A President in Our Midst: Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Georgia [Paperback]

KAYE LANNING MINCHEW was the executive director of the Troup County Historical Society and Archives for more than thirty years. Now retired, she serves as an archival consultant and lives in LaGrange, Georgia.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt visited Georgia forty-one times between 1924 and 1945. This rich gathering of photographs and remembrances documents the vital role of Georgia’s people and places in FDR’s rise from his position as a despairing politician daunted by disease to his role as a revered leader who guided the country through its worst depression and a world war.

A native New Yorker, FDR called Georgia his other state. Seeking relief from the devastating effects of polio, he was first drawn there by the reputed healing powers of the waters at Warm Springs. FDR immediately took to Georgia, and the attraction was mutual. Nearly two hundred photos show him working and convalescing at the Little White House, addressing crowds, sparring with reporters, visiting fellow polio patients, and touring the countryside. Quotes by Georgians from a variety of backgrounds hint at the countless lives he touched during his time in the state.

In Georgia, away from the limelight, FDR became skilled at projecting strength while masking polio’s symptoms. Georgia was also his social laboratory, where he floated new ideas to the press and populace and tested economic recovery projects that were later rolled out nationally. Most important, FDR learned to love and respect common Americans—beginning with the farmers, teachers, maids, railroad workers, and others he met in Georgia.

The Georgia–FDR connection and what it meant for the entire countryBorn with a silver spoon in his mouth, cared for by a doting mother who was a scion of New York social aristocracy, a son of Harvard and the very model of the North's elite, why would this man fall in love with the people of Georgia, and especially the polóS