Becky Douville: Able 2 Do All

August 2009

If you’ve ever done business at Able 2 Rent All in Fayetteville, you might have met it’s owner, John Douville. Just remember… behind every good man is a good woman, and that woman happens to be his wife, Becky Douville.

While Douville owns the business with her husband on paper, you’re more likely to see her doing what she loves best: farming and fencing- her two passions that keep her on her toes mentally and physically.

Though the two interests might seem like an unlikely combination, this Fayetteville woman credits her two teachers, fencing teacher U.S. Olympic Coach Arkady Burdan, and Lester Bray, a Fayetteville farmer, for inspiring and encouraging her along the way

“What makes them great is that both of them have the ability to look at an individual student as a person and understand their strengths and weaknesses,” Douville says. “They saw my passion and desire and supported it while acknowledging who I was as an individual. I’m really not terribly gifted at anything except my ability to see an opportunity and get as much as I can out of it.”

“I’m so passionate about fencing and farming because both connect me to my immediate community as well as the world,” she adds.

At 51, her life has been and continues to be a series of incredible adventures, amazing experiences and interesting careers.

In years past, she’s held prominent jobs, like the one at Merrill Lynch as a broker. She also taught piano, and ran a business.

She grew up seeing the world, and became well acquainted with people from other cultures because her father was in the military.

But in more recent years, this woman of half Japanese and half American descent discovered her love of fencing and along the way took a sharp left turn and rediscovered her love of farming, turning it into a grand venture.

Her entrance into this world started at a Japanese hospital, when she was adopted by American parents at three days old. Her father’s military career took her, along with her adopted brother, also half Japanese and half American, all over the world for the first 12 years of her life.

But summers were always reserved for family visits to the United States.

As a youngster, trips to grandparents alternated between Michigan and rural Alabama, where her love of farm life first started to take root.

“We all had to sit down and shell peas. I loved it. There was lots of talking and I think that’s where values were passed on. You had to sit still and listen, talk and shell peas, all at the same time. I absolutely think the seeds to become a farmer were planted by my grandparents when I was around five years old.”

By the ninth grade, the family was permanently assigned to Fort Deposit, 26 miles south of Montgomery, Alabama. Population at the time: 1300.

“I came from a very diverse background with lots of nationalities because of all the places we lived. Moving to a small town in the South was a little scary for me.”

But Douville wasn’t deterred. Previously a serious horse competitor, she shifted her focus to the piano, something she had been doing since she was five.

“The greatest thing my parents did for me was give me opportunities.”

“I really get involved in whatever is before me. I have always found a way to feel passionate about something and if I don’t I get into trouble,” she grins.

Life in Fort Deposit, while different from her past, was proving to be the place where her life was happily consumed with farming.

“Everybody had a garden, including my parents. Everyone shucked corn and shelled peas. My aunt Dean always had food that was either from her garden or a neighbor’s garden.”
Her angst about life in a small town quickly faded.

“There was a feeling of comfort being in a tight community. It was a sense of belonging to a really big family. You all shelled peas together. You went to weddings and church together. It really was wonderful.”

After high school, Douville attended Birmingham Southern College, where she received a degree in piano performance, then headed to New York, where she studied piano with a teacher at Juilliard. (Douville was married briefly and had a son, David.)

But the South was calling, so Douville and her son returned to Alabama, where she met her husband, John Douville.

A job transfer relocated them to Fort Lauderdale, where she started teaching piano, and she gave birth to her middle son, Robert.

With a larger family, Becky Douville was longing to be closer to her parents who lived in Alabama.

By 1989, she got her wish and John was transferred to Atlanta and they purchased a home in Fayetteville. She also gave birth to her third son, Cooper.

Amazingly, this mother of three who taught piano was developing a new interest: fencing.

It started percolating when Douville was taking her son, David, to fencing lessons in 1992.

And one thing in particular was drawing Douville in: “Fencers are very passionate about their sport and I wanted to be part of their world.”

It was around the same time that Douville was becoming acquainted with the parent of another fencing teenager, Tina Jacobson.

Early on, Jacobson could see there was something special about Douville.

“Clearly, she motivates me and others,” she said, “Not only has fencing brought Becky and me closer, but when my daughters were younger and the entire family was fencing, it gave us time to be together with our teenagers at a time when typically they don’t want to be with us.”

Douville started taking fencing lessons in 1996 and not only became seriously involved, but at the time of this writing is ranked fifth in the nation in her age group (50 and up).

By 1997, the Douvilles purchased Able 2 Rent All in Fayetteville followed by another business purchase in 2002 in Griffin, where Becky Douville worked full-time, and took a break from fencing.
2002 was also the year when they sold their home and purchased the perfect house, complete with a pool for their active sons, an additional home on the property for her parents…and 18 acres.

