The Party Shack
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
MAY 23, 2025 | None of us will ever live to realize what our legacy is going to be.
Most of us will be known by our children and their accomplishments. Some of us will be known by our nature, others by business acumen, others by constant smiles and friendliness, and still many by their constant giving to others.
One guy we remember fondly is also known today for erecting a well-used party house on his property, among his many other endeavors. We’re thinking of the late Wally Odum, who conceived a place for people to gather, at what became known as “Wild Wally’s Party Shack” adjacent to his home in Duluth. The Odums had previously moved tables for parties in their car port. Wally figured they had plenty of room for parking for larger gatherings, and constructed the shack on their five acres.
If you knew Wally, he definitely was not “wild.” Bill Cook of Duluth painted a sign, and added the word “wild.”
That was back in 2001. Wally’s younger brother, Carey, who lived in Stone Mountain before moving to Duluth, came up with the design and built the party house. It’s screened-in, sits under the shade of massive pine trees, and can accommodate 60 people in three rows of tables. A restroom is provided, and many groups bring grills for cooking before dining there. Or other groups bring in their food, pot-luck style. There are all-weather concrete tables in the shade outside for the Party Shack overflow.
The shack is in constant use during the warmer season, sometimes two or three times a week. Best estimate: if just 30 people were at the Party Shack three times each week for half a year, times 24 years…..why that’s more than 50,000 who have enjoyed this facility.
Wally’s wife, Ann, keeps a calendar for the shack, and there’s no cost to local groups using it. The Duluth Fall Festival often brings people together there. Recently a group put on a dinner for the departing choir director at Duluth First Methodist Church. There have been weddings at the Party Shack, as well as one funeral.
Today Ann’s son-in-law, daughter Sharon’s husband Ron Paris, “Keeps it cleaner than I did,” Ann says. He’s a retired math teacher in Duluth, who looks after the shack.
Wally Odum was born in Waycross, and graduated from Mercer University in Macon. While in college, he met Ann at Wesleyan College in Macon. Ann and Wally were married in 1955, and in their early life Wally was an officer at Fort Gillem Army Depot near the airport.
Odum
All three of Kate and Calvin Parsons’ daughters’ husbands worked with the Parsons, one in the lumber yard, another in a grocery and Wally was with the hardware store. Later Wally was president of the seven-store Parsons chain.
During his life, Wally was continually busy in community activities. He chaired the board of the Duluth Methodist Church for five years, was an Explorer Scout Leader, was treasurer of the Duluth Fall Festival for many years and hosted an annual cookout. Wally was a director of Gwinnett Community Bank, and as a citizen-member of the Gwinnett County Budget Committee. He was a former president of the Gwinnett Rotary Club, a member of the Community Foundation of Northeast Georgia, was on the Gwinnett Hospital Foundation and was a life member of the University Yacht Club.
Happily, Wally enjoyed the Party Shack for 10 years before his death in 2011.
What a legacy. The Party Shack is Wally keeping on giving today.
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