Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry, had Charlton County Roots.

Gene Roddenberry, creator of one of this century's most popular television series, Star Trek, had Charlton County roots, and never forgot that heritage as the popularity of his space-age television show skyrocketed.

Author, David Alexander, in his The Authorized Biography of Gene Roddenberry, spelled out those connections on page 10 of his biography.

Gene Roddenberry's grandparents were Leon and Clara May Roddenberry. Their third child, Edward Eugene, was the father of the Star Trek creator, and was born in Charlton County to Leon and Clara May Roddenberry.

Referring to the birth in Charlton County of Eugene Edward the father of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, author David Alexander wrote: "His parents, Leon and Clara May Roddenberry were married in 1892. They lived in Folkston, Georgia and supposedly had a child every other year straight through to 1900. The second child, Clara Mae, died in infancy. Eugene Edward (Gene's father) was their third child"

"In 1907, Leon died at the age of forty, leaving Clara with little education and a family to raise. " She sought solace in a bottle and the family dissolved. Eugene and his youngest brother, Hilbert, were sent to live across the state line in a north Florida orphanage."

After a year, the two children were taken out of the orphanage, but the family was never fully reunited.

Gene's father eventually found his way to El Paso, Texas, where he became a part the U. S. Army's buildup of 5,000 troopers along the border, chasing Pancho Villa. It was there that Star Trek's creator; Eugene Wesley Roddenberry was born in 1921.

In the early 1960s, Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek's creator visited a family reunion on the banks of the St. Marys River at Traders Hill. Roddenberry, among his relatives, retraced those early days in Charlton County of his grandparents, Leon and Clara May, who had picked up their marriage license in a log courthouse at Traders Hill, then the county seat of Charlton County. At that time, his television series, Star Trek was at the height of its popularity.

When Leon and Clara May Roddenberry were married in 1892, Traders Hill, the seat of government of Charlton County, was already beginning to decline. Talk circulated that people in the county wanted to move the county seat to Folkston near the railroad lines, which had recently been laid through the town. Traders Hill, tied to only river transportation on the St. Marys River, was beginning to die as a center of commerce.

Gene Roddenberry, at that Roddenberry family reunion in the 1960, spoke about those early days of his grandparents at Traders Hill, and of the challenges of his grandmother trying to raise the children, including his father, alone, after losing her husband, Leon, at age 40.

Gene Roddenberry never returned to Charlton County after that visit. His career as producer of the Star Trek TV series was demanding more and more of his time. There was little time for visiting.

Roddenberry died in 1991. His widow, Majel Barrett Roddenberry, followed her husband's wishes. Gene Roddenberry was cremated and the ashes launched into space aboard an orbiting satellite. One day, the satellite will drop into the earth's atmosphere and will be destroyed, along with the ashes of Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, whose roots went back to the river landing at Traders Hill.

Gene Roddenberry, his career and his ties to Charlton County will long be remembered as a part of Charlton County's colorful 20^th Century.