Lanier And Anne
Lanier and Anne had three daughters. Left to right, Tracy, Vickie and Donna. Sadly, Donna passed away in 2007.
“Anne’s sister Joyce lived behind our laundry. She wanted a job and Dad gave her one. Next thing I know Anne comes over and he gives her a job. And truth be known I believe that was why I didn’t want to hang around for that Sunday race in Daytona. I wanted to see Anne.
“A year later, 1953, we got married. I got my own laundry route at Lakewood Heights. Tim Flock was one of my customers. Tim, Francis and the kids lived in some apartments in front of the Federal Pen.
“Around the mid sixties Georgia Awning, who had been behind our old laundry for years, offered to buy the place because they wanted to expand. So I went with my own truck to Adamsville at Colonial Cleaners and worked a 60/40 deal while I was helping my brother Hoyt in the electrical business.
These days, Anne and Lanier take it easy.
“By the mid-seventies I gave up the laundry business altogether to concentrate on Englett Electric. After the nineties I turned the place over to Clyde Rowell who had been with me for years and later married my daughter Vickie. I then retired.
“Anne and I in all had three daughters. Sadly, Donna, the oldest, died in 2007. Tracy runs a dentist office in Douglasville. But we are still very lucky and count our blessings. We have five wonderful grandkids and seven great-grandkids.”
Aftermath
Lanier Englett did more in less than a decade than most in a lifetime. A young boy who quit school and then inducts himself into the heart of WW2, within weeks finds himself traveling all over the world, facing death with every wave he rode, and every shovel of coal he stoked. While many vessels were sank, his crew slipped through each enemy bombardment.
A group of Georgia racing legends only a few short years ago. Pictured, left to right, Jimmy Mosteller, Sam Colvin, the late Billy Carden, Lanier Englett, the late Raymond Parks, the late Jack Etheridge, Charlie Mincey, Wilbur Rakestraw and Charlie Padgett.
He dove off his ship once and swam through shark infested waters blanketed in deadly sea wasps off the coast of Naples, Italy in a vain attempt to reach an overturned ally vessel.
No officer ordered him to do so.
In stock cars he experienced the agony of defeat and the thrill of victory also in a matter of weeks, and all the trimmings intertwined that go with such fury. He was there at racing’s infancy and most dangerous era, both on and off the track.
Jimmy Mosteller was right. “You boys get Lanier Englett over here and he can tell you some amazing things.”
From 1943 to 1953, as this stoic kid grew to become a man, Lanier journeyed down an intensely wild and narrow path.
After two hours with Lanier Englett in Mosteller’s den, we understood.
We truely understood.
Editor’s note: This story was originally published in the September 2010 edition of the Pioneer Pages magazine.
Eddie Samples is a racing historian and writer, and is the son of champion stock car racer and Georgia Racing Hall of Famer Ed Samples.
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