GWGA Member Profiles
Janet Olp: Honorary Life Member
Janet Dobbins Olp was named GWGA’s newest Honorary Life Member in 2005 at the GWGA Championship Banquet in Dalton. Janet has been a member of the GWGA for more than 44 years. Her illustrious golf career includes an early start as Medalist in the GWGA tournament at age thirteen and culminated last year when she was inducted into the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame. As a GGHF member, Janet joins great women golfers such as Louise Suggs, Nancy Lopez, Eileen Stulb, Alexa Stirling Fraser, Mary Dorothy "Dot" Kirby, Mary Lena Faulk, Hollis Stacy, and Ceil McLaurin. |
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Highlights of Janet's career include:
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As important as her skill at the game, however, is Janet's dedication to the game as evidenced by her work as a volunteer. Janet has served as
The Georgia Women's Golf Association is proud to add one more accomplishment to Janet's personal history: GWGA Honorary Life Member. |
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Helen Kirbo: Honorary Life Member
Helen Virginia Kirbo was named GWGA Honorary Life Member in 2004 at the 75th Anniversary of the GWGA in Albany. She is a past GWGA President and Board Member and has served as legal counsel for GWGA for over fifteen years. Helen was born in Camilla, Georgia in 1953 and graduated from Mitchell County High School, where she was on the State Championship Basketball team and MVP of the State tournament. She was inducted into the Mitchell County Sports Hall of Fame in 2003 for those achievements. Helen learned to play golf in her parents’ back yard when she was about eight years old. Her three older brothers take credit for teaching her everything she knows and apparently also took the blame for the broken windows that resulted from her practicing her slice |
Helen Kirbo was named an |
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She graduated from the University of Alabama with a Masters in Music after which she acquired a Juris Doctorate from Mercer University and a Masters in Taxation from Emory University. She has been a partner in the law firm of Kirbo and Kirbo since 1982, practicing primarily probate and real estate law. She has been the organist and choir director at the Camilla Methodist Church since 1981 and is the director of United Harmony, the community chorus in Camilla. She has also served on the Board of Directors of the Albany Symphony Association and Doublegate Country Club. Helen served on the GWGA 75 th Committee and was a local Co-Chairman for the Women’s State Amateur Championship held at Doublegate in September 2004. She is a director of Albany’s The First Tee, a division of the World Golf Foundation, a group formed to provide affordable access to golf for young people. After the time dedicated to her law practice, her volunteer activities, her family and her cat, we’re happy that Helen still has time for her golf game. |
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Ann Railey: A GWGA Special Member
Ann Railey displays some of the special golf balls from her "kids." |
If you have ever had the pleasure of playing golf with Ann Railey in a tournament, you will remember the unique golf balls she plays with. These balls are all individual works of art, and come straight from the heart, as her "kids" decorate them. It doesn't matter if she is playing with a beautiful "Angel" ball or one with colorful scribbles, she tries to play well with each one so she can bring a story about the ball back to the artist. Ann's special "kids" are all patients at Atlanta's AFLAC Cancer Center, and by decorating golf balls for their nurse, they connect to a life outside that is presently out of their reach. Ann is motivated and inspired by the brightly painted golf balls, and she's happy the children can take their minds off their health problems for a short time by immersing themselves in painting balls. Ann Railey is a GWGA member with many interests outside of golf. Ann and her husband, Tony, live in Suwanee, GA and play their golf at Mystery Valley Country Club. Ann plays in the GWGA Four-Ball and the GWGA Championship as well as many other tournaments. The next time you talk to Ann, ask her about her kids and the story behind the ball that she is playing. If you have not met Ann, make a special effort to introduce yourself because she is one of GWGA's special members. |
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Billie Wickliffe: State Champion Extraordinaire
Billie Wickliffe was a long time member of the Georgia Women’s Golf Association (GWGA). She was both a Past GWGA President (1971) and GWGA Champion, having won titles in 1964, 1966, 1967, 1970, and 1971. She won the State Championship in all three formats: Match Play, Medal Play, and Stroke Play. After a battle with cancer, Billie passed away on December 31, 2007, in Athens. She was a member of the Athens Country Club which holds an annual invitational golf tournament in her honor every year. Billie was born in Athens and graduated from Emory University with a BS degree in Chemistry and received a Doctorate in Pharmacology from the University of Georgia. She was a pharmacist and a professor of pharmacology at UGA until her retirement in 1992.
