Betty Talmadge

Leila Elizabeth "Betty" Talmadge (née Shingler; September 17, 1923 – November 7, 2005) was an American civic leader, author, socialite, landowner, and businesswoman. As the wife of Herman Talmadge, she served as First Lady of Georgia from 1948 to 1955. Her husband later served as a U.S. Senator, at which time she became known as a prominent socialite and society hostess in Washington, D.C., entertaining other members of the Washington political elite including Lady Bird Johnson, Rosalynn Carter, Pat Nixon, and Judy Agnew.

Following a bitter divorce in 1976, she testified against her ex-husband for financial corruption to the Senate Ethics Committee in 1978. As part of their divorce settlement, Talmadge was awarded ownership of Lovejoy Plantation, her husband's family home in Lovejoy, Georgia, where she ran a restaurant. She became a prominent businesswoman, owning and operating a multi-million dollar meat brokerage company, Talmadge & Associates, and an event planning and hostessing company, Betty Talmadge Enterprises. Talmadge also authored two cookbooks specializing in Southern cuisine. She was a member of the women's business organization The Committee of 200 and was awarded the 1983 Entrepreneur of the Year Award by the Georgia Business and Industry Association. In her later life, she purchased Rural Home, the plantation of Margaret Mitchell's family, but died before she could finish restoring it.

Early life and family

Talmadge was born Leila Elizabeth Shingler in Ashburn, Georgia on September 17, 1923, to Clinton F. Shingler Sr. and Stella Julian Shingler. She was born into a wealthy family of politicians and entrepreneurs. Her father, a letter carrier, later served as mayor of Ashburn. They had two sons, Herman Eugene Talmadge Jr. and Robert Shingler Talmadge. As first lady, she was known for her lavish parties and "antebellum charm".

On 12 January 1974, Talmadge sponsored the launch of the submarine USS Richard B. Russell.

In 1978, she ran in the Democratic primary for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives for Georgia's Georgia's 6th congressional district, but lost the primary. Her husband filed for divorce in 1976 without notifying her, she later found out while watching it on the news. They reached a settlement in 1978 that declared she would receive $150,000 in cash, 100 acres of Lovejoy Plantation, the deed to the Lovejoy Plantation house, and have access to the remaining 1,200 acres of the plantation. The settlement also declared that her ex-husband was responsible for paying her portion of the estate's property tax and that he must assist in her meat brokerage business by helping keep existing customers and cultivating new clients.

Business ventures Talmadge ran a country ham business and later operated a restaurant out of her home in Lovejoy. She also owned and operated Betty Talmadge Enterprises, which specialized in Southern-style entertaining and hostessing.

Talmadge appeared on the April 5, 1953, episode of What's My Line, and had a small role, as Sarah, in the 1984 made-for-television drama film The Baron and the Kid.

Purchase of Rural Home Plantation In July 1980, Talmadge bought Rural Home, a 19th-century plantation house in Clayton County that was the childhood home of Margaret Mitchell's maternal grandmother, Annie Fitzgerald Stephens, and the basis for Mitchell's Tara in Gone With the Wind. She had the house moved from its location near Jonesboro closer to her plantation home in nearby Lovejoy.

Death and burial Talmadge died at Lovejoy Plantation on November 7, 2005, before finishing her plans for Rural Home.