About Us
Executive Director - Renate Milner
Renate Milner was born in Germany and moved to the United States in 1991 with her husband, an Air Force pilot whom she met while he was stationed at Spangdahlem Air Base. She pursued her passion for history, after completing her studies at Georgia Military College, earning a master’s degree from Valdosta State University in 2000.
Her career in public history began at the Lowndes County Historical Society, where she started as an intern. During this time, she discovered that Moody Air Force Base had housed German POWs during World War II, leading her to conduct groundbreaking research on German prisoners of war in Georgia—pioneering original scholarship on the subject. She later became director of the historical society, a role she held until her appointment as State Archivist of Georgia in 2007.
From 2012 to 2024, she built a successful career as a medical billing and revenue cycle consultant, and continues to provide consulting services on a part-time basis. In 2024, she returned to the Lowndes County Historical Society as director, bringing both her leadership experience and passion for history back to the institution. With a deep appreciation for historical research and community engagement, she finds her role as a museum director both fulfilling and essential.
Historian/Researcher - Harry Evans
Harry, a baby boomer, was born in 1951 at the Little, Griffin hospital in Valdosta, GA, delivered by Dr. Joyce Mixon, Jr, one of three Mixons from his family, including his father and brother, Harry, who served as physicians in the city. The hospital ceased to exist, as such, four years after the big event. In 1955, all of Little, Griffin’s patients were transferred to the new Pineview General Hospital that later became South Georgia Medical Center.
Harry rarely wandered far from the place of his origin there at 1306 N. Patterson. He grew up about six blocks away on West College St and attended kindergarten at Miss Emma’s about four blocks away on N. Oak St. across from Valdosta State College, which had been renamed from Georgia State Womans College the year before Harry was born, subsequently becoming coeducational. Both of Harry’s parents retired as members of the staff after the school became Valdosta State University in 1993.
Harry had to venture all the way out to the corner of N. Patterson and Woodrow Wilson Drive to attend four years at the original Sallas Mahone Elementary School, built in 1950 and demolished in 2003. The Sallas Mahone moniker, honoring two early Valdosta teachers, is carried on at a new school on Lake Laurie Drive. As the 1960s rock n rolled in Harry was sent packing to the Central Elementary School for his fifth-grade studies. The school was built in 1905 as the first purpose-built Valdosta High School. Before that the Valdosta Institute, formerly a private school since the 1860s, served as the high school from 1892. When the high school at 1300 Williams St. was opened in 1922, the Central Ave. building became the elementary school. It served as the junior high for a time, and from 1969 until 1973 it was the first home of the private Valwood School before succumbing to the wrecking ball in 1974. The site is now the southwest corner of the First Baptist Church main campus.
Next on Harry’s educational journey was four years at Valdosta Junior High across Burton St. from McKey Park. The park was named for Wilburn McKey, former mayor of Valdosta (1926-1930), who donated the land to the city. The site of the school is now the home of Valdosta Middle school.
After the ninth grade Harry moved on to Valdosta High School on Williams St. in 1966, one block east of the demolished Little, Griffin Hospital where then stood an A&P grocery store (1957) which later became the VSU bookstore. In between was the Brookwood Plaza shopping center built ca 1965, which later became the VSU University Center in 1994. VHS was a magical school for many reasons, but most famously for having the winningest football team in the nation and twenty-four state championships, two of which were won during Harry’s three years there. Notably Harry played no part in any football victory or the band being honored as the greatest band in Dixie. He still says “We” won.
Back over to the old Little, Griffin site, just north past Drexel Park and the Mile Branch was the main campus of Valdosta State College. Harry spent four years there and another just because he was having such a good time. He was a founding member and officer of the Kappa Alpha Order chapter. He earned a BA degree in History. Later he would return for night classes to finish up a Masters Degree in Business Administration.