia brought a $1,000 check to the Governor. She informed Talmadge if he pardoned her killer husband Melton, she’d pay another $1,000 upon his release. The day of Melton’s pardon, Lydia put a “stop-payment” on her second check. This rude gesture irritated Talmadge.
Talmadge dispatched an assistant to collect payment from Lydia. She told the messenger: “I’ve got my Doll Baby, you’ve got your $1,000. Now get out of here.” The governor did not want any more people getting shot so he let Lydia off the hook.
Lydia’s businesses ran smooth during the Great Depression. By this time, developers wanted to build a ship canal through the Okefenokee, which Lydia protested. On March 30, 1937, President Roosevelt signed an executive order that preserved 412,000 acres and created the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge. Lydia died a few months later in December of 1937.
Every page of Queen of the Okefenokee kicks like a shotgun blast.
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