Batts did take paying jobs, though, teaching music. Sometimes it was in the schools on base. Sometimes it was in people’s homes.

Graham remembered times her father was on late shift, and he had to take care of the children while her mother went to work in the mornings.

That all came to an end in 1971 when David Batts retired from the Air Force. He was serving at Robins Air Force Base in central Georgia at the time.

Batts said she hadn’t really planned on returning to Doerun — she hadn’t thought that far ahead.

“I didn’t know,” she said. “I was just following him.”

Graham didn’t quite remember it that way, though. She said the family made many trips to visit her grandparents, no matter where they were stationed. She said she always had the impression that Doerun would one day be home.

Batts’ father had plans of his own.

Garnett Edge had settled the farm outside Doerun in 1910. He grew cotton, pleanuts and tobacco. Two houses have sat on that site; one of his daughters was born in the first house, and the other three in the house that stands there now.

By 1971, life had caught up with Edge and his wife, so he offered his daughter and son-in-law a proposal: “Y’all don’t have to build a house or buy a house. Y’all can just come here,” Batts recalled.

“He was getting feeble, and Mama was too,” she said. “They needed somebody here.”

So Margaret Batts returned to the house she was born in and helped to take care of her parents.

David Batts became a farmer, and Margaret Batts began to play piano at another church — Grace Baptist — located literally right next door.

The Batts raised three children, David Batts II, a structural engineer in Macon; Steven Batts, a pastor in Newnan; and Graham. There are five grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

Both Garnett and Cliffie Edge have passed away. David Batts died in 2000. But the tradition of sharing the house lives on, and has even grown. The house Garnett Edge built is home to four generations now: Not only Margaret Batts and Graham but also Graham’s daughter, son-in-law and grandson.

“People were born in this house,” Graham remarked. “People died in this house. We’ve had weddings in this house. We’ve had funeral receptions in this house. We have a lot of history in this house.”