Annie Fitzgerald Stephens

Annie Elizabeth Fitzgerald Stephens (December 23, 1844 – February 17, 1934) was an American landowner, businesswoman, and political activist. She was born to a prominent planting family in Clayton County, Georgia, and grew up on the family plantation Rural Home. The daughter of an Irish immigrant, she was a devout Catholic. Stephens was involved in real estate endeavors in Atlanta and sued the federal government after General William Tecumseh Sherman's Siege of Atlanta, during the American Civil War, damaged some of her properties. Some historians, literary critics, and film critics, including Molly Haskell, consider her to be the inspiration behind the fictional character Scarlett O'Hara, from Stephens' granddaughter Margaret Mitchell's novel, Gone with the Wind.

Early life and family Stephens was born Annie Elizabeth Fitzgerald in 1844. She was the daughter of Philip Fitzgerald, an Irish-Catholic emigrant from County Tipperary who left Ireland with his family after the Irish Rebellion of 1798, and his American wife, Eleanor Avaline McGhan. She was one of eight children. She was a granddaughter of James Fitzgerald and Margaret O'Donnell. Stephens was educated at the Fayetteville Academy. The house was looted, but not destroyed by the army.

Personal life On April 14, 1863, she married Captain John Stephens, a Confederate States Army officer and member of an old Catholic gentry family from Birr, County Offaly, in a Catholic ceremony at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Her husband became an established merchant in Atlanta and served on the Atlanta Police Commission for six terms.

Stephens was the maternal grandmother of author Margaret Mitchell, who spent summers with her on the family's plantation. Feminist film critic Molly Haskell stated that Stephens was "the real-life progenitor of Scarlett."

Following her daughter Maybelle Stephens Mitchell's death, Stephens moved in with her son-in-law Eugene Mitchell and his children. After quarreling with Mitchell one night, Stephens called a cab and left the Mitchells' house, instead taking up residence at the Georgian Terrace Hotel. The move hurt the Mitchells financially, who were receiving an allowance from some of the Stephens relatives to help maintain Stephens' lifestyle while she lived with them. Stephens was estranged from polite society in Atlanta due to her shrewd business endeavors and behavior. She was a moralist and devout Catholic.

Stephens contested her father's will in order to claim a larger share of the family estate and won, dispossessing some of her other family members. She died on February 17, 1934, and is buried in Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta.