Kaye Lanning Minchew, author of “A President in Our Midst: Franklin D. Roosevelt in Georgia,” will speak about Roosevelt and his Georgia holiday traditions Friday, Dec. 9, at the Georgia Archives as part of its free Lunch and Learn lecture series.
Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, plus aides and family members, spent most Thanksgivings at Warm Springs between 1925 and 1944. They had family dinners and joined with patients at Founders’ Day Dinners at Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute.
Despite the fact that Franklin Roosevelt visited Georgia 41 times between 1924 and 1945, historians have paid little attention to the significance of the time the 32nd president of the U.S. spent in the Peach State. Georgia helped restore his sense of well-being after contracting polio and provided a launching pad for his Presidential campaigns. Here, the Harvard graduate became friends with the common man, had his active lifestyle of hunting and fishing photographed by the national press, and fought with Georgia politicians. Sadly, he died here in the company of his old girlfriend. Using photographs, oral histories, video and audio clips, author Kaye Minchew will explore this fascinating chapter of Georgia and America’s history.
Kaye Lanning Minchew is an archives and public history consultant in LaGrange. She is President of the Friends of Georgia Archives and History. She retired as executive director of the Troup County Historical Society in 2015. Copies of “A President in Our Midst: Franklin D. Roosevelt in Georgia” will be available for purchase.
The Georgia Archives is a unit of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia and identifies, collects, manages, preserves, and publicizes records and information of Georgia and its people and assists state and local government agencies with their records management. This work is done within the framework of the USG’s mission to create a more highly educated Georgia.
