Photos: The Hicks babies gather

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Photos: The Hicks babies gather

Thirty or so people showed up at small inn in Ducktown, Tennessee, on Saturday to have their cheeks swapped for DNA testing. Now in their 50s and 60s, they are so-called Hicks babies, having been given up by their birth mothers as infants and sold to new families by Dr. Thomas Hicks from his clinic in McCaysville in the ’50s and ’60s.

Taylor Walker, nurse, collects DNA samples from Lesa Burgess, of Blue Ridge, who introduced herself as an intended Hicks Baby, at Ocoee River Inn in Ducktown, Tennessee on Saturday, June 21, 2014. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM

June 21, 2014 Ducktown, Tennessee - Melinda Elkins Dawson (right), of Canton, Ohio, who is one of Hicks Babies and organizer, talks with supporters and possible relatives of Hicks Babies (from left) Carol Grooms of Dalton, Juanita Brown of Dalton and Pam Helton Stepp of Ringgold, before they wait to get their DNA swab samplings done at Ocoee River Inn in Ducktown, Tennessee on Saturday, June 21, 2014. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM

Sherry Ferguson (center), who works at "A Touch of Love", takes a break outside the store as tourists walk through on Toccoa Avenue in McCaysville on Saturday, June 21, 2014. McCaysville is along the border between Georgia and Tennessee, along with its twin city of Copperhill, Tennessee.

Tourists walk through on Toccoa Avenue in McCaysville on Saturday, June 21, 2014.

Doris Abernathy, the recognized town historian in McCaysville, Georgia, stands by the old clinic building where Dr. Hicks sold babies. From 1997. (Special to the AJC/John Harmon)

Edna (left), a mother who adopted babies from the Hicks Clinic in McCaysville, takes a group photo of some of the adoptees on the Fannin County Court House steps in Blue Ridge on Thursday 8/21/97 during a reunion. (AJC Staff Photo/Frank Niemeir)

Adults who were sold as babies from the Hicks Clinic in McCaysville gather and say grace before having a meal with other adoptees at a cabin on top of a mountain north of Blue Ridge on Thursday 8/21/97. (AJC Staff Photo/Frank Niemeir)

Copy of undated photo of Jane Blasio on her wedding day. Kitty Self is the possible birth mother of Blasio who was adoped from a North Georgia Clinic where a doctor sold babies in the 1950's and 1960's. (Special to the AJC)

Undated copy of photo of Kitty Self as a young woman. Kitty Self is the possible birth mother of Jane Blasio who was adoped from a North Georgia Clinic where a doctor sold babies in the 1950's and 1960's. (Special to the AJC)

June 21, 2014 Ducktown, Tennessee - Lesa Burgess (left), of Blue Ridge, who introduced herself as an intended Hicks Baby, walks to DNA test area as a nurse Taylor Walker waits at Ocoee River Inn in Ducktown, Tennessee on Saturday, June 21, 2014. Melinda Elkins Dawson is one of about 200 babies who were sold from a clinic in McCaysville, GA in the 1950s and 1960s. Known as the Hicks Babies or the Hicks Adoptees, about 27 people, hoping to find their biological parents and get family medical histories, gathered Saturday in Ducktown, TN for DNA sample collection. Dawson worked with Ohio-based DNA Diagnostics Center to arrange free cheek-swab sampling Saturday at Ocoee River Inn in Ducktown, Tennessee, a few miles from where the clinic was located. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM

Mark Eckenrode, of Orlando, Florida, who is one of about 200 babies who were sold from the Hicks' Clinic in the 1950s and 1960s, smiles after he had his DNA swab sampling done at Ocoee River Inn in Ducktown, Tennessee on Saturday, June 21, 2014. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM

Mark Eckenrode (right), of Orlando, Florida, who is one of about 200 babies who were sold from the Hicks' Clinic in the 1950s and 1960s, listens to a nurse Taylor Walker before his DNA swab sampling at Ocoee River Inn in Ducktown, Tennessee on Saturday, June 21, 2014. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM

