Violet Geneva Goss Reece, also known as “G,” made more biscuits for the people of Northeast Georgia than most of us can count. Those who frequented Stoney’s Restaurant knew the difference between “G”‘s biscuit and any other. She was an icon of sorts for her friendly smile and delicious cooking.
As the manager of Stoney’s Family Restaurant for over 30 years, there were very few people who didn’t know her and everyone who did called her friend.
‘She loved people’
Kaye Patterson, Geneva’s oldest daughter, remembers the love her Mama put into everything. “She loved people she didn’t even know. My mama just loved, and she did a good job doing it.”
Even though she had a hard life, no one ever knew it. “When you saw her, she was happy and going to make you happy no matter what was going on in her life,” Patterson says.
Geneva raised six children: Kaye, Davie Joe, Donna, Sandra, Juanita, and Kenneth. She lost two of her children, Davie Joe as an infant and Donna at age 38.
Patterson says her mother’s greatest joy was her children and grandchildren.
She remembers a few years before Geneva got sick, they went to Pitts Park.
“Mama was swinging and just loving being with all of us. That was the most important thing to her, being together,” Patterson remembers, days after her mother died on August 26 at the age of 75.
Loving memories. Saying goodbye
If you were a frequent customer of Stoney’s Restaurant, you knew “G”. “She’d be back in the kitchen kneading dough and a customer would come in and she’d leave the kitchen to speak to them,” Patterson laughs.
Geneva was featured in the book Goodnight Habersham doing what she did best – making biscuits.
“What I remember most about my mama,” Kaye said, “Was that she always said, ‘I love you,’ and we knew she did.”
Funeral services are scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday, August 31, at the McGahee-Griffin & Stewart Chapel. The family will receive friends at the funeral home on Saturday from 4 p.m. until the service.
An online guest register is available and may be viewed at McGahee, Griffin, & Stewart Funeral Home.
