Editing George Busbee

{{short description|American politician (1927-2004)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name         = George Busbee
|image        = George Busbee.jpg
|caption      = Official portrait, 1975
|order        = 77th [[List of governors of Georgia|Governor of Georgia]]
|lieutenant   = [[Zell Miller]]
|term_start   = January  14, 1975
|term_end     = January 11, 1983
|predecessor  = [[Jimmy Carter]]
|successor    = [[Joe Frank Harris]]
|office1      = Chair of the [[National Governors Association]]
|term_start1  = August 5, 1980
|term_end1    = August 11, 1981
|predecessor1 = [[Otis Bowen]]
|successor1   = [[Richard A. Snelling|Richard Snelling]]
|office2      = Member of the [[Georgia House of Representatives]]
|term_start2  = January 14, 1957
|term_end2    = January 13, 1975
|predecessor2 = G. Stuart Watson
|successor2   = [[T. Hayward McCollum]]
|constituency2= {{ubl|Dougherty County (1957–1966)|79th district (1966–1969)|61st district (1969–1973)|114th district (1973–1975)}}
|birth_name   = George Dekle Busbee
|birth_date   = {{birth date|1927|8|7}}
|birth_place  = [[Vienna, Georgia]], U.S.
|death_date   = {{death date and age|2004|7|16|1927|8|7}}
|death_place  = [[Savannah, Georgia]], U.S.
|resting_place= Peachtree Memorial Park<br />[[Norcross, Georgia]], U.S.
|party        = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
|spouse       = {{marriage|Mary Beth Talbot|1949<!--Omitted under current Template:Marriage instructions-->}}
|children     = 4
|education    = [[Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College]]<br />{{nowrap|[[University of Georgia]] ([[Bachelor of Business Administration|BBA]], [[Bachelor of Laws|LLB]])}}
|allegiance   = {{flagu|United States|1912}}
|branch       = {{flag|United States Navy}}
}}
'''George Dekle Busbee Sr.''' (August 7, 1927 – July 16, 2004) was an American politician who served as the 77th [[governor of Georgia]] from 1975 to 1983.<ref name=Wyatt>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=NmNSAAAAIBAJ&pg=2981%2C2888950 |work=Rome News-Tribune |location=(Georgia) |agency=Associated Press |last=Wyatt |first=Kristen |title=Ex-governor dies |date=July 17, 1789 |page=1A}}</ref>

==Early life==
Born in [[Vienna, Georgia|Vienna]], Georgia, Busbee attended [[Georgia Military College]] and [[Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College]] before joining the [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]]. After his discharge, he completed his education at the [[University of Georgia]] and its [[University of Georgia School of Law|School of Law]] in [[Athens, Georgia|Athens]], where he was a member of the [[Phi Delta Theta]] [[Fraternities and sororities|fraternity]] and the [[Phi Kappa Literary Society]], having procured a bachelor's degree in 1949 and a law degree in 1952.

==Political life==
Establishing a law practice in [[Albany, Georgia|Albany]], Busbee served nine terms in the [[Georgia General Assembly|Georgia House of Representatives]] and was floor leader for Governor [[Carl Sanders]].<ref name="sixty-five">{{cite web|title=Members Of The General Assembly Of Georgia - Term 1965-1966|publisher=State of Georgia|url=http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/cgi-bin/govdimag.cgi?path=dbs/1965/ga/s700/_ps1/g4/1965_h66/sess_p1_sno_p1.con/&user=galileo&sessionid=637f8586-1547653717-5036&serverid=DU&instcode=afpl&return=ggpd%3fuserid%3dgalileo%26dbs%3dggpd%26action%3dretrieve%26recno%3d70%26numrecs%3d100%26__rtype%3drecno%26key%3dy-ga-bs700-b-ps1-bg4-b1965-h66-bsess-p1-sno-p1|date=February 1965|access-date=May 12, 2018}}</ref> In 1967, Busbee was one of thirty [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]] in the legislature who voted for the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[Howard Callaway]] in the disputed [[Georgia gubernatorial election, 1966|1966 gubernatorial race]], rather than the Democratic nominee [[Lester Maddox]], a [[Racial segregation in the United States|segregationist]] from [[Atlanta, Georgia|Atlanta]]. The legislature, acting under the 1824 Georgia Constitution, upheld by the [[United States Supreme Court]], chose Maddox 182 to 66.<ref>Billy Hathorn, "The Frustration of Opportunity: Georgia Republicans and the Election of 1966", ''[[Atlanta History: A Journal of Georgia and the South]]'', XXX (Winter 1987-1988), p. 47</ref>

In 1974, Busbee won the Democratic [[nomination]] for governor in [[Jimmy Carter]]'s final year in that office. In the party runoff, he defeated, 551,106 (59.9 percent) to 369,608 (40.1 percent), former governor and sitting [[Lieutenant Governor of Georgia|Lieutenant Governor]] Lester Maddox, the man whom Busbee had voted against in the legislative election for governor some seven years earlier. In the fall of 1974, Busbee handily defeated [[Ronnie Thompson (politician)|Ronnie Thompson]], the first Republican to have served as [[mayor]] of [[Macon, Georgia|Macon]].

