By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher, Macon, Ga. | We ventured “back home” to Macon Thursday at Wesleyan College to be present for three prominent Georgia women, all now deceased, who were inducted in the Georgia Women of Achievement Hall of Fame.
One who was a particular friend is Carolyn MacKenzie Carter of Moultrie, the first female photographer for The Atlanta Constitution. The other two are Clermont Huger Lee, one of Georgia’s first female landscape architects; and Lucile Nix, the first library head for the state of Georgia who led significant library expansion across the state.
Altogether, there are now 84 other women who were previously honored by the Georgia Women of Achievement. Only one person from Gwinnett, former Duluth Mayor Alice Strickland, is among the recipients of this honor. She served as mayor in 1923, and was the first female mayor in Georgia.
Carolyn Carter was a graduate of the University of Georgia, and hired by Editor Ralph McGill as a photographer for The Atlanta Constitution. She blazed trails for female journalists, first with the newspaper, and later with the Coca-Cola Company, and then as a travel writer and photographer.
Carter with her husband, Don.
It was while working on the Constitution that she met Don Carter, on the staff of the rival Atlanta Journal, and later married him. Both had distinguished careers in journalism, retiring at Sea Island, Ga.
Carolyn was the first woman named a Master of Photography by the Professional Photographers Association. Her journalistic collections are held at four places, two at the Atlanta History Center, one at the Hargrett Library Special Collections at the University of Georgia; and the fourth among the archives of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the Georgia State University.
Mrs. Carter was a board member of the Little White House Museum in Warm Springs, and worked diligently to bring that museum to its current prestige. Among other honors, in 1986 the Georgia Department of Industry and Trade and Travel created the Carolyn Carter Award to honor travel photographers. She was even “Man of the year” for the Industrial Photographers of America one year. Mrs. Carter died in 2010 at age 91.
Lee
Clermont Lee was a Savannah native, and is recognized for her achievements in landscape design. With an undergraduate degree from Smith College, she had a master’s degree from that college’s architecture school in Cambridge, Mass.
The Great Depression brought her back to Georgia, where Lee pioneered the restoration of five neglected city squares in Savannah and worked to establish the Georgia State Board of Landscape Architects. She was the first female landscape architect in Georgia. Later she worked with the Sea Island Company, and drew plans for the Hofwyl-Broadfield plantation garden in Brunswick. She also contributed significant work toward restoration of several Savannah mansion gardens. Mrs. Lee died in 2006 in Hilton Head, S.C.
Nix
Lucile Nix was a native of Commerce who graduated from Greenville (SC) Women’s College (now Furman University), and got a bachelor’s of library science from Emory University. She was first a teacher, then began her library career in Winston Salem, N.C., later in Knoxville, Tenn. and in 1945 was named the chief library consultant for Georgia. She retired in 1968.
When she began in Georgia, there were six regional libraries serving 14 counties, and 40 additional libraries giving county-wide service. By her retirement, there were 36 regional libraries serving 134 counties, with 25 counties provided county-wide service. In 1963, she was selected as the Georgia Woman of the Year by Progressive Farmer magazine, and also continued to win honors for her library science achievements. She died in 1968 in Decatur.
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