Born into a time when there were too many mules and not enough laborers because the world was at war, Clark Gregory DeLoach, Jr. came into this world on a bitterly cold day. Perhaps this is why, for 83 years, he found many reasons to curse the cold and look for sunshine and a good pair of socks. In his early years, the fields that ran alongside his house bloomed white with cotton, but for most all his years, there were cows testing the limits of fences and his patience.
Named after his father, Clark, the house was too small for two people with the same name, so Clark, Jr. picked up the nickname “Sonny.” Sonny was Mabel and Clark’s gift of an only child, and of course with gifts comes expectations. Plain and simple, Sonny bore that weight with nary a grumble. Throughout his eighteen years, he came to understand such expectations were more than just duty. They were hopes for his success.
Success was measured by good grades and good conduct, so being a good boy at home, at the barn, and at school was the norm. He was dutiful to all, and rebellious to none, except perhaps in his mind’s imagining.
He busied himself with a few extracurricular activities in school and took the classes required for college admissions.
He was the president of the junior class, followed by president of the senior class, as well as president of the Debate Club and the Hi Y Club. He was in the Beta Club and took classes in Latin, even though he never could figure out what, exactly, it was good for. Sonny practiced his piano lessons, but what he really wanted to learn was to play the guitar. Tall but skinny, he was not an athlete, even though he loved playing pick-up baseball with his classmates.
Sonny loved horses, and rode them with friends in the many pastures that made up Putnam County. As a teenager, he borrowed money to buy his most beloved horse, a Tennessee Walker name “Beauty.” Mabel and Clark saved everything they could to pay for Sonny’s college. She managed the books for the farm, and nothing was wasted, nor were there any frivolous purchases. Sonny graduated with honors from Putnam County High School on a warm evening at the end of May in 1961.
Three months later, he was packed up and left for Auburn University. His years at Auburn remained one of the most pleasant memories he held onto throughout his life.
After college, he worked as an Assistant Shift Superintendent at J.P.
Stevens in Milledgeville, a job he was proud of. Still, he often could be found helping his daddy with milking chores before and after work. “I just could not stand the thought of going home, while he was still at the barn working.”
After several years, the day came when he moved from managing shift workers at a wool mill to managing Holsteins with his daddy. Atlanta Dairies even provided business cards for the venture, with the name “DeLoach and Son Dairy.” Like his father before him, Sonny delivered mail on a rural route as a substitute carrier. This provided necessary supplemental income while raising four children as a single parent. Soon the route grew, and Sonny accepted an opportunity to work as a full-time carrier. The dairy continued through the efforts of every member of the family, and for that, Sonny was most proud. Sunday mornings, with his children circled round, Sonny would practice the hymns he would play in church. Once he felt satisfied with his brief practice, he pound out a chorus or two of “Proud Mary,” all the while reminiscing about the time he saw and heard Ike and Tina Turner in concert at Auburn. After his children grew up and started lives of their own, Sonny met and married Diane Ward, and for the next 37 years the two shared life, adventure, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
Diane completed what was most needed in his life – a partnership of joys and sorrows, born together, for better or for worse, until death do they part. In 1993, with the accumulation of grandchildren and more to come, he was recognized as the Dairy Farm Family of the Year for the annual Putnam County Dairy Festival. At that time, the county still boasted of some of the best dairies in the Southeast, which made the recognition all the more meaningful.
In 2005 he finally hung up the mail bag after 29 years. And in 2015, after 103 years as a continuously operating family dairy, he closed the doors. Afterward, for the next decade or more, Sonny gently wandered along a dementia journey, where memory faded, but tenderness abounded.
All the while, even unto the very end, he held steadfast to his humor, his love for family, and his devotion to Diane.
On October 21, 2026, he returned to the abundant table of his ancestors, where a place was set for him. His abundant life, now made complete.
He leaves behind his children, Beth Eubanks and her husband Buck, Greg DeLoach and his wife Amy, Scott DeLoach and his wife Carla, and David DeLoach and his wife Stephanie. He is also survived by his wife, Diane, and her daughter, Leigh White, and her husband, Tracy.
His grandchildren are numerous and were loved deeply: Leia Giddens (Joey), Michael Eubanks (Meagan), Haylee Peacock (Britt), Clark DeLoach, KaLeigh Maness (James), Dustin DeLoach (Abby), Aaron DeLoach (Erin), Breana White, and Tyler DeLoach (Brittany).
Sonny is preceded in death by his parents Clark, Sr. and Mabel DeLoach, and his grandson Gregory Scott DeLoach. They received friends for a visitation on Saturday, October 24th, at 10:00 a.m. at Philadelphia Methodist Church in Eatonton.
The funeral service followed at 11:00 a.m., with interment immediately following in the church cemetery. In place of flowers, gifts may be made to the Gregory Scott DeLoach FFA Memorial Fund at The Peoples Bank, 209 Jefferson Ave. Eatonton, GA, or Philadelphia Methodist Church, 264 New Phoenix Rd NE, Eatonton, Georgia.