First Ladies of Georgia remember time in Mansion

Three women who have served as first lady of Georgia gathered for a special event Thursday to reminisce about their time in the Governor's Mansion.<br /> <br /> It wasn't about politics for Sandra Deal, the current first lady, and former first ladies Marie Barnes and Betty Vandiver. Instead, the women told the 2014 Taste of History Luncheon stories about how being married to a governor impacted their lives and the lives of their children.<br /> <br /> Two other first ladies, Betty Sanders and Shirley Miller, were expected at the event, hosted by the Northeast Georgia History Center, but they were unable to attend. Miller appeared via a pre-recorded video message.<br /> <br /> The program was moderated by Lydia Sartain and Pat Burd.<br /> <br /> "It is a wonderful place," said Barnes of the Governor's Mansion. Every governor since Lester Maddox has lived in the mansion on West Paces Ferry Road.<br /> <br /> When Ernest Vandiver served as governor from 1959-1963, the family lived in the previous mansion, a granite estate in The Prado in Ansley Park. Betty Vandiver, who was joined on stage by her daughter Jane Kidd, said life in the Governor's Mansion when her