'Aunt Mae's' a Community Gathering Place

Wills Grocery has long been a place for residents of ’s Burnt Hickory community to socialize.

“They used to come out here and play checkers, play cards,” said Bill Wills, who now operates the store.

Though the name of the store is Wills Grocery, it has become known throughout the community as “Aunt Mae’s” for Mae Wills, Bill Wills’ mother, who ran the business for many years. According to the book The Heritage of Paulding County, Mae Wills treated everybody like family.

The general store on Highway 61 near Narroway Church Road was built shortly after construction of the highway was finished in 1939 by Coney Wilbanks. The business switched hands several times over the years, being owned by Troy Wilbanks, Talmadge Cochran and Amos Powell.

When Powell decided to sell the store, the Wills’, who had moved from Paulding County to California, decided this was their way to return to the Burnt Hickory community, and Cecil Wills, the family’s patriarch, purchased the store in 1953.

After returning to Paulding County, Cecil Wills worked at the sawmill and with the pulpwood industry while his wife ran the general store. Later, Cecil Wills decide to devote more time to the business. He died in 1965 at the age of 49. That same year, Bill Wills graduated from high school, and began working at a lumberyard and raising poultry. He also continued to operate the store with his mother until taking sole responsibility in 1988.

“I just enjoyed meeting people and visiting with the neighbors,” Wills said.

In 2000, when metal gas tanks were outlawed, the store ceased its fuel business. Other aspects remain the same. The sign on top of the roof advertising the store is faded and inside, drinks are still kept cold in a cooler that was purchased in the 1950s.

The family added living quarters to the store, and Wills and his mother continue to live there though, according to The Heritage of Paulding County, they also own the house behind the business.