Two years later voters approved a wholesale revision of the Georgia Constitution. As a result of these changes, Busbee became the state's first governor to serve two consecutive four-year terms. Lt. Gov. [[Zell Miller]], who wanted to run for governor in 1978, opposed the constitutional amendment, but it was carried anyway.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://onlineathens.com/stories/072104/opi_20040721032.shtml|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160918093044/http://onlineathens.com/stories/072104/opi_20040721032.shtml|archivedate=2016-09-18|title= Shipp: George Busbee's legacy can be seen in Georgia's economic|date= July 21, 2004|website=onlineathens.com}}</ref>  Busbee won election to his second term in 1978 with an easy victory over Republican [[Rodney Mims Cook, Sr.|Rodney Cook]] of Atlanta.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.newgeorgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?path=%2FGovernmentPolitics%2FPolitics%2FPoliticalFigures&id=h-595 |title=''New Georgia Encyclopedia'' profile of George Busbee |access-date=2022-02-20 |archive-date=2012-01-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111070457/http://www.newgeorgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?path=%2FGovernmentPolitics%2FPolitics%2FPoliticalFigures&id=h-595 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Personal life==
After his service as governor, Busbee joined the Atlanta law firm [[King & Spalding]] and moved to the Atlanta suburb of [[Duluth, Georgia|Duluth]].

Busbee was married to the former Mary Elizabeth "Mary Beth" Talbot (1927–2012), originally from [[Ruston, Louisiana|Ruston]] in north [[Louisiana]]. The sixth child of a country physician, Dr. and Mrs. B. H. Talbot, she graduated from [[Louisiana Tech University]] with a [[Bachelor of Science]] degree in biological sciences and also did graduate work in pathology at [[Charity Hospital (New Orleans)|Charity Hospital]] in [[New Orleans]]. She moved to Georgia to work as a medical technician at Athens General Hospital in Athens, where she met George Busbee, then a law student. In 1952, they relocated to Albany, where they remained until his inauguration as governor in January 1975. As First Lady of Georgia, Mrs. Busbee was known for her emphasis on volunteerism. In 1985, she co-authored a cookbook, ''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner,'' about favorite recipes and guests served at the governor's mansion during her eight years there. Mrs. Busbee was a 40-year cancer survivor.<ref name=mbbusbee/>

The Busbees had four children, Beth Kindt and husband John, Jan Curtis and husband Carlton, George D. Busbee, Jr., and wife Tammy, and Jeff Busbee and wife Kelly. After the governorship, the Busbees started a church in their Duluth home. That congregation is now the Parkway Baptist Church.<ref name=mbbusbee>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/atlanta/obituary.aspx?pid=156251515#fbLoggedOut|title=Mary Beth Busbee|publisher=[[Atlanta Journal-Constitution]], March 5, 2012|access-date=April 19, 2013}}</ref>

==Death and legacy==
Busbee died of a [[heart attack]] on July 16, 2004, at the [[Savannah International Airport]] in [[Savannah, Georgia|Savannah]].<ref name=Wyatt/> George Busbee Parkway and Busbee Drive in the [[Town Center Area Community Improvement District]] of [[Cobb County, Georgia|Cobb County]] are named in his honor, as is Busbee Hall at the University of Georgia and the Busbee Center at Gwinnett Technical College.

{{Portal|Biography|Georgia (U.S. State)|Politics|Law|Christianity}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
* [http://www.newgeorgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?path=/GovernmentPolitics/Politics/PoliticalFigures&id=h-595 ''New Georgia Encyclopedia'' profile of George Busbee] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111070457/http://www.newgeorgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?path=%2FGovernmentPolitics%2FPolitics%2FPoliticalFigures&id=h-595 |date=2012-01-11 }}
* {{C-SPAN}}
* {{Find a Grave|9109762}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-ppo}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Jimmy Carter]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] nominee for [[List of Governors of Georgia|Governor of Georgia]]|years=[[1974 Georgia gubernatorial election|1974]], [[1978 Georgia gubernatorial election|1978]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Joe Frank Harris]]}}
|-
{{s-off}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Jimmy Carter]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of Governors of Georgia|Governor of Georgia]]|years=1975–1983}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Joe Frank Harris]]}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[Otis R. Bowen]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=Chair of the [[National Governors Association]]|years=1980–1981}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Richard A. Snelling]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Governors of Georgia}}
{{National Governors Association chairs}}
{{Democratic Party of Georgia}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Busbee, George}}
[[Category:1927 births]]
[[Category:2004 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the Georgia General Assembly]]
[[Category:Democratic Party governors of Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[Category:Georgia (U.S. state) lawyers]]
[[Category:Democratic Party members of the Georgia House of Representatives]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[Category:People from Vienna, Georgia]]
[[Category:United States Navy sailors]]
[[Category:University of Georgia alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century American lawyers]]
[[Category:Georgia Military College alumni]]
[[Category:Phi Delta Theta members]]