Susan Hayward’s home beyond Hollywood

A Georgia home, with a career still under way

Hayward had first worked in Georgia while filming I’d Climb the Highest Mountain in 1950. The picture, released the next year, used north Georgia locations for a story about a minister and his wife. Her later move to Carroll County was a different connection: a marriage and a home. [2]

She married Eaton Chalkley in 1957. A former FBI agent, he had settled in Carrollton, sold used cars and invested in real estate. They met while he was on a business trip to Los Angeles. After their wedding, they lived on a farm north of Carrollton. [2]

This was not a retreat after all the important film work was over. On April 6, 1959, Hayward won the Academy Award for actress for I Want to Live!, a film released in 1958. Carroll County was part of her life during that achievement. [3] [2]

A parade for books

Carrollton also found a place for its famous neighbor on a parade reviewing stand. The January 1958 Georgia Libraries News Bulletin reports an October 3 Tournament of Books with more than seventy-five floats, many representing books or their characters. Among the celebrities on the stand was Hayward, introduced as an actress who now lived in Carrollton. [9]

The Carrollton Junior Chamber of Commerce led the event, working with regional library director Edith Foster and groups from Carroll, Douglas, Haralson and Heard counties. Children dressed as book characters for the morning program. The afternoon brought floats, bands and marching groups into a public celebration of libraries. [9]

A separate photograph preserves another civic welcome: Hayward receiving an oversized wooden key to Carrollton. The University of West Georgia archive identifies Mayor Stewart Martin and records the image as courtesy of Rebecca Akin. It leaves the scene undated, so the key belongs to a distinct moment whose occasion is still unresolved. [10]

What the photographer wrote down

Kenneth Rogers’s assignment notes, transcribed in Georgia State University’s photograph catalog, distinguish the old farmhouse from the new house. The couple had lived in the farmhouse during construction; by the time of the assignment, it was their guesthouse. Other planned views included Hayward with her boxer, the house from across the lake and an interior window looking toward water and woods. [1]

The sheet also names a smaller “play house” near the new residence and credits Chalkley with its design. These are unusually useful details. They show a property being adapted for the couple’s life, with an older building retained alongside newer ones. The catalog does not establish an exact day for the photographs, and a list of intended views should not be mistaken for proof that every frame survives. [1]

A separate color portrait has a firmer date. The Atlanta History Center catalogs Rogers’s photograph of Hayward and Chalkley together at their farm as June 24, 1962. She rests a hand on a weathered fence post; he stands beside her in a cowboy hat. Behind them are wire fencing, grass and a distant tree line. The setting is a pasture edge, with the couple themselves at the center of the picture. [8]

A separate Bill Wilson photograph, preserved by the Atlanta History Center, shows Hayward beside a tractor with a man in the driver’s seat. She leans toward him and extends a pair of sunglasses in one hand. The catalog leaves the man unidentified. It is an engaging farm scene, but it cannot tell us who regularly worked the fields—or justify naming the man as her husband. [4]

The Oscar came back, too

Joe McTyre’s 1959 airport photograph supplies another connection between public success and private home. Hayward smiles beside airplane steps, holding a large bouquet tied with broad ribbon. The Atlanta History Center identifies the scene as her arrival at Atlanta Municipal Airport on her way home after winning her Oscar. [5]

Together, the records place an internationally known actress in a distinctly local setting: an Atlanta arrival, a Carroll County home and photographs made among its buildings and fields. They do not require a claim that fame disappeared at the farm gate. The newspaper cameras themselves show that public interest followed her.

A place in the community

Hayward and Chalkley donated thirteen acres beside their farm for Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia. [2] The congregation’s own anniversary reporting dates the dedication of its church building to March 25, 1962. [6]

Fifty years later, the Georgia Bulletin spoke with Bill Maddox and Jim Shadrix, who had served at that dedication as teenagers and returned for the anniversary. Their recollections put ordinary families alongside the famous donor. The building became part of people’s weddings, baptisms and weekly lives. [6]

Chalkley died in 1966. Hayward died in 1975 and was buried beside him at the church. Georgia’s tourism agency describes Carrollton as her adopted hometown and makes a useful distinction for anyone following the story today: the gravesite can be visited, but the former ranch is not open for tours. [7]

The Oscar explains why the world watched Susan Hayward. The farmhouse notes, library parade, homecoming photograph and church help explain why Carroll County remembers her. A place can become part of a life through marriage, work and the ordinary business of making a home.

Sources and further reading

Sources reviewed October 29, 2026.

1. Georgia State University: Susan Hayward and Eaton Chalkley at their farm, AJCN113-083d
   Kenneth Rogers assignment-sheet and negative-envelope wording transcribed in the catalog. Title says circa 1950s; date field spans 1950–1969. Original assignment sheet and full color sequence not obtained.
2. Robin Fay: Susan Hayward, New Georgia Encyclopedia
   Career, 1950 Georgia filming, marriage, Carroll County residence and land donation. No medical-causation claim is drawn from this biography.
3. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: 1959 ceremony
   Official record: April 6, 1959, honoring 1958 films; Hayward wins for I Want to Live!
4. Atlanta History Center: Bill Wilson photograph, VIS 99.68.11
   Digital photograph visually inspected. Man on tractor is unidentified in the catalog. Its broad date field does not establish the exposure date; reproduction requires permission.
5. Atlanta History Center: Joe McTyre photograph, 1959 airport return
   VIS 106.49.01. Digital photograph now visually inspected: Hayward, flowers and airplane steps. The archive identifies the return from the Oscar win; no exact arrival day or airline is assigned. Permission required for reproduction.
6. Georgia Bulletin: Carrollton Church Marks Golden Jubilee
   Andrew Nelson, May 24, 2012; original anniversary reporting, photograph captions and recollections of dedication participants.
7. Explore Georgia: Susan Hayward Gravesite Monument
   State tourism description of her adopted hometown, burial and visitor-access distinction. No invitation to enter the former ranch.
8. Atlanta History Center: Kenneth Rogers farm portrait, June 24, 1962
   VIS 82.16.04, ahc082016004a.jpg. Color image and archive IIIF metadata inspected. Catalog identifies both people and the date. A separate collection item, not proof of the date of GSU’s assignment sequence. Permission required for reproduction.
9. Georgia Libraries News Bulletin, January 1958, volume 13, number 2, printed page 7
   Original issue cover (PDF page 25) and “Operation Library: Tournament of Books” (PDF page 35) inspected. The report prints October 3 without a year; 1957 follows from issue chronology. No claim that Hayward organized, judged or spoke at the event.
10. University of West Georgia: Vanishing Carroll County, CAR-0962
    Original photograph inspected. Archive identifies Hayward receiving Carrollton’s key from Mayor Stewart Martin; courtesy Rebecca Akin, undated. The key’s small inscription does not establish an exact date. Linked only; no publication permission obtained.