Carl Vinson believed public service was an honorable profession, and by the time he retired, he had served in Congress longer than anyone in history. Vinson was born in Baldwin County in 1883. In 1914 he became the youngest member of Congress and served over 50 years, 25 consecutive terms. Vinson became an expert on […]
As was said of the great architect Christopher Wren, if you wish to know his legacy, look around you. George Heery was born in Athens in 1927. After a stint in the Pacific theater in the Navy during World War II, he earned an architectural degree at Georgia Tech. George and his father founded the […]
$162 million. That’s the economic impact that Dobbins Air Force Base brings to Marietta. Not bad for what started out in 1941 as a small airstrip called Rickenbacker Field, as America prepared for World War II. Then, during the war, it became Marietta Army Air Field when the Bell Bomber plant was located there. With […]
He was the architect of one of the most remarkable logistical feats in history — and one of the most humane. Lucius Clay was born in Marietta in 1897, the son of U.S. Senator Alexander Stephens Clay. He graduated from West Point in 1918 and was assigned to the engineers. During World War II, Clay […]
The Nazis brought World War II to Georgia, when a German U-boat sank three ships off the coast in 1942. The state seemed an unlikely target; it had a short coastline, shallow waters, and numerous military bases nearby. But it also had prime targets that were poorly protected. Antisubmarine patrols were uncoordinated, and many coastal […]
Peyton Anderson was born in 1907 in Macon with newspaper ink in his veins. His uncle edited and published the Macon Telegraph and later the Macon News; his father was vice president of the company; another uncle was a columnist. Anderson began working at the paper at age 9 sweeping floors. After earning a Bronze […]
Everyone remembered where they were when they heard the news: the president is dead. On this day in 1945, President Franklin Roosevelt died at the Little White House in warm springs. Roosevelt had come to Warm Springs 41 times since 1924. FDR was sitting for a portrait when he complained of a headache. He fainted […]
The Bell Bomber plant transformed Marietta—and helped the Allies win World War II. On this day in 1942, construction began on the Bell Aircraft Corporation plant that built more than 600 B-29s during the war. The Roosevelt administration wanted to build aircraft away from the coast, and Atlanta was a prime location. Cobb County boosters […]
The man had sax appeal: tenor, alto, and soprano. James Moody, born in Savannah in 1925, began playing the saxophone at 16, despite being hard of hearing. After an Army Air Force hitch in World War II, he joined Dizzy Gillespie’s big band, mastering and helping create the complex, challenging new jazz called be-bop. His […]
He was Atlanta’s mayor for eight years in the 1960s, and he was the only Southern politician to testify in favor of the Civil Rights Act. Ivan Allen Jr. was born in Atlanta in 1911 and graduated from Georgia Tech before joining his father’s office supply company. Allen served in World War II. Afterwards, he […]