By Gretchen Keiser

More than 20 years after her death, Flannery O’Connor has a memorial in the town of Milledgeville and in the church, Sacred Heart, where she prayed and went to Mass.

A desire of the Sacred Heart parish council since 1977 was accomplished last Sunday, Nov. 17, when the simple brick parish hall adjacent to the 1874 church was named the Flannery O’Connor Hall. The blessing of the hall took place after the eleven o’clock Mass and was immediately followed by a parish supper which filled the room with platters of good food, homemade casseroles and the rumble of excited conversation.

On the far wall of the hall, mounted on wood, are a framed photograph of Flannery O’Connor and a plaque dedicating the hall in memory of the writer, who died August 3, 1964 at the age of 39. The striking black and white photograph was taken by an Atlanta photographer Joe de Casseres as part of a group photograph taken at the O’Connor home, said Father Hugh Marren, pastor of Sacred Heart parish.

Chosen from several photographs suggested by her mother, Regina Cline O’Connor, this one shows her smiling, relaxed, and emphasizes her slender graceful hands.

While Mrs. Regina O’Connor was not able to attend the blessing of the hall by Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan, she sent a message to the parish through a family member, Elizabeth Cline.

Mrs. O’Connor “was extremely sorry that she could not be here. She has been delighted with all the honor that has been paid to Mary Flannery,” Mrs. Cline said, “but this today is very near and dear to her heart because it was her own church which dedicated this hall to her daughter.”

The Cline family, along with the Treanor family, have roots in Sacred Heart parish which extend back to its beginnings in the mid-1800s. A marker outside the church notes that the first Catholic Mass in Milledgville was celebrated in 1845 at the Hugh Treanor apartment in the Newell Hotel. In 1850, the parish became a part of the new diocese of Savannah, created from one part of the huge diocese of Charleston, S.C.

From deep roots of faith Flannery O’Connor drew as she wrote her short stories and novels, Wise Blood, The Violent Bear It Away and A Good Man Is Hard To Find, writings whose humor, startling vision and unflinching honesty have drawn more and more attention over the years since her death. She is now the subject of nearly constant literary attention, the topic of symposia, journals and articles internationally as well as nationally.

However, the dedication on Sunday seemed to touch the roots of Flannery O’Connor and her family in Milledgeville and reflect the unsentimental clear-sighted love she had for those around her.

Elizabeth Cline, who is married to Colonel John R. Cline, a cousin, said that she converted to the Catholic faith because of the faith in the family she joined by marriage. While she felt that her memories of Flannery O’Connor were a personal matter, she said, “I just wish I had accomplished in the many years I’ve had as much as she accomplished in the few years she had.”

Another parishioner, Elizabeth Horne, who grew up with Flannery O’Connor and whose family was close over the years with the Cline family, said she thought Flannery would have been pleased with the parish memorial.

“I think she would be pleased and I think she would be pleased with the kind of thing it was,” Miss Horne said.

“She wasn’t for fancy, fol-de-rol things,” her friend said recalling that she and Flannery shared the honor of coming to church with “the dowdiest looking hats” and the least concern for clothes.

“Something plain and useful” without pretense would appeal to Flannery, Miss Horne said. “I think she would like the usefulness of (the parish hall) and that it will be used that way - for dinners and suppers.”

She recalled Flannery’s constant presence, with her mother, at parish suppers and at seven o’clock Mass during Lent and on First Fridays, even as she became increasingly ill with lupus and had to use crutches to get around.

“We don’t have a single way to get into the church for people with disabilities, yet there she was with the crutches right up till the end,” Miss Horne said.

She also remembered Flannery taking part in an annual outing for schoolchildren to the O’Connor farm each spring where they could see all the newborn ducklings and chicks. “I can see her now, even when she was on crutches, walking around in a big straw hat, shepherding all the children around.”

The parish hall was originally built as a cafeteria for the children who came to school at Sacred Heart. The Sister of St. Joseph briefly ran a Catholic school in the parish during the 1950s. Since this summer the parish completely renovated the kitchen in the hall, transforming it into a modern area that can be used for many functions and Father Marren, who became pastor this year, readied the photograph and plaque.

At Mass prior to the dedication, Father Marren admitted that he had not read Flannery O’Connor’s writings, but said that in her work and in her life “she was a great witness to the Gospel and still in her writings confronts many with the presence of God.”