Onlookers at the “Memories of the Mansion” book panel at Kennesaw State University on Nov. 4 learned the history of Georgia’s Governor’s Mansion, including the fact that Scooby-Doo played an important role in Georgia’s legislative history.
“Memories of the Mansion” is co-authored by Georgia’s First Lady, Sandra Deal, as well as KSU history professors Jennifer Dickey and Catherine Lewis. The book tells the many colorful stories of the current governor’s mansion and the eight families who lived there.
The panel included former Georgia First Lady Marie Barnes, as well as Deal, Dickey and Lewis. Together, they related their favorite stories from the 150 interviews they conducted for the project.
Barnes set the tone for the evening when she said, “Although the governor gets a transition manual on how to be governor, unfortunately, the First Ladies get to make it up as they go.”
Barnes and Deal proceeded to tell numerous hilarious stories of their time in the mansion. These included a first dinner of Kentucky Fried Chicken, a mishap involving a Georgia State Patrol officer and red velvet cake and a “magic” laundry basket.
Barnes delighted the room when she explained how a singing figure of Scooby-Doo in a Santa costume was instrumental in assigning $2.5 million of Georgia’s annual budget to the installation of critical newborn hearing screening technology in Georgia’s hospitals.
Laughing, Barnes said, “I hit the button and turned them on. About 15 minutes later, Roy says, ‘Marie! Get in here and turn these things off!’ I said, ‘Found my $2.5 million yet?’ He said, ‘I’ll find it! Just turn that thing off!’”
When the laughter in the room died down, Deal explained the inspiration for the book.
“I felt like, if we didn’t capture these stories, they were going to be lost forever, because we knew that the health of some of our governors was not good right now,” Deal said. “These things are so important, because otherwise, it will never be written. So, it’s up to us.”
Deal went on to tell the room that the book is not only a boost to Georgia’s historical records, but to the people that have served the state throughout the years.
“You just can’t imagine how much this really meant, I think, to the governors and their wives, to have these stories told. They need to be,” she said.
Another goal that was realized through this project was to show Georgians that the governor and his family are real people.
“Getting to know the families was really the best thing,” Dickey said. “Just getting to sit down with them and interview each family, the First Ladies and the governors and to hear these stories, it was…it humanized them.”
Kevin Latta, a senior history major, agreed with Dickey’s statement.
“I felt like I was not just listening to women that were married to heads of state, but just ordinary people,” Latta said. “It took them out of the distance.”
The book left the authors with an understanding of the connections between the families and the common experiences they shared.
“From each family we saw echoes of themes,” Lewis said. “The responsibility they felt to care for the mansion, the importance of opening it to the public, your lack of privacy – not as a complaint, but more as an observation – and just what it meant to be in public life.”
