Habersham schools supt. retiring; Gville woman escapes serious injury in 365 wreck

*Habersham County School System Superintendent Matthew Cooper is retiring as of April 1 ending a 30-year career in education, the last 13 in his current post. habershamnow.com reports that Cooper will be replaced by Assistant Superintendent Patrick Franklin. Cooper says it’s his decision to step down at this time, that he leaves under good terms with the board.

*A Gainesville woman escaped serious injury in a two-vehicle wreck Tuesday morning on Georgia 365. The state patrol says it happened about 8:00 near the intersection with Wilbanks Road in Habersham County. Troopers say Peggy Jackson, 80, pulled from Wilbanks into the path of the second vehicle which was traveling north on 365. Jackson suffered minor injuries and was taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center Gainesville. The driver of the second vehicle who was from Temple, Georgia, escaped injury. (Photo courtesy Rob Moore, Habersham County Sheriff/EMS PIO)

About the Author

Ken Stanford is Online News Editor for GLORY 97.5, a position he has held since August 2022.

Ken was born in Moultrie, Georgia, and says he knew from the time he was 5 or 6 he wanted to be a “radio announcer.” That dream was realized when he was hired by Moultrie radio station WMTM in 1960 at the age of 15 as a weekend disc jockey. A 1963 graduate of Moultrie (now Colquitt County) High School, he has spent his whole career in Georgia working for stations in Atlanta, Marietta, and Gainesville – most recently as News Director for 40 years at WDUN in Gainesville. He is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force Reserves.

Ken retired in 2011 but came out of retirement last year to help GLORY, on a part-time basis, beef-up its online news presence.

He is the recipient of many Associated Press awards and is a former judge of state and national Associated Press broadcast news contests. In 2005, he was presented with the Georgia Associated Press Broadcasters Association’s President’s Award for Excellence in Journalism and in 2019 was inducted into the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame.

He lives in Gainesville with his wife of 52 years, the former Sandra McKnight of Clio, Alabama, and they have one child, a daughter, Lisa, who lives in Cumming with her family.