Senator's Family Honors Dalton Native With Gift To Non-Profit
Friday, March 17th, 2023
A gift given in memory of a Dalton native by a family prominent in American history will go to help local children and adults with developmental challenges build lives and careers – and it was made possible by a longtime City of Dalton employee. A $100,000 donation made by a daughter of the late Senator Philip A. Hart of Michigan will benefit Cross Plains Community Partner in memory of the late Mrs. Oner E. Lee. Mrs. Lee worked many years for the Hart family, ultimately becoming like a member of the family herself.
Mrs. Lee was born in Dalton and grew up here before moving north to Michigan after the end of World War II. She went to work for the family of Senator Hart and his wife Jane B. Hart shortly before the birth of the third of their nine children. Mrs. Lee served as a “helpmate” for Mrs. Hart, helping to raise the children and keep the house. Senator Hart served 18 years in the United States Senate and came to be known as “the conscience of the Senate” while leading the way on such landmark legislation as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. is named in his honor. Mrs. Lee worked with the Hart family throughout his tenure and continued to work with Mrs. Hart after his passing in 1976. Mrs. Lee passed away in 2010 in Rockville, Maryland and was laid to rest in Dalton’s West Hill Cemetery. She was remembered in Mrs. Hart’s obituary after her passing in 2015.
Caption: Bernadette Chattam, Dalton's city clerk and niece of the late Mrs. Oner E. Lee
Ann Hart, one of the Hart family’s children who grew up with the care of Mrs. Lee, wanted to find a way to remember and honor Mrs. Lee’s life with a gift to her hometown. Earlier this year, she contacted Bernadette Chattam, Dalton’s City Clerk and one of Mrs. Lee’s nieces. Ann Hart told Chattam that Oner Lee was the “heart of the family” and asked where a donation might be made in her honor.
“She said I want to do something to honor Oner, and also your grandmother (Oner’s mother Queenie Hill),” Chattam said. “I thought to myself, wow. What a blessing.”
Chattam said that she discussed several choices for organizations in Dalton that would be worthy of a gift in Oner Lee’s memory, narrowing it down to a list of three charities that included Cross Plains Community Partner. Cross Plains is a private non-profit in Dalton that serves men and women with developmental disabilities and their families with services including day services and supported employment. Chattam’s niece, the late Michelle Hill, was helped by Cross Plains and worked with them for many years until she passed at age 48.
“I thought about it a couple of days, and… I thought that if it went to Cross Plains that it would be fitting because I knew that but for Cross Plains, my sister would never have been able to work (because her daughter couldn’t be left alone at home)” Chattam said, noting that Cross Plains was able to help Hill find ways to work in the community that would not have been possible otherwise. “I knew what a blessing Cross Plains was to my sister because Michelle loved going out there. She’d say, ‘I’m going to work!’”
Chattam says that after their conversations, Ann Hart sent a check for $100,000 to the Community Foundation of Northwest Georgia with instructions that the money go to Cross Plains Community Partner in memory of Mrs. Oner Lee, Mrs. Queenie Hill, and also Michelle Hill.
“I think so much of Cross Plains and what they do,” said Chattam. “That’s what I thought about, and I’m honored that (Ann Hart) feels that I’m worthy enough to carry on her wishes.”
“Any donation support from the community is significant for us, we’re a non-profit so you know we rely on public support to continue doing what we do. This donation will help us continue to help individuals integrate into the community and have meaningful lives and access to the activities that they do on a daily basis,” said Elizabeth Hunter, the executive director of Cross Plains Community Partner. “We’re incredible grateful that the Hart family donated this money and that Bernadette thought about Cross Plains to want to do that. We supported Bernadette’s niece for years and so she’s seen first-hand the impact that our services are able to have on individuals.”
While the Hart family’s donation is a significant gift for Cross Plains, the non-profit continues to need support from the public.
“We are Medicaid funded, but it’s a very minimal amount. It doesn’t even cover the salary of an employee that we have on staff. So, the public support allows us to be creative with our services… and we have continued partnerships with Dalton Public Schools and Whitfield County Schools and we have a transition academy which is helping students transition out of high school seamlessly into adult services, that’s one way that public donations and support make a difference,” Hunter said. “We’re always looking for people who want to contribute to our art program, art supplies, our individuals love to express themselves through art so that’s a huge area that people can support.
“We have to maintain a fleet of vehicles, we have 13 vehicles in our fleet that allow individuals to go into the community every day and so that’s huge and that’s probably what some of these funds will be used for to help support that and possibly to access a wheelchair van which we are in need of at this time,” Hunter added. “That’s some of what public donations do, and they’re vital to our overall operations to be able to have that.”
