Actress,

author and television producer Fannie Flagg brought her

personal brand of Southern wit and wisdom to Atlanta last

week, when she addressed a packed house at the Airport

Hilton.

Sponsored

the women only luncheon featured Flagg's original humor

woven into the story of her personal successes,

misfortunes and hilarious escapades.

"I

started in comedy and show business the day I was born...

the nurse showed me to my father and he said, `There's

something funny about her,'" Flagg said in her

opening remarks.

Her

professional career started in Birmingham, Ala. in the

early `60s where she was a co-host on WBRC, "the

poor man's Today show," she quipped. Her stint as a

weather commentator was short-lived, however, due to her

practice of moving the rain, storm and sun symbols a

couple inches to the east of their set location. "If

I felt like it, I'd put in a few storms," she added.

To complicate things, she found out the weather

commentator who broadcast before her was moving her

symbols!

Later, she

was hired by the late Alan Funt as a writer for

"Candid Camera," the TV feature that depicted

the reactions of regular people in irregular

circumstances.

Flagg said

that's where she learned the greatest lesson of her life:

"Nothing is funnier than real life."

"I

learned more about the American sense of humor... we're

the only country in the world that has a national sense

of humor," Flagg said.

Despite

success in television, Broadway and comedic recordings,

Flagg harbored a secret desire. "I always wanted to

write," she said. But she couldn't spell. Born

Patricia Neal and known in grade school as Patsy, Flagg

repeatedly would spell her first name P-A-S-T-Y and would

be called Pasty by her teachers, "I spent my whole

life thinking I was incredibly stupid," Flagg

confessed. Finally she learned that her spelling

dysfunction had a name, dyslexia.

Flagg

signed up for a writer's conference in Santa Barbara, not

in an effort to pursue a literary career, but to meet her

idol, Eudora Welty, who was appearing at the seminar. In

order to stay at the conference, Flagg had to produce a

piece of short fiction.

"There's

nothing funnier than the truth," Flagg told herself,

and she began to recount on paper an episode from her

childhood. The story became Daisy Mae and the Miracle Man

and her misspellings were passed off as the quaint

mistakes of a 12-year-old girl. Welty personally

presented Flagg with first prize and she was asked to

develop the story into a novel.

"How

long is a novel?" Flagg asked the publisher.

"About 400 pages," he responded. "I can't

do this; I can't spell. Well, he looked at me like I'd

lost my mind," Flagg recalled. That's when she

learned about copy editors. "I'd have the freedom to

write and not have D's and F's on my paper," she

said.

Flagg

eventually returned to Alabama and wrote "Fried

Green Tomatoes," which is based on the life of her

Aunt Bess Fortenberry. What started as a "sweet

story" became a major motion picture based on the

book which remained on the New York Times best seller

list for 36 weeks.

Flagg's

"crusade to write about middle class people"

has continued with the publication of "Welcome to

the World, Baby Girl." She divides her time between

California and Alabama and is now working on her fourth

novel.

Flagg's

appearance at Southern Regional was part of the

"Knowing You" event series sponsored by the

hospital. The Women's Life Center is on the boards for

completion in early 200l, and will encompass 66,907

square feet of care. The $18 million center will offer

obstetrical, gynecological, diagnostic and educational

services for women living in the Southern Crescent.

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