Wildman’s manager says $800K stock sale was a gift, not theft from estate

“To My Best Gal Friday,” the letter began. For Marjorie Lyon, longtime manager of Wildman’s Civil War Surplus, the letter could mean she’s off the hook for claims she took more than $800,000 in Lockheed Martin Corp. stock that didn’t belong to her.

Lyon says that late store owner Dent Myers penned a letter gifting her the stock in October 2021, and she included a copy of the letter along with an affidavit from a friend who said they witnessed Myers signing it in a filing last week in the ongoing dispute over Myers’ estate.

Lyon was removed as a trustee last year. Myers’ sister, Janice Bagwell, said that since Myers’ death four years ago at age 90, Lyon has locked her out of the store, blocked her from accounts and kept her from even reading letters that were addressed to Bagwell from her late brother, according to claims in the lawsuit.

The judge overseeing the fight ordered the controversial store shut down while the dispute is sorted out in court.

The store, which has sat on Main Street in Kennesaw since 1971, has long been a source of ire for some, including a city councilmember who stepped down in 2022 after the city agreed to renew the store’s business license. Wildman’s sells Confederate flags, Civil War artifacts and Jim Crow-era memorabilia, and its displays include a Ku Klux Klan hood and a sign that says White History Year.

Bagwell has contended in court documents that Lyon is still withholding information, even after the court ordered her to turn it over.

According to Bagwell, Lyon took over everything in Myers’ estate after his death, including his investment accounts and the store itself. Cobb County Superior Court Senior Judge Adele Grubbs ordered the store temporarily shuttered late last year after agreeing with Bagwell’s contention that Lyon held herself out to everyone, including the city of Kennesaw during the business license renewal process, as the sole executor of the estate.

Bagwell accused Lyon of not being forthcoming in the court fight with an accounting of the funds from Myers’ estate, and Grubbs ordered Lyon to fork over the records before Dec. 31 or face “harsh” sanctions.

Among other things, Grubbs ordered Lyon to explain the sale of Lockheed Martin Corp. stock that had apparently netted the former store manager some $835,000.

In a filing lodged last week, Lyon included a letter dated Oct. 21, 2021, in which Myers addressed her as “My Best Gal Friday” and wrote “upon my demise, I, Gen Dent Myers, bequeath and gift any and all holdings and shares of my stock accounts” to Lyon.

Myers said he wanted to give Lyon the stock accounts for years of “tenacity, productivity, dedication and nurturing” of the shop and other things, according to the letter.