29/03/2025
Catching up post...NOTE: If you have been reached out to for photos and have not yet done that, you have been waited on so some of the women in your family can be featured! Please, be sure to send them over so we can get to it!
Women's History Month: March 26th
Elegant, but a tomboy. Gritty and tough, but classy. Friendly, but competitive, Melva Lynn McAfee Drake is a woman that many will remember for years to come and was a friend to all. As most every school has had its super stars through the years, each school has its first true super star who raised the standard, and as for the women athletes of Union County, it was Melva Lynn who blazed the trail and became a role model for Union County female athletes who came after her!
During her 4 year career at Union County High School, from 1950-54, Melva Lynn helped lead the girls basketball program from the bottom with a 0-18 record her freshmen year, to an 18-3 record in her senior season, losing only by 4 to eventual District 9-B Champion, Clayton High School(Rabun County). Her junior season, the team finished within an impressive 19-5 record, and in her sophomore year, the team finished with a 10-12 overall record, finishing with an overall career record of 47-38. Unfortunately, for Melva Lynn, winning a region/district championship was a tough task given that she was in District 9-B alongside the Jasper Dragonettes(Pickens County) who won an impressive 2 Class B State Championships and who also finished with 2 Class B State Runner-Up finishes during her career, meaning that Jasper(Pickens) went to the Class B State Championship game every year of Melva Lynn's high school career. During her season campaign, she averaged an impressive 22.8 PPG in 21 games, with her season high(And quite possibly career high) of 40 points(Of the team's 44 total) in her final high school game of her career vs. Clayton. This very well may have made her the first ever Union County basketball player(Boys or Girls) to score this many points in a single game! In this very game, Clayton had a combined 48. In 6 different games(Nearly 1/3 of games played), Melva Lynn outscored her team's opponents entirely. This was with 28 points against arch-rival Towns County's 27 total points; 25 points and 23 points against Cleveland's(White County) 21 total points and 23 total points; 20 points against Morganton's 18 total points. 20 points against Blue Ridge's(Fannin County) 18 total points; And 26 points against Dahlonega's 21 total points. Growing up with her father owning the former Canal Lake camp, where there was a baseball/softball field while she was growing up, Melva Lynn even enjoyed a few games of baseball and softball herself, sometimes even playing baseball with the boys!
After her legendary high school basketball career, Melva Lynn graduated from Union County High School in 1954, before going on to attend the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and later marrying her husband, Haskel H. "Bill" Drake Jr., on May 14th, 1955. Following the completion of her college education, Melva Lynn returned back to Blairsville and began work as a Bank Teller on 1957 at Union County Bank, which eventually, as we know, became what is known today as United Community Bank(Georgia's former 3rd largest headquartered bank). During her time at the bank, she eventually became Head Teller and Gold Club Coordinator, and then finally, Assistant Vice-Presiddnt. It was here that many people, local and move-ins, who came to know her. She was well respected in her job and went on to retire in December 1995 so she could help keep and watch after her newborn granddaughter, Madison. In her younger years, she truly enjoyed water skiing, and of course, playing basketball and softball!
A big thanks goes out to Sabrina Rich, Melva Lynn's daughter, for photos and information!
