06/18/2026
Father’s Day is here - the perfect opportunity to celebrate my father and the founder of Rainbow Monument Company! A man who never met a stranger and could talk to them or old friends for hours! When I was around 10, my family took a “vacation” to Elberton, Georgia, a small town on the other side of the state. I remember that very long drive vividly (it’s the same one Chris still takes today, but in a big truck with a 5th wheel trailer to pick up orders)! Benny and I were in the backseat, as far apart as possible! We stopped for gas, and Daddy treated us to drinks. I got an orange soda and I got so sick (still can’t drink them)! We even stayed in a real motel! And we toured the granite quarry—that’s where the monument company began. Daddy had a septic tank business before, then a burial vault business. He sold each to pay for the next, or so I was told. Daddy was the smartest man I ever knew, and he was my hero! Mother wasn’t always thrilled when he bought land, but he sold it at prices that were way too low - like where Coosa Valley Bank (RBC’s first bank at 77 & RBDr) would be. And where Baja is now, where Aldi is (for Winn Dixie to open a grocery store RBC desperately needed), riverfront lots near the bridge (why didn’t we get one of those!) that would grow that area tremendously and other places. He loved RBC and had a vision for it to grow! He even had a water office in my sister’s bedroom for people to pay their bills! He served on the water board, was a councilman once, a trustee at SHS, and so much more for our community (back then, RBC & SS were like one). But little did he know that his last business would flourish for its third generation—over 60 years! His son and now his grandson would continue his hard work! He was so smart and kind, lots of which I was told after he died in 1999 from people sharing stories about how he had helped them. So Happy Father’s Day, Daddy! Thank you for everything you did! You’d be so proud of what Benny and now Chris (and your grand DIL Marlee) have achieved with your business, modernizing while keeping so many of your traditions alive—not just stones for cemeteries, but memorials for organizations, cities, precious pets, and so much more!
Pictures below:
Five years after starting the monument company, Mother died unexpectedly - before she would see the fruits of their sacrifices, and this proof is what his new friends in Elberton drew then made for Daddy - so special in every way.
Daddy and Benny way back then after setting a stone for the Etowah County time capsule!
