For more than 50 years, Nancy Roy has loved Senoia's history, its people and the stories that make this town feel like home.
“Everybody's got what they want, don't wanna get rid of anything.”
That was the answer Bill and Nancy Roy received when they first went looking for a place in Senoia.
As Nancy remembers it, she and Bill had stopped at the Gulf gas station that once sat at the corner of Luther Bailey Road and Highway 16. Bill asked the attendant if he knew of any property for sale and received a quick, stern “no.”
Bill wasn't quite ready to accept that answer. He prodded a little more. It didn't have to be a big piece of land. It could have a house or it could be vacant. They weren't looking for anything too specific— really, just about anything might work.
The attendant didn't budge.
“Everybody's got what they want, don't wanna get rid of anything.”
Bill finally got the message. They finished up at the gas station, got back in the car and continued down the road. Less than a mile later, they found exactly what they had come looking for: a large FOR SALE sign sitting in the yard of an old house.
The Roys purchased that house in 1974. Nancy still lives there today.
In one of those small-town twists that makes the story even better, Nancy and Bill later became good friends with the less-than-friendly gas station attendant, and that first encounter became something they could laugh about together.
Looking back now, the story feels like a fitting beginning to Bill and Nancy's life in Senoia. Bill was a go-getter—the kind of man who would keep asking even after he'd already been told no. Nancy was the steady presence beside him, sometimes getting pulled along by one of Bill's ideas and helping turn it into something lasting. Together, they would spend the next several decades building a life here, opening businesses, making friends, becoming involved in the community and helping preserve the history of the town they came to love.
Building a Life Together At the time, Bill and Nancy were living and working in College Park. Bill worked for Delta, while Nancy worked in the office for Clairol. After purchasing the Senoia property, they spent the next couple of years traveling back and forth to work on the old house, which needed plenty of attention.
They married in the spring of 1976, right there in the same home.
Not long after returning from their honeymoon, the newlyweds were outside working in the yard when Paul McKnight Jr. stopped by. He had apparently noticed the activity at the house and informed them that he had seen there was a party—and he hadn't been invited.
It was another early introduction to the kind of small-town familiarity that Nancy and Bill would soon come to know well.
They became an active, social couple, building friendships and getting involved throughout the community. Bill belonged to organizations including the Senoia Masonic Lodge and Fayette Shrine Club, while the Senoia Area Historical Society would become an important part of life for both of them. There were businesses to build, organizations to support and seemingly always another person to visit or something happening around town.
Their personalities complemented one another. Bill was usually the one charging toward the next idea. Nancy handled much of the administrative side, bringing a steadiness that helped keep everything moving. Sometimes that also meant supporting another one of Bill's ideas even when she wasn't completely convinced they needed it.
Bill's parents had moved to Georgia from Louisiana and purchased 15 acres across the road from Nancy and Bill's home. After Bill's father passed away, Bill eventually decided to develop the property and build a storage facility.
Nancy will readily admit she may not have been entirely on board with the idea at first. Still, she knew her husband well enough to know that when Bill saw an opportunity, he wanted to pursue it. And as she had done so many times throughout their marriage, Nancy supported him, even when it meant following him into an idea she might not have chosen herself.
As it turns out, Bill may have been onto something. The storage business continues to operate across the street today.
A Town Full of Stories There was one part of Senoia that Nancy never needed Bill to pull her toward.
History had fascinated her long before they arrived, and in Senoia she found herself living in a place where seemingly every building, piece of land and longtime resident had another story to tell.
Even their own home had generations of them.
Built in 1905 by farmer Jim Couch, the house had originally been constructed so Couch's children could live closer to town and attend school. Years later, Nancy had the opportunity to meet Couch's youngest daughter, who had actually lived in the house. She told Nancy about moving there from the family's farm off Gordon Road as a child, riding on the back of a wagon while playing the piano along the way.
That's the way Nancy tells a story. She remembers the details that aren't necessarily needed to tell you what happened, but somehow make you feel as though you were there when it did. It wouldn't be enough to tell you that the Couch family moved from the farm into town. She remembers the little girl riding on the back of the wagon and the piano she played along the way.
One detail simply leads to another. Before long, you're no longer listening to Nancy tell you the history of an old house. You can picture the people who once called it home.
Spend a little time with her and one story has a way of becoming another. She can move from the people she and Bill knew personally to stories reaching back generations, but it's often those seemingly insignificant details that stay with you. Nancy doesn't simply know Senoia's history. She has a way of making its stories feel alive.
