By Robert H. Hanson
LOGANVILLE, Ga. | Ever hear of an airport named LOX? How about Loganville International Airport?
Yes, Loganville, Ga. once had its own airport. It was not a public airport. It was not even a private airport that allowed other planes to land. It was merely a 1,500 foot air strip behind the home of Dean and Inez King on C. S. Floyd Road. Dean loved to fly, so he simply cleared a runway space behind his house to take off and land. He sodded the strip, put up a wind sock to determine the direction and velocity of the wind, and he was ready to go. He took off toward Line Street, where there were no trees.
And go he did! He not only flew his plane (a single engine, high wing aircraft with tricycle landing gear) on various trips (among them to his place in the North Georgia mountains that he named “The King Sky Ranch”), but on many Sunday afternoons he would take members of the general public on short rides over the city. (He may have been using the flights to polish his take-off and landing procedures at the same time.)
Dean was a professional photographer and for a time worked for the Rich’s Department store in Atlanta. He and his wife, Inez Garrett King, moved into the home on C. S. Floyd Road after the death of her father, John Garrett, in the late 1950s. It was then that he built the air strip.
While the strip was not a public airfield, it did have occasional visitors. A light Army airplane developed some kind of mechanical trouble and managed to set down once on the airstrip. It sat there a few days until repairs could be made and then it departed. It was the talk of the town for days.
On other occasions, people flew private planes into LOX (never an official name, by the way) to go shopping for men’s clothing at Walton Manufacturing Company. Dean politely but firmly advised the pilots that this was not a public facility and to please not land here again. To my knowledge, there were no repeat customers.
Dean King was a character around Loganville. He was universally liked, always seemed to have a good disposition, and never met a stranger. Wherever he happened to attend church, he would stand at the front door, red rose bud in his lapel, and greet the arriving parishioners with a smile, handshake, and a warm welcome. He did this whether or not he was a member of that particular congregation. He even greeted folks arriving for services at London’s Westminster Abbey during a visit to the United Kingdom The official greeters, though somewhat bemused, allowed him to continue.
He had an old fashioned high-wheeled bicycle from the 1870s and rode it in various parades and at other public celebrations.
Dean mostly drove Fords throughout his lifetime. My cousin, Morgan Hodges, told me that as a child, he looked forward to Sunday school because his class, taught by none other than Dean King, met in his new 1936 Ford. One of his later Fords was purchased at Stone Mountain Ford, and he modified the dealer’s ID on the truck lid to read, “One Mo’ Ford” by removing strategic letters and adding the apostrophe.
Dean King was liked by everyone he knew. He left this world at the age of 89 years, on June 26, 1996, and it hasn’t been the same since.
- Have a comment? Click here to send an email.
