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Generations

1976
Five Generations
Savannah Georgia

      This wasn't a reunion in the sense that there were a lot of people around, but it was a coming together of five generations of the Gannam Family spanning over 90 years.
      The photo and text below was a feature article in the Savannah Press, Friday 26 March 1976.

Clockwise: Karem George Gannam holding Christopher George Tabakian, Phyllis Saraf Tabakian, George Donald Tabakian, Jr., Mary Gannam Saraf Beecher

Five Generations

   Christopher George Tabakian is luckier than many infants his age. Not only does he have two proud and loving parents (the George D. Tabakians Jr.), a doting grandmother, Mrs. George D. Tabakian; an equally doting great-grandmother, Mrs. Mary Saraf Beecher, he also has a loving great-great-grandfather, Karem Gannam. Any way you look at it, five generations is something special.
    Mr. Gannam, who will be 95 in July, is the father of a daughter and four sons, one of whom (George K. Gannam) was the first Savannahian to be killed at Pearl Harbor and in whose honor the American Legion post here has been named.
    Born in the small Mediterranean village of Sidon, Lebanon, Mr. Gannam immigrated to America in 1905 at the age of 24, settling first in New Hampshire, then coming to Savannah by steamship in 1919.
    For the first year, Mr. Gannam and his growing family lived downtown where he operated a confectionery on West Broad Street for a short while. After selling the store, he rented a small house at 53rd and Hopkins streets, where he farmed, and later built a community grocery store across from the farm when Reynolds and Manley Lumber Company built a large sawmill in the immediate area of the Gannam home. A son, Anthony, operated the store in recent years, closing it last year because of illness.
    Mr. Gannam continues to live at the "old family home" and to farm a small plot of land adjacent to his house. Despite weakening eyesight and a body that cannot move as nimbly as in past years, he considers a day wasted if he cannot have some physical activity, and believes it is healthy "to get some perspiration going."
    Reared in the Catholic tradition he continues to eat fish every Friday and to fast during Lent. He attends Sacred Heart Church each Sunday.
    Granddad to 16 and great-grandaddy to 27, Karem Gannam has spanned not only the generation gap between parent and child, but generations beyond. As one granddaughter describes him, "He is a real inspiration to all of us. In spite of age, failing eyesight and hearing, and gradual slowing down of his body, he continues to live life to his fullest capabilities, and philosophically accepts his advancing condition as the natural process which he must undergo in the fulfillment of nature's plan for him. Of such beautiful souls, Heaven must be made! And my grandfather already has his place in waiting."
    Christopher who is only two weeks old, has a lot of living up to do to someday fill the shoes of his great-great-great [sic] granddaddy.

Savannah Press, Friday 26 March 1976.    Photographer: Bob Morris, Savannah Morning News & Evening Press
This story has an interesting footnote. Chris Tabakian, the baby in the photo, in a recent email wrote:

      "About the five generations newspaper clipping — when I moved back to Savannah in 1999 to take a job with the Morning News, I dug up my worn laminated copy and asked Bob Morris, the photographer who has since passed, if he remembered taking the picture. He said he didn't, although he seemed shocked that I was one of the subjects."

All the attention by the press apparently made quite an impact on Chris as evidenced by his career choice. He is currently working for the Atlanta Journal Constitution.


Four Generations
Gannam Saraf Fischer Peters
311 Paradise Drive - Grandma's House
Savannah, Georgia

      Christopher Peters was born on March 26, 1982, and our first trip was to bring him to see his Great Grandma Beecher in Savannah and his Great Great Aunts Honey and Sr. Daria Gildea at Wilmington Island.
      Having four generations in our family was a first in our line and it was a special occasion for me to be able to "present" him to Grandma.
      Grandma would talk about her great grands like a prophet, rejoicing in the fact that she would never die on this earth because her life would continue through the lives of her children, grandchildren, great grands and all those who would come forth in the decades to follow.
     I wish all who will come long after we are gone could know her as I knew her and as my children knew her..

Four Generations of
Gannam Women
Lake Mary Florida

      In May 1991, Ashley Peters received First Holy Communion at Church of the Annunciation in Altamonte Springs, Florida.
      It was an event made even more special because her Great Grandma Beecher came to Florida to celebrate with us.
     Looking at the photo today, its still hard to believe that she was almost 81 at the time.

Four Generations
Saraf Fischer Fischer Boizelle
Great Grandma's House
Savannah, Georgia

      Kolbe Joseph was born in 2022 in Washington, D.C. In July 2022, he visited his Great Grandmother in Savannah, Georgia, with his Mom, Dad and Grandpa Neil.

       Looks like Kolbe is built like his Grandpa!
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Four Generations
Saraf Fischer Fischer Aybar
Great Grandma's 85th Birthday
Savannah, Georgia

     Madelyn was born in the Dominican Republic, Anna and Isaac wee born in North Carolina. In 2018 they visited Savannah to attend their Great Grandma's 85th birthday with their Grandpa Neil and Mama Patrice.


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