Register of the Toomer Family Papers

Overview of Collection

Repository: Herndon Home

Creator: Toomer family

Collection Number: toomer

Title: Toomer family papers

Dates: 1912-1980

Quantity: 6 linear ft.

Quantity: 18 boxes

Abstract: Collection of papers of Fred and Juanita Paschal Toomer of Atlanta, Georgia from 1912-1980.

Biographical Note - Fred Armon Toomer

Fred Armon Toomer was born on July 29, 1889 in Byron, Georgia in a section called Toomerville, named for his ancestors. He was one of ten children born to Lewis Freeman Toomer and Lulu Chisholm Toomer. At an early age Fred was sent to live with relatives in nearby Macon, Georgia so that he may attend school. His high school in Macon, Ballard Academy, was operated by the Congregational Church and it is believed that this is how he later came to join the Congregational denomination.

His first job was as a newspaper carrier which he used as a means to pay his entrance fee into Atlanta University. He attended Atlanta University from 1906 to 1910 and received the A.B. degree. He paid his own way through college by working as a bell hop at the Piedmont Hotel during the school year, and as a Pullman porter in the summers.

After Atlanta University he moved to Chicago where he studied embalming. He then worked for a number of years in Greensboro, North Carolina and in Savannah, Georgia as an embalmer.

Mr. Toomer started working for Atlanta Life Insurance Company in 1919 as an insurance salesman. Later he was promoted to traveling auditor, then to Chief Auditor and in 1927 to Third Vice-President and a member of the Board of Directors. As Chief Auditor, he supervised a department of about 40 people. Helen Collins, who later became the first female chair of the board of directors, worked under Fred Toomer. She like other members of his department, affectionately referred to him as "The Boss."

It was during his days as a traveling auditor that Fred Toomer met Juanita Paschal in her hometown of Columbus, Georgia. They married on September 20, 1924. The Toomers had no children.

He served as a trustee of First Congregational Church in Atlanta and was a member of its Covenant Club. He worked with civic organizations such as The United Negro College Fund, the YMCA and the Community Chest. He was a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and the Twenty-Seven Club, a club comprised of married men who met on the 27th of each month with meetings beginning at 8:07 pm. An avid golfer, he served as the president of the New Lincoln Golf Club.

Mr. Toomer was diagnosed with cancer in 1951. His last battle with the disease was in Memorial Hospital in New York City where he died on August 26, 1961. Seven years after his death, the Atlanta Public School system named a school for him. The Fred A. Toomer school was dedicated on April 21, 1968.

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Biographical Note - Juanita Paschal Toomer

Juanita Paschal Toomer was born Juanita King Paschal in Columbus, Georgia on January 24, 1902. She was the only child born to Reverend Riley King Paschal and Katie Woods Paschal. Her father, Reverend Paschal, was the pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in Columbus, Georgia for 46 years.

Mrs. Toomer attended Spencer School in Columbus for her elementary education. Her parents sent her to Atlanta to attend the high school department of Spelman Seminary, because there were no high schools for blacks at the time in Columbus. She returned to Spelman (which had now changed to Spelman College) in the 1930s to study English Composition and graduated in 1935. Her graduate studies were at Atlanta University, as well as advanced studies at Northwestern University and Columbia University. Additionally, In the summer of 1948, Mrs. Toomer completed a program in Contemporary English Literature at the University of London in England.

Mrs. Toomer taught English Composition at Morehouse College from 1945 to 1951, and in the 1970s, at Spelman College. In addition to teaching, she was also a writer. Two of the fiction stories she wrote were Dole School, later changed to Colored Gowns, and The Year That Was. Dole School/Colored Gowns was written around 1948, and after several years of publishing attempts, a contract was made with Pageant Press of New York in 1956. Mrs. Toomer also completed a manuscript on the history of Atlanta Life Insurance Company, however this story was never published.

Juanita Paschal met Fred Toomer some time in the early 1920s in Columbus. She had returned to live in Columbus after graduating from Spelman Seminary and he was in town on business as a traveling auditor with Atlanta Life Insurance Company. They married on September 20, 1924 in Columbus at Friendship Baptist. The Toomers had no children.

Besides being a member of her father's church in Columbus, Mrs. Toomer attended churches in Atlanta at First Congregational and Friendship Baptist. She was a member of The Links, serving as the Chairman of Publicity. In 1978 at the 22nd National Assembly, she was honored for being a member for 25 years.

Mrs. Toomer enjoyed cooking and entertaining. She collected numerous recipes and articles on entertaining for party ideas. She regularly hosted parties for her fellow Links and for members of her bridge club, "Jovial Coterie."

In August 1980, Mrs. Toomer was among the officers and board members of Atlanta Life Insurance Company who took part in the ground-breaking ceremony for the new Atlanta Life building. She was there to represent her husband, former board member and chief auditor, who had died in 1961. Seven months after this event, Juanita Paschal Toomer passed away on February 11, 1981. She was buried beside her husband at Southview Cemetery in Atlanta.

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Scope and Content Note

The collection consists of the papers of Fred and Juanita Paschal Toomer from 1912-1980. Series 1 contains the personal records of Fred Toomer and the records of Atlanta Life Insurance Company. Fred Toomer worked for Atlanta Life from 1919 until his death in 1961 as company auditor, director and board member. The Atlanta Life records, therefore, are reports, correspondence and publications generated either by his office or during his time at Atlanta Life. In Fred Toomer’s personal records, the 1961 incoming correspondence is largely cards sent to him during his last hospital stay in New York.

Series 2 deals with Juanita Paschal Toomer and related files. In 1968 Mrs. Toomer received a great deal of correspondence because of the dedication of the Fred A. Toomer school, therefore, this correspondence is separated out of sequence because it is such a large file. This series also includes a travel journal detailed in great length on Mrs. Toomer's 1948 trip to study in Europe.

Series 3 contains the creative works of Mrs. Toomer. Two manuscripts she wrote are included and later her "Atlanta Life History" story will be added to this series. Notes and rough drafts of her writings are included. Mrs. Toomer also wrote wedding descriptions for publication and some of these are included. Series 4 contains the photographs and ephemera.

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Organized into four series:

1. Fred Toomer and Atlanta Life Insurance

2. Juanita Paschal Toomer papers

3. Creative works - Juanita Paschal Toomer

4. Photographs and ephemera.

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Topics Covered

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Administrative Information

Gift, The Herndon Foundation.

Unrestricted access.

All requests subject to limitations noted in The Herndon Home policies on reproduction.

[after identification of item(s)], Toomer family papers, The Herndon Home.

Processed by Wesley Chenault and Lamonica Sanford, 2002-2004.

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Atlanta Life Insurance Company records, Auburn Avenue Research Library, Atlanta, GA

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