“I knew I wanted a home where we could have a place for my aging parents,” she said. “I just had no idea what I was going to do with 18 acres.”

Her farm, Able 2 Farm, is home to Carlos the donkey, baby pigs Bella and Star, goats, chickens and three dogs.

But things came to a screeching halt for Becky Douville when they sold the Griffin business.

“Suddenly I didn’t have a job. I went from wearing high heels and nice clothes to pajamas. I wore them for almost a year, until I ran into a friend in the grocery store who said ‘it’s time to get rid of the pajamas.’”

That’s all Douville needed to hear. She dusted off a bicycle and hit the road with friends who were serious cyclists.

For months, they rode around. And then it happened one day while riding around. Douville spotted Lester Bray’s garden.

“For months I would always stop and look at his garden and think ‘that is an amazing garden. How does he do that?’ I knew I wanted to be part of his inner circle, I just didn’t know how I was going to do it.”

Finally, one day, she mustered up the courage to approach “Mr. Bray”, as she refers to him, while he was sitting outside under one of his fruit trees. Little did she know this man would rekindle her love of farming.

“I introduced myself and told him that I wanted to learn more about farming. And that’s when he said, ‘tell me about your garden,’ and we had our very first lesson right then. He told me to pull up some benches and a bucket. And before I knew it we had a little lesson about growing. I stayed a little over an hour. I remember feeling ‘okay here we go.’ At the time I had a little plot about 30 by 40 feet. I went home and thought, ‘I’m getting bigger.’”

Bray was impressed with his new friend.

“Lots of people stop by to look at my vegetable garden, but she had a high level of interest in gardening, and she had questions about the plasticulture process, a method of planting. I was impressed with the fact that she is bright and outgoing and very motivated to follow her passion of gardening. The thing about Becky is that she is such a people person and is so passionate about doing things for people who can’t do things for themselves. Not too many folks with her extensive background of accomplishments have dirt under their fingernails.”

Her foray into farming and a friendship with Bray quickly blossomed.

“I would stop and talk to him on a regular basis. I started to meet his longtime friends, Ken (Turner) and Roy (Scroggs), men in their 70s, who do all the work in his garden. I told him (Mr. Bray) I could help with any and all gardening. Mr. Bray’s little space brought back the memories of the sense of community I felt back in Fort Deposit.”

In time the gentlemen farmers started sharing farming related advice with Douville. It wasn’t long before they all headed over to Douville’s home and put their advice into action.

Thanks to Bray and his friends, what started in 2007 as a 30 -by-40 foot kitchen garden at Douville’s home, has grown to over an acre with fruits and vegetables.

While Douville and Bray work towards the same goal of growing fruits and vegetables, their planting methodology differs, Douville says.

“I’m bridging the gap between organic and conventional farming. I’ve taken Mr. Bray’s conventional methods and applied organic farming to it. I don’t use any pesticides or fertilizers. My farming is about taking a seed and putting it into a peat pot and turning it into a luscious tomato that will nourish someone. It’s not about making money. It’s about sharing and nurturing, something that is a big part of me.”

Last year Douville planted 300 Vidalia onions, the first item she harvested. To say she was thrilled with her first crop is an understatement.

“I pulled one up and it weighed about a pound. You could hear me screaming with joy about two miles away,” she laughs. “And there was no one home to share my joy, so I jumped in my truck and drove all over Fayetteville clutching the onion, showing everyone I knew that I had finally harvested something.

“Nearly every day Douville and Bray talk by phone.“He tells me what I need to do, like ‘tie the tomatoes’ or ‘trim the suckers,’ or ‘I see aphids.’ He’s another set of eyes I really need.”

This year Douville and her host of helpers planted 7000 Vidalia onions, 400 tomato plants, 450 cantaloupes and 2400 leeks, to name a few.

With an overwhelming abundance of food, Douville, who also makes time to be the hand bell director at North Fayette United Methodist Church, engaged church members to help on the farm and with the selling.

Now, every Saturday through September from 9 a.m. to noon, church members set up a little farmer’s market in the church parking lot. They also take produce to Fayette Family Market Day, once a month. Douville personally sells her produce at Andy’s Corner Market in Peachtree City (Hwys. 54 & 34) on Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

All of the profits from the church sales go to the ministry of North Fayette United Methodist Church.
Doug Burrell, Senior Minister at NFUMC, comments, “She has a love and concern for people and a sense of doing for others and the community that inspires others.”

For Becky Douville, life is about fencing, farming and the people in her life.

“I’m very passionate and committed to fencing and farming right now and the people that have made it possible,” she smiles. “I can’t tell you what I’m going to be doing 10 years from now, but whatever it is, I will look forward to it.”