Brother Webb, Mrs. Webb (Atlanta, 1910-1930)

G. Leonard Tarrant already was playing a big role in Annie Richard Stephens' life by providing a roof over her head when it's likely he did something equally significant: introduce her to Voil Webb. Tarrrant was a brickmason like Voil, so it wouldn't be surprising if they met on a project somewhere in the city. The prospect of a Sunday dinner at the house of a friend and his four young sisters-in-law no doubt would be quite an inducement to a bachelor like Voil.
In any case, Voil Webb and Annie Stephens were married on June 10, 1913.
Their first child, Voil Richard Webb, arrived on April 13, 1914. According to the second son, Robert Stephens Webb (born July 21, 1920), this young family spent much of World War I in Charleston, S.C., where Army barracks were being constructed. (There also are stories that Voil worked for a time in Florida in the 1910s.) But after the war, they returned to Atlanta, and Voil began to make himself known.
The 1920 census found the Webbs living at 481 Capitol St. in Atlanta (roughly near, or perhaps even at, where the Atlanta Braves play baseball today), with Voil listing his profession as "contractor builder." On either side lived families from Greece, Russia, Tennessee and Scotland, as well as people who spoke Greek, Yiddish, German and French. After the insular, relatively monocultural life of Harmony Grove and Toccoa, their new neighborhood must have seemed exotic.
Atlanta city directories from 1921 through 1928 list Voil as a bricklayer or a contractor. His address through 1926 was alternately 157 Love St. or 10 Lanes Lane in the Kirkwood section of Atlanta. According to Robert Webb, Voil wasn't jumping from home to home--rather, it was the same place, but was located on a corner and thus ended up with two different addresses. Voil built the home. During this time came Daniel Audrey Webb, born Sept. 23, 1922, and Leonard Loftis Webb, born July 5, 1926. Leonard's first name was in homage to G. Leonard Tarrant. His middle name, Loftis, is believed to pay respects to a plumber whom Voil befriended in Charleston. Because Leonard Tarrant was very much part of the family when Leonard Loftis Webb was born, he was known to his immediate family as Loftis.
In 1927, the Webbs moved to 215 Norwood Ave. NE in Atlanta. By this time, Voil was a full-fledged businessman, head of the G. Voil Webb Co., mason contractors. Its slogan: "If it's built with brick we can do it." Among other projects, he is believed to have at least contributed to the construction of several schools in the city.
Today, a contractor boss would be regarded as no friend of organized labor, but Voil was an active member of the Bricklayers and Masons International, Local 14. (G. Leonard Tarrant served for a time as the local's president.) A notebook that Voil once owned contains drafts from as early of 1921 of memorial notices typed up for union members and their families who had died. There also are clippings of a column by G. Voil Webb called "Bricklayers Corner" that appear to be taken from an Atlanta labor newspaper.
According to many who knew him, Voil took words seriously. "He had a dog-eared pocket dictionary," son Robert Webb said in 1999. "He'd be reading the newspaper, see a word he wasn't familiar with, pull the dictionary out of his pocket and learn that word." As if to help inspire him in his labor work, the notebook has several articles clipped and saved with titles like "Praise for the Modern Brick" and "Brick is the Aristocrat of All Materials." We don't know if he wrote those.
This collection also contains an article entitled "A Day With a Business Agent" that describes a typical Saturday with Webb as he called upon contracting firms, typing out business letters ("His union does not furnish him with a fluffy-haired stenographer, or any other kind," the article notes) and meeting with bricklayers to give them new assignments.
"Business Agent G.V. Webb, is the Bricklayers' Union, is doing great work," another clipping begins. "Brother Webb has the full cooperation of his local, and that is 99% of the game."