Susan Dowdell Myrick

Susan "Sue" Dowdell Myrick (February 20, 1893 – September 3, 1978) was an American journalist, educator, author, and conservationist. Her friendship with author Margaret Mitchell led to Myrick's role as a technical advisor and dialect coach during the production of Gone with the Wind, ensuring the film accurately portrayed the accents, customs, and manners of the South. Due to this expertise she has been called the "Emily Post of the South". Myrick also was a columnist, reporter, and associate editor for Macon-based newspaper The Telegraph, working at the paper for fifty years.

Early life and education Myrick was born to James Dowdell Myrick and Thulia Katherine Myrick (née Whitehurst) on February 20, 1893, on the 1,000-acre Dovedale Plantation in Baldwin County, Georgia, the fifth out of eight siblings. She studied education at Georgia Normal and Industrial College from 1910 to 1911, and taught physical education there following her graduating. Myrick also taught at the Student Normal School of Physical Education in Battle Creek, Michigan, from 1913 to 1914, where she also studied at the American Medical Missionary College. In 1916 she moved to Hastings, Nebraska, where she was the public school's physical education supervisor. The next year Myrick attended a physical education program at Harvard University during the summer before moving back to Georgia. and, notably, fellow Georgia native Margaret Mitchell. Myrick and Mitchell soon became close friends, often visiting each other in Macon and Atlanta, respectively, "sit[ting] up all night talking". Additionally, Myrick became a member of the Macon Writers' Club.

She briefly also wrote for Telegraph-owned The News in 1940, and was editor of the Telegraphs Sunday-edition Georgia Magazine.

After the outbreak of World War II, Myrick began working as the Telegraphs war editor; after the war she served as farm editor starting in 1946, producing a page each Sunday, and her voice was recorded and pressed onto records for the actors to use as reference. Myrick would later explain that she "went out there [to Hollywood] fully prepared to argue and to quote authority to them that the Southern people do not talk like Negroes, but the Negroes like Southerners". She also continued to act as a technical consultant during filming, providing insight on how to make the film's production design as authentic as possible. Myrick also re-watched each recorded scene to check for mistakes.

Myrick was against the decision to cast Hattie McDaniel as the character Mammy, as she thought McDaniel didn't have the "dignity, age, [or] nobility" for the role. McDaniel went on to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance, becoming the first African American to win an Oscar.

Overall Myrick worked on the production for seven months, earning $125/week —was compiled into a 1982 book titled White Columns in Hollywood: Reports from the Gone with the Wind Sets, edited by Richard Barksdale Harwell.

Conservationism and agriculture Myrick had a passion for agriculture and farming throughout her life. Her work as farm editor for the Telegraph brought her statewide praise and even national recognition. Myrick often promoted the use of blue lupine as a winter forage crop that would prevent erosion, building soil and holding water, and in 1949 a conservationist group in Dooly County named Myrick the "Bloomin' Lupine Queen". In 1950 she wrote a children's book titled Our Daily Bread about environmental conservationism that was used as an official textbook in Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

In 1956, the Progressive Farmer bestowed upon her their Woman of the Year in Service to Agriculture award, and the National Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts recognized her work with a special citation in 1963.

Additionally, Myrick was a member of the Macon Chamber of Commerce's livestock and farming committees.

Personal life and legacy Myrick was close friends with fellow journalist and author Margaret Mitchell, and remained friends with Mitchell's widower John Marsh following her sudden death in 1949; Marsh would die three years later in 1952.

During World War II, she helped organize Red Cross events and salvage campaigns, and she served on the Bibb County War Price and Rations Board.

Myrick was a charter member of the Macon Little Theater in 1934, and was the theater's president from 1947 to 1948. She also appeared in over twenty-five stage productions. Myrick also watercolor painted as a hobby.

In 2008, Myrick was inducted into the Georgia Women of Achievement Hall of Fame.