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Billie Wickliffe won the State Championship in all three formats: Match Play (1966 & 1967), Medal Play (1964 & 1970), and Stroke Play (1971). |
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Billie was not only a golf champion, but a tennis champion as well! She won the Georgia State Women’s Tennis Singles Championship three times: 1966, 1967 and 1971. Her state golf titles include the Eleanor Keeler Trophy for the GWGA Medal Play Championship in 1964 and 1970. She also won the Athens Country Club Ladies Club Championship numerous times, and, in 2001, was inducted into the Athens Athletic Hall of Fame. Billie was also involved as a volunteer with the Meals on Wheels Program in Athens where she delivered meals to shut-ins. In her spare time, between volunteer work and playing golf, she enjoyed gardening, raising orchids, and making trips to the beach with her Scottish terrier “Fred.” Everyone in the golfing community will miss you Billie! |
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A Tribute to Honorary Member: Hettie Payne
Submitted by Margaret Goble
There is no better example of an Honorary Member of GWGA than Hettie Payne. As a tribute to her, I wanted to convey something about her life and accomplishments.
Born in McDonough, Georgia (and I am not telling when) to a father who was an attorney and a mother who was a teacher. She graduated from Westminster Schools, attended Emory, then earned her AB Degree from UGA. Hettie majored in Political Science and History with a minor in Math. She was elected to Pi Sigma Alpha National Honorary Political Science Fraternity. As an active member, of Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority she played on the golf and softball teams.
Hettie is married to Tom, and they have a daughter they named Debbie. They moved a lot during their early years still playing golf occasionally. While in Montgomery, she organized 25 Girl Scout troops. This proved to be some of the beginnings of her organizational skills. She held a variety of jobs during those years and retired in 1982.
She learned to play golf in McDonough at Green Valley Golf Club which is no longer in existence. In 1984, she played with the Ladies at Pebble Creek Golf Club and later joined Lake Spivey where she has been a continuous member since 1986. Also, as a member of the Canongate Clubs she organized their Member Directory and Ladies Association Constitution. She was the Canongate Women’s Championship Runner Up in 1996. She won Lake Spivey’s LGA Championship in 1998 as well as the Match Play Championship in1992 & 1997. In all of these organizations, she has skillfully held many offices and committee jobs.
| Hettie had been a GWGA member since 1987. She and her partner, Mary Katherine Gates (shown on the right as Hettie's passenger), have played in 17 straight Four-Ball Tournaments. |  |
If all that wasn’t impressive enough, she was elected to the GWGA Board in 1991. While on the board, she served as Trophy Chairman, Scoreboard Chairman, Assistant Treasurer, Membership and Revisions, Treasurer and Revision Chairman. She wrote the manual for creating the Membership Book, the manual for the Assistant Treasurer for coordinating the data base with pairings, and put the Treasurer’s books into a financial program that greatly helped to determine the budget. As a strong proponent of technology, Hettie set up the first computer assisted scoreboard in 1993. Hettie was elected as an honorary member of GWGA in 1994 .
Even though she has been off the board since 1996, every year she has been instrumental in teaching us to use the programs especially those to do the Membership Book. She is always available to advise and make the GWGA the strong, healthy organization that it is. She is the standard and an outstanding example of all that an honorary member could hope to be. Next time you see her, let her know how much you appreciate her.
GWGA Honorary Life Member Linda Meltz 
Linda Meltz is a GWGA member you should know… Linda resides in Dunwoody, Georgia, and is a member of Dunwoody Country Club. She is a golfer who has given countless hours of service to the game of golf by serving in many capacities. Because of her expertise and dedication in promoting women’s golf in Georgia, GWGA awarded Linda its highest honor in 1999, an Honorary Life Membership. Linda has been active in numerous golf organizations over a span of four decades. A long-time member and Past President of GWGA, Linda has also served as Play-off Chairman at the annual GWGA Championship. Additionally, she has held the office of President in the Atlanta Women’s Golf Association (AWGA) and the Dunwoody Women’s Golf Association. She has served on committees in the United States Golf Association (USGA) where she was Georgia’s representative to the USGA Women’s Committee on Regional Affairs. With the Georgia State Golf Association (GSGA) Linda has worked as a member of the tournament, handicap, long-range planning, girls’ and women’s committees.
If you have not had the pleasure of meeting Linda, make an effort to introduce yourself because she is a member you should know.