One of Georgia’s oldest practicing attorneys serves as the only lawyer for Calhoun County at 97 years old

EDISON – In downtown Edison, which is mostly empty storefronts and tired old buildings, one spot has been filled since the 1970s.

The building serves as home to the law office of 97-year-old Willis DuVall Sr., the only practicing attorney in Calhoun County and the second-longest serving member of the State Bar of Georgia.

DuVall wakes up and gets ready for work at his office on Edison’s Turner Street each morning, Monday through Friday. He works for about four hours and goes home to spent time with his wife of 69 years, Leona Duvall, for a break. He’ll return to work in the afternoons to put in a few more hours.

He’s worked in Edison as an attorney since the 1950s, and he said he has no plans to stop any time soon.

“So many people need help with wills … those kinds of things,” DuVall said. “If I close my doors, they’d have to go somewhere else.”

Without him, clients would lack access to basic legal services. Many rural communities experience a phenomenon called “legal deserts” that are severely lacking in access to attorneys. 2020 data from the American Bar Association reported that 1,300 counties in the U.S. have less than one attorney per 1,000 residents. Many have no attorneys whatsoever. This means residents have to drive sometimes hours to receive routine services.

In 97 years of life, DuVall has worn many hats – soldier, lawyer, Edison mayor and school board member – and seen significant change in the small town he’s called home since childhood. While the Edison he sees at 97 is a far contrast from the one he saw at 17, Duvall said the kind spirit and close connections of its residents remain the same.

“It’s home,” he said. “It’s just a nice, quiet place to live.”

DuVall was born in Bainbridge, in 1927. His family moved to Calhoun County shortly after, where they lived in both Morgan and Edison. He graduated from high school on June 3, 1944.

Three days later, he enlisted in the U.S. Army on June 6, 1944 – the same day more than 150,000 allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, in the largest seaborne invasion in history, also known as D-Day.

DuVall said he trained to fight the Japanese, but the dropping of two atomic bombs over Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 changed his trajectory. He wound up deploying to Germany for occupation duty and served until October 1946.

When DuVall returned home to Georgia, he started attending school at Mercer University. He obtained his law degree from Mercer’s Walter F. George School of Law. He was admitted to the State Bar of Georgia on Sept. 23, 1950. He moved back home to Edison in 1951.

DuVall’s first office was in the space above what was then the Bank of Edison, but is now City Hall. It was the only empty space in a bustling downtown, which he said had an array of shops, grocery stores and an active movie theater at the time. It was the days when there were ample farm workers coming into town on the weekends.

DuVall said it was hard at first trying to take on a professional role in a small town and among people he knew so well. But quickly, his wife said he was valued for his professionalism, expertise and kindness.

To do this day, DuVall remains professional. He still won’t discuss the details of a case long after his time in the Morgan courtroom has ended. When he first began working as an attorney, it was still required he serve as a public defender.

“We were trying all kinds of criminal cases that they threw at you – whatever the judge wanted you to do,” he said. “It was an interesting experience.”

DuVall said he’s never considered himself a trial lawyer.

These days, he mostly deals with writing wills or deeds. He has clients travel from all around Calhoun County and the other small, rural towns that neighbor it. He said he knows most of them, and if he doesn’t know them, they sure know who he is.

His good friend and Calhoun County Commissioner Tom Manry called DuVall the most distinguished man in the community.

“If you ask anyone that’s known him a long time who they’d go to to get an opinion on something, they’d say Willis Duvall,” Manry said. “And if you want his opinion, you don’t need to ask him because he’ll just tell you the truth.”

DuVall may be close to 100 years old, but he doesn’t need hearing aids. He has a great memory. He still dresses smartly for work, and Manry said he still speaks in the same low and quiet voice he’s always used.

“His mind is sharper than mine ever was, even when I was young,” Manry said. “The things he can recall are unbelievable.”

When he’s not working, DuVall can often be found tending to his yard.

He and Leona built their house in 1956 and have been there ever since, raising their family there. A tiny sign with “Duvall” painted on it marks a long driveway that gives way to a manicured lawn.

DuVall plants his own garden, rakes, prunes and crawls around pulling weeds. On a June afternoon, his grass is neatly mowed, and not a stray leaf can be found. It’s clearly been carefully worked on despite the choking summer temperatures.

“If Edison had a garden club, he should get ‘yard of the month’ every month,” Manry said. “It’s immaculate.”

But above everything, he said, DuVall is a caring community member, and extremely humble about it.

Manry, a lifelong Edison resident, said he first met DuVall as a young boy. DuVall wrote Manry’s weekly $25 check he earned by coaching little league baseball as a college student. They wouldn’t get to know each other well until Manry was an adult, and they connected through church.

DuVall has been active in the Edison Community Service Club, formerly the Lion’s Club, for more than 70 years. The club raises funds to support different community members and organizations. DuVall said they provided hands-on help such as painting houses for those who couldn’t afford it.

He said the aging club is trying to maintain its membership and activities, and recent meetings have been spent brainstorming new ways they can support the community.

Manry said DuVall has always been active in the churches he’s attended. He most recently bought his church a new sign when the old one was in need of repairs. Manry said DuVall told no one he did this.

DuVall doesn’t care for recognition. He said he’s never worked with money on the forefront of his mind.

“He doesn’t like people to know what he does,” Manry said. “He could’ve gotten rich in Edison, but he didn’t.”

Instead, DuVall keeps working because he knows his presence makes life easier for the folks who live in and near Calhoun County.

“Everybody at one time or another needs something done with a lawyer,” he said. “It’s a service.”

In 2007, he received the Robert Benham Lifetime Achievement Award for Community Service from the State Bar. 

When he reached 50 years of service, the Bank of Edison threw him a celebration.

“I didn’t expect to still be doing it 23 years later,” DuVall said. “But I’m just going to keep doing what I’ve been doing.”

Staff Photo: Lucille Lannigan

Staff Photo: Lucille Lannigan