In the 1950s, Sally Garris grew up in the small community of Lebanon, South Carolina. After graduating high school, she enrolled at Erskine College. It was there that she met the man who would eventually become husband. He took an academic pause to serve in the U.S. military in Vietnam before he and Sally would marry. During that pause, he and Sally stayed in touch not only by exchanging letters, but also through their shared love of the Atlanta Braves.
In 2024, Garris joined her granddaughter, Sarah Brown, at StoryCorps to reflect on that time, and how listening to Braves baseball drew her and Sarah’s “Granddaddy” closer together.
TRANSCRIPT:
Brown: Where did you meet Granddaddy?
Garris: I met Granddaddy at Erskine College. In fact, this is the story. I was a cheerleader, but I was the alternate cheerleader. Somebody talked him in to going out to be a cheerleader because they had guy cheerleaders, too. And he did not want to do that, but if he would do that, he could use their car (laughs). And so, he went out for cheerleader. But he never did want to do it. And I was the alternate. So, he was always calling me to go.
Brown: How did Granddaddy propose to you?
Garris: We went to an Atlanta Braves baseball game on a Sunday afternoon. So, we were sitting there, and he gave me my ring and proposed. And immediately (laughs) it started raining. We had a thunderstorm. See, he had been to Vietnam, and he had gotten back from Vietnam. And, I figured if we were ever going to get married, he would ask me then. So, I had a feeling that he was going to ask me that weekend.
Brown: How long was he in Vietnam? So how long did y'all have to be separated for?
Garris: You know, really just about a year. They had a program at Erskine where it was between semesters. So, he applied for it and got in, and was able to get home at Christmas time. So, he wasn't gone to Vietnam a whole year, but he was gone from South Carolina for a couple of years.
Brown: Did y'all stay in contact through letters?
Garris: We did. And one time, because we liked baseball, and we listened to Atlanta Braves baseball, and one night I was sitting there, and the announcers--they did a lot of this during the Vietnam time--the announcers said that they had gotten a letter from a soldier in Vietnam, and he wanted them to say hello to his girlfriend Sally in South Carolina. So, I was just sitting there listening to the radio, and there he was. He had spoken to me through those people.
Brown: So, the Braves, y'all have always loved them so much, so did that love for the Braves in baseball kind of start as, like, was that a connecting point for y' all in your relationship early on?
Garris: Yeah. And they had not been in Atlanta, they moved to Atlanta in the ‘60s. And so therefore, people in our area could go to the games. And that's how a lot of people got interested in the Braves. Before that, they had been in Milwaukee, Milwaukee Braves. And before that they were Boston Braves. So, people of that era really liked baseball. And then Ted Turner and, TV, you know. But back then, when we first started, it was all radio. You had to listen to them and then go to the games. I still like it on the radio.
(Both laugh)
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