Folsom carried a big stick and really big heart

Teddy Roosevelt is famously quoted as saying "Walk softly and carry and big stick" as he described the art of diplomacy with the threat of something worse if those negotiations didn't work. Those who attended Flomaton High School from 1957 to 1975 while John Lewis Folsom served as principal say the quote fits Folsom as well.

Folsom, 92, died Monday at a Daphne, Ala., healthcare facility following an extended illness.

A native of Georgiana, Folsom was a member of the Flomaton community for 60 years before he and his wife Shelmerdene moved to Daphne.

Flomaton Mayor Dewey Bondurant Jr., a 1965 FHS graduate said Folsom was the principal the whole time he was there. He said Folsom hired him to teach math at Flomaton prior to him graduating from Auburn University in 1969.

"He was tough, but he always tried to do what was right," Bondurant said. "I always thought he did a great job."

Bondurant also said Folsom had a great talent of remembering people's names after the first time he met them.

"I was also his Sunday School teacher and if I had a word I couldn't pronounce he would pronounce it for me," Bondurant said. "He was one of a kind."

Bondurant also said he was on the receiving end of some of Folsom's paddlings in school but added he probably deserved it at the time.

Bondurant said Folsom also wrote the Flomaton High School fight song that is still used today.

"He was a good man and a good man for Flomaton," Bondurant said.

Jack Carden said Folsom expelled him and two of his friends about two weeks before graduation but said with some intervention from a coach, the expulsion was exchanged for 10 licks from Folsom's paddle.

Carden said on the way to school that day there had been a murder near the twin bridges on Highway 31 and as they passed by they saw a lot of cops, cars and crime tape.

Carden said when he got to school he told some of his buddies about it and three of them loaded up in a car to go back and 'investigate'.

"We skipped first period and just showed up at second period," Carden said. "The teacher sent us to the office but we didn't think she'd follow through so we went back to the twin bridges."

When they returned to school they were confronted by Folsom.

"He kept telling us to go home but we got a coach to intervene," Carden recalled.

He said one of his friends, Johnnie White, had not missed a day of school since kindergarten and he wasn't about to go home.

"Johnnie said he couldn't go home because his daddy would kill him," Carden said.

The compromise was the 10 licks and Carden said they weren't little pats on the butt.

"He let us come back," Carden said. "He was a good guy and really cared a lot about his students.

He said years later he and his wife Linda were on a group trip to Israel and Mr. and Mrs. Folsom sat down with them at a table outside a restaurant.

"I asked him if on the day he expelled me from Flomaton did he expect we'd be eating lunch together in Israel," Carden said. "I had a lot of respect for him. He was a really good guy."

Buddy Smith, a 1962 FHS graduate, said Folsom always carried a paddle "that was as long as his leg" but noted he somehow escaped being on the wrong end of the paddle.

Smith also said he was in Mrs. Folsom's English class.

"Teachers could keep control in the classroom because you didn't want to be sent to his office," Smith said. "I didn't get hit one time. The teachers got my attention."

Smith said another thing that got his attention was the sounds coming out of Folsom's office when someone was being hit with the paddle.

"You could hear that paddle all across the school," he said.

Smith said he did skip school a lot and that Folsom would get in his pickup truck and drive through town looking for students. He said he ran his car into a ditch one day trying to get away from Folsom.

"A bunch of us were down at the creek skinny dipping and someone yelled 'Folsom'!" Smith said.

Smith said he's still got about a six-inch scar on his leg he cut while running through the woods from Folsom.

"He never whipped me but I heard he whippings on other people," Smith said. "He was just a fine fellow. He and Mrs. Folsom always wanted you to get your school work done."

"At the time you really didn't realize it, but he always wanted what was best for his students," Smith said. "But sometimes what you thought was best was not what Mr. Folsom thought was best. But he really cared about all of his students and wanted to see them succeed."

Denise Carlee graduated from Flomaton in 1982 after Folsom had left but has fond memories of him growing up in Flomaton and attending elementary school and middle school.

"Everybody loved Mr. Folsom," she said.

She said she attended Mrs. Folsom's kindergarten and was later in her English class in high school.

"He always wanted to know how you were doing," Carlee said. "He really cared a lot about his students."

Folsom was an Army veteran who served in Japan during WWII, earning the Asiatic Pacific Campaign Ribbon, Good Conduct Medal, Army Occupation Ribbon, Japan Victory Ribbon and the Overseas Service Bar.

He began his education career at Uniontown High School in 1948 where he taught science, English and math and coached football, basketball and baseball.

He spent 40 years in Alabama's public school systems and came to Flomaton as principal in 1957 and stayed until 1975. He was at Escambia County High School from 1975 to 1984, at Rachel Patterson Elementary School from 1984 to 1985 and at W.S. Neal High School 1985 until he retired in 1990.

He was a member of the Flomaton Lions Club, the FHS Quarterback Club, FHS Band Boosters and the Alabama Silver Haired Legislature. He also spent many years heading up the fundraising for the American Heart Association.

He was a former member of Flomaton First Baptist Church, where he served as a deacon, Sunday School teacher and in many other positions. He was Deacon Emeritus at Flomaton First Baptist Church as well as First Baptist Church of Loxley, where he has been active the past two years.

Visitation for Folsom will be held from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday at Flomaton Funeral Home Chapel. His funeral will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at Flomaton First Baptist Church with Dr. Jerry Keese, the Rev. Louis Johnson and Dr. Tim Tew officiating. Burial will be held at Flomaton Cemetery.

He is survived by his wife Shelmerdene Folsom of Daphne; three sons, John L. (Betty Ann) Folsom Jr., of Tifton, Ga., Michael T. (Rita) Folsom of Clayton, N.C., Kenneth L. (Sharon) Folsom of Loxley and Stephen Christopher (Tina) Folsom for Helena, Ala.; 13 grandchildren and 19 great grandchildren.

Flowers are being accepted but donations or contributions may also be made to the Flomaton Public Library, the American Heart Association or The Isaiah Ministry at isaiahministry.com.