96 Years Young
To say Lewis Frawley has led a long life would be an understatement. Born in 1911, to the parents of farmer’s in Statesboro, it seemed early in life Mr. Frawley would continue family tradition. However, something led Lewis out of the country and into the growing port of Savannah, and that move would ultimately reconnect him with his childhood.
Growing up in his father’s farm, Lewis had an interesting habit of digging up small trees in the forest, bringing them home and trying to replant and grow them. It was a success, but Lewis didn’t think anything of it back then. He was too young to know he might have a green thumb.
When he reached adulthood, he was a farmer making one dollar a day. When he learned of jobs in Savannah that were paying upwards of $150 a week, he decided to hand in the long hours of farming for the shift work of an industrial worker. It was a decision that led him to a long life of happiness, and horticulture.
“That was a lot of money back then,” said Frawley. “I even remember one check being one-hundred and fifty-five dollars.”
He found his life partner in his wife, Elise, and the two have been happily married now for almost 70 years. Elise, now 88, and Lewis 96, do not live in a retirement or nursing home. Rather, they live in their home tucked away on a quiet four acres in Pooler. However, it’s not your average senior citizens home. It seems Lewis has a hobby that occupies most of his time and close to three-and-a-half acres of the property.
As the proprietor of Country Homes Nursery, Lewis is more active than most retired seniors, and equally active as many 50-year olds. Its not uncommon to find the 96-year young Frawley in his gardens, eight hours a day five days a week.
“I really got interested in plants and flowers when I retired,” said Frawley. “So, I gave rooting plants a try, and found out I could do it.”
That was 42 years ago, but Frawley’s sharp mind still remembers the beginnings of his business as a peddler. He had obtained a peddler’s license from the city of Savannah, and what is now Country Homes Nursery began in the back of his truck on the side streets of Savannah.
In 1967, he and his wife moved to Pooler. It was there he would not only make his home, but a prosperous business that enabled him to build a new house that he paid cash for. And though business isn’t what it used to be back then, Frawley still lives a very comfortable life thanks to his horticultural earnings.
Today, his business is more of a hobby, though he still does business with friends and his faithful long-time customers. Monday through Friday, between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. it is likely Frawley is somewhere in the garden’s still rooting or experimenting with cross-pollination. But don’t think this senior just digs and plants in a flower bed. With over three acres of gardens protected by tall pine trees there is a lot of maintenance and upkeep, and this 96-year old still is somehow able to keep his beds from being over grown.
“Sometimes we have to try and limit how much he does,” says his daughter Delores. “But often times he’ll ignore what we say, and work all day anyway.”
It seems Frawley is still handy with a weed eater too. Though his daughters do most of the mowing, Frawley insists that he does all the weed-eating, which is a lot of weed eating when you take into account he has four acres of gardens to keep up.
Daughters Delores and Barbara, are also now retired from their professional careers and devote most of their time to helping their father live out his life at his home and in the gardens. “We’ve accepted the fact that he will probably pass away working in his garden,” said Barbara. “But not from old age. We always worry about him working under all those branches that a lot of times fall to the ground.”
Many times he comes in from an afternoon of work and tells of a large branch that fell pretty close to him. “He’ll come in and say he had a near miss,” said Barbara. “Then I’ll go out to the area in which he aid he was working and sure enough there lays a big fallen tree limb.”
Every year Frawley tells his girls he’s ready to shut his business down for good. However, according to his daughters, every time they start making preparations to start getting rid of all the plants, their father sneaks out into his gardens and stock-piles some of his favorite plants in his back garden. “He just can’t fully let it go,” says Delores. “Every time we prepare to shutout down, we find ourselves still doing it a year later.”
This December Frawley will turn 97. When asked if he will still be cross-pollinating and rooting plants next year he replied, “Most likely not. Well, I don’t know, I just like it so much.”
Though he doesn’t have it written on a piece of paper, Lewis Frawley is definitely one of the more inspiring, successful and knowledgeable horticulturists in the area.
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