That passion found a natural outlet almost as soon as she and Bill settled into Senoia.
Following the town's Fourth of July celebration in 1976, a group of residents began discussing the need to preserve Senoia's history. Nancy became a charter member of what would become the Senoia Area Historical Society. In those early years, members went throughout the community talking with longtime residents and gathering their stories, preserving memories that might otherwise have disappeared with the people who carried them.
Nancy later served as Secretary and on the board and worked alongside the group as Senoia's historic district moved through the process of gaining historic recognition. Nearly five decades later, she remains active and is the only living founding member still residing in Senoia. She continues attending monthly meetings, encouraging others to become involved and volunteering in the kitchen as one of the affectionately named “Kitchen Wenches”—a name Mrs. Nancy is adamant someone else came up with.
Her appreciation for history doesn't mean Nancy expects Senoia to remain frozen in time. She understands communities change. The town has grown tremendously since she and Bill arrived, and while there are certainly things she misses about the smaller Senoia they once knew, she also understands everything can't—and shouldn't—remain exactly as it was.
For Nancy, preserving history has never seemed to be about preventing change. It's about making sure that as a community moves forward, the people and stories that came before aren't forgotten.
The Carriage House That same appreciation for the past eventually found another home right in Nancy and Bill's backyard.
Both had antiques that had been passed down through their families, and in 1982 they opened Carriage House Antiques on Highway 16. Even the building itself came with a story. Constructed in 1905 along with their home, the original carriage house had once stored buggies and wagons downstairs and grain from the farm upstairs.
When the Roys first opened the shop, both were still working their regular jobs, so Carriage House welcomed customers primarily on weekends. About four years into the business, Bill found another idea to pursue. He traveled to Huntsville, Alabama, to learn custom matting and framing and began operating that side of the business from the workshop behind the shop.
What began as a weekend antique shop has now been part of Senoia for 44 years.
On the second weekend of November, Nancy will host the 44th annual Holiday Open House at Carriage House Antiques, continuing a tradition that has taken place every year since the business opened in 1982. Customers, friends and visitors will once again gather on the same property where Nancy and Bill built so much of their life together.
In many ways, an antique shop feels like a natural extension of Nancy herself. Being an antique dealer requires recognizing that age doesn't diminish the value of something. Often, it adds to it. An old piece carries a history of where it has been and the people who came before, and preserving it gives that story an opportunity to continue.
It's difficult not to see a connection between the antiques Nancy has spent decades preserving and the stories she has spent just as long remembering. In both, there is an appreciation for what came before and an understanding that something doesn't have to be new to remain meaningful.
Part of the Story Bill passed away in 2013, but the life he and Nancy built together remains visible everywhere around her. It's in the house where they married and Nancy still lives, the Carriage House they opened together, the storage business across the road, the Historical Society that became such an important part of their lives and the friendships they built over decades in Senoia.
Those friendships still matter deeply to Mrs. Nancy.
A supposedly quick trip downtown can easily become anything but quick. Nancy may run into someone she hasn't seen in a while, stop to catch up and then encounter another familiar face. Before she knows it, a simple errand has turned into a couple of hours of conversation.
It's easy to imagine why.
Spend enough time with Mrs. Nancy and the conversation has a way of wandering, in the very best sense of the word. A question about the house becomes a story about the people who built it. A conversation about Senoia leads somewhere else entirely, with another name, another memory and one of those little details she has carried with her all these years.
Perhaps that's part of what Nancy and the other founding members of the Senoia Area Historical Society understood so many years ago. The history of a town isn't only a collection of dates, buildings and significant events. It's people remembering people. It's stories being shared often enough that they don't disappear.
Over the decades, Nancy and Bill became woven into the community themselves. They built a life here, opened businesses, joined organizations, made friends and invested themselves in a community they grew to love. What they built together remains part of Nancy’s life today and part of the community that became home.
Ask Mrs. Nancy about Bill. Ask about the house, the Carriage House or what Senoia was like when they first arrived. Chances are, the answer will include a few details you weren't expecting and lead to another story you didn't know you were going to hear.
For nearly half a century, Nancy has helped make sure Senoia remembers the people who came before. Along the way, she and Bill quietly wrote a story of their own—one of marriage, friendship, hard work, community involvement and a genuine love for the place they chose to call home. Senoia is fortunate that Mrs. Nancy cared enough to preserve its history, and equally fortunate that she became part of it.