Verlon Charles Southerland, 80: Square dancer, RV traveler

By Rick Badie

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

In 1980, Verlon and Sue Southerland purchased a Holiday Rambler. They attended RV rallies all over the country. One trip to Sedalia, Mo.,  introduced them to square dancing.

While in the Show Me State, the Buford couple signed up for a Western dance class.

"We found out if you really wanted to learn, you had to take instruction for a year," said Mrs. Southerland, his wife of 54 years.

When they returned home, they took lessons once a week at a studio in Snellville. The couple eventually joined square dance clubs such as the Silver Stars.

Not to brag, but Mrs. Southerland says she had a leg up on her hubby when it came to dance. It wasn't because he had two left feet.

"I had taken dance lessons from the Fred Astaire dance studios, so I think I was better," she said, chuckling. "We'd spend weekends in the mountains at dances in Gatlinburg, and we'd bring a whole Atlanta group with us."

Though they eventually stopped dancing, they didn't stop camping.

Mr. Southerland had served as board chairman for the Choestoe Valley RV Park in North Georgia, where they owned lots No. 17 and 18. He was a charter member, and officeholder, of the Georgia Mountaineers, the state chapter of the Family Motor Coach Association. He just stepped down as president of Peach State Ramblers Chapter 88.

"He basically held the club together the last two or three years," said George Wilkerson of Atlanta. "He and his wife traveled with a different group of the club than I do, but they spent a lot of time in Florida."

In the campgrounds, it wasn't unusual for Mr. Southerland to prepare a meal.

"When we camped, we had breakfast together at least one morning," said Jimmy Stinson of Gray. "He carried all the utensils, and he was the one who cooked breakfast. He liked to cook and sit around and talk to people. He was very involved."

The Southerlands had camped in every state except California. It was on their to-do list for the new year. Last February, the fisherman and gardener was diagnosed with a blood anemia. In recent weeks, he'd suffered with fevers, an appetite loss and fatigue. Lab work detected an aggressive leukemia.

On Saturday, Verlon Charles Southerland died from complications of the disease at Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville. He was 80. The funeral will be 11 a.m. Tuesday in the chapel of Flanigan Funeral Home and Crematory in Buford, which is handling arrangements.

Mr. Southerland was born in DeKalb County, Ala. When his parents divorced, he moved with his remarried father to the Sugar Hill area of Gwinnett County. He earned his GED while in the U.S. Army.

After military service, he worked several years on the assembly line at General Motors in Doraville. That was followed by a stint as a truck driver for Armored Express Services Inc.

In the mid-1960s, Mr. Southerland took a job in the warehouse of Eastman Kodak Co. near Chamblee. It was the start of a 27-year career in which he retired as a customer service supervisor.

Mr. Southerland was a past president and director of the Buford Lions Club. He was a Shriner, too, and a member of the Buford Masonic Lodge No. 292 F&AM.

And of course, he was a devout traveler.

"The whole idea with RV clubs is to get out and go somewhere different, mostly campgrounds," his wife said. "We've had an RV for 30 years. Between camping and dancing, we just really had decades in fun."

Additional survivors include two brothers, Billy Southerland of Duluth and Joe Southerland of Lawrenceville.