Taylor Walker (left), nurse, collects DNA samples from Mark Eckenrode, of Orlando, Florida, who is one of about 200 babies who were sold from the Hicks' Clinic in the 1950s and 1960s, at Ocoee River Inn in Ducktown, Tennessee on Saturday, June 21, 2014. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM

DNA sampling kits are ready for attendees at Ocoee River Inn in Ducktown, Tennessee on Saturday, June 21, 2014. Known as the Hicks Babies or the Hicks Adoptees, about 27 people, hoping to find their biological parents and get family medical histories, gathered Saturday in Ducktown, TN for DNA sample collection. Dawson worked with Ohio-based DNA Diagnostics Center to arrange free cheek-swab sampling Saturday at Ocoee River Inn in Ducktown, Tennessee, a few miles from where the clinic was located. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM

Mark Eckenrode, of Orlando, Florida, who is one of about 200 babies who were sold from the Hicks' Clinic in the 1950s and 1960s, enters to have his DNA swab sampling done as Patrick Dawson (left), husband of Melinda Elkins Dawson, at Ocoee River Inn in Ducktown, Tennessee on Saturday, June 21, 2014. Melinda Elkins Dawson is one of about 200 babies who were sold from a clinic in McCaysville, GA in the 1950s and 1960s. Known as the Hicks Babies or the Hicks Adoptees, about 27 people, hoping to find their biological parents and get family medical histories, gathered Saturday in Ducktown, TN for DNA sample collection. Dawson worked with Ohio-based DNA Diagnostics Center to arrange free cheek-swab sampling Saturday at Ocoee River Inn in Ducktown, Tennessee, a few miles from where the clinic was located. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM

Tourists walk through on Toccoa Avenue in McCaysville on Saturday, June 21, 2014.

Tourists walk by on Toccoa Avenue in McCaysville, Georgia. McCaysville is along the border between North Georgia and southeast Tennessee, along with its twin city of Copperhill, Tennessee.

Tourists walk through on Toccoa Avenue in McCaysville on Saturday, June 21, 2014.

The original the Hicks' Clinic building. The actual clinic is now a local pizza restaurant on Toccoa Avenue in McCaysville.

The original the Hicks' Clinic building, and the actual clinic (left side of the building) is now a local pizza restaurant on Toccoa Ave in McCaysville.

The original the Hicks' Clinic building, and the actual clinic (left side of the building) is now a local pizza restaurant on Toccoa Avenue in McCaysville.

The original the Hicks' Clinic building, now a local pizza restaurant on Toccoa Avenue in McCaysville. McCaysville is along the border between Georgia and Tennessee, along with its twin city of Copperhill, Tennessee.

Known as the Hicks Babies or the Hicks Adoptees, about 27 people, hoping to find their biological parents and get family medical histories, gathered at Ocoee River Inn for DNA sample collection on Saturday, June 21, 2014. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM

Melinda Elkins Dawson (right), of Canton, Ohio, who is one of Hicks Babies and organizer, gets a hug from Connie Sayers of Copperhill, Tennessee, who is a possible relative of Hicks baby, after Sayers had her DNA swab sampling done at Ocoee River Inn in Ducktown, Tennessee on Saturday, June 21, 2014. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM

Randy Truelove, of Cleveland, Tennessee, who is one of about 200 babies who were sold from the Hicks' Clinic in the 1950s and 1960s, fills in paperwork for his DNA swab sampling at Ocoee River Inn in Ducktown, Tennessee on Saturday, June 21, 2014. Known as the Hicks Babies or the Hicks Adoptees, about 27 people, hoping to find their biological parents and get family medical histories, gathered Saturday in Ducktown, TN for DNA sample collection. Dawson worked with Ohio-based DNA Diagnostics Center to arrange free cheek-swab sampling Saturday at Ocoee River Inn in Ducktown, Tennessee, a few miles from where the clinic was located. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM

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Taylor Walker, nurse, collects DNA samples from Lesa Burgess, of Blue Ridge, who introduced herself as an intended Hicks Baby, at Ocoee River Inn in Ducktown, Tennessee on Saturday, June 21, 2014. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM

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