Downtown Kennesaw’s controversial Confederate memorabilia shop shuttered abruptly after a Cobb County judge ordered a forensic audit of the late owner’s estate in a fight between the man’s sister and the longtime store manager.
The future of Wildman’s Civil War Surplus store has long been a topic of debate in the increasingly diverse Atlanta suburb, especially since proprietor Dent Myers’ death nearly four years ago at age 90.
Credit: KATIE KING
Credit: KATIE KING
Since then, the store has been managed by Myers’ longtime friend and employee Marjorie Lyon, who was named co-executor of the owner’s estate alongside Myers’ sister, Janice Bagwell.
But Senior Judge Adele Grubbs recently removed Lyon as a trustee, siding with Bagwell in a lawsuit she brought last year in the fight over her brother’s estate. Lyon, the judge found, took sole control of Myers’ property after his death, changing locks and denying Bagwell access to everything.
“Marjorie Lyon took 100% of the estate to herself and held out to others, including the City of Kennesaw, that she was the only owner,” Grubbs wrote.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
In taking control of Myers’ assets and real estate, Grubbs said Lyon breached the terms of the trust.
In addition to removing Lyon as trustee and ordering a forensic accounting of Myers’ estate, Grubbs has instructed Lyon to turn over any remaining assets, including inventory, bank records, documents and keys. She was also ordered to provide “unimpeded access” to any property, storage units and safe deposit boxes, records show.
In her lawsuit filed last November, Bagwell alleged that after her brother’s death, Lyon acted “as if she were the sole administrator of his estate.”
She reopened his store and took possession of his Kennesaw-area home, where she changed the locks, added security cameras and told Bagwell she wasn’t welcome, according to the complaint. She said Lyon even threatened to have her arrested if she stepped foot on her late brother’s property.
Bagwell said she was blocked from accessing any financial information related to the trust and accused Lyon of using funds from the estate to purchase property for herself.
In addition, Bagwell said her brother was known to keep “a large hoard of cash” stashed throughout his home inside bottles, books and cans. But none of that money had been accounted for.
She also accused Lyon of selling off some of Myers’ belongings, including several cannons and an autographed picture with Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page.
There were also five envelopes specifically addressed to Bagwell which Lyon kept for herself until Grubbs directed her to turn them over at a hearing last month, the judge wrote.
The store, which opened along Main Street in 1971, sells Confederate flags, Civil War artifacts and Jim Crow-era memorabilia. The shop also featured a mannequin in a Ku Klux Klan robe and hood, artifacts from Nazi Germany and other racist souvenirs, prompting many in the community to view the business as a black eye on Kennesaw’s image.
Myers maintained that his store, which he dubbed “The Best Little War House in Kennesaw,” was a museum. “It’s all history, regardless of what you think about it,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2020.
Myers, who was active in Civil War reenactor groups, sported long hair, a long, bushy beard and kept two pistols holstered at his waist.
Credit: Calvin Cruce
Credit: Calvin Cruce
He frequently wore T-shirts declaring “it’s the law in Kennesaw,” a reference the the 1980s city ordinance requiring all heads of household to own a firearm — unless they don’t want to.
He was outspoken and always seemingly willing to chat with news reporters or the student protesters who lined up outside the polarizing shop and called for its closure in the years leading up to his death.
Credit: John Amis
Credit: John Amis
Wildman’s has also been a hot-button topic among city officials and downtown business owners. In 2022, former City Councilman James “Doc” Eaton resigned in protest after the city issued a new business license allowing Lyon to reopen the store months after Myers’ death.
City leaders have spent years trying to improve Kennesaw’s downtown district and attract new development. But the fate of the controversial store that has been a fixture on Main Street for more than five decades is still up in the air, Kennesaw City Manager Jeff Drobney said.
“Right now, we’re just waiting to see who has the legal authority to operate that business and whether they intend to,” he said.
Lyon has referenced the court battle in lengthy blog posts on the store’s website, but contends she is simply “honoring and following Dent’s directives” in trying to keep the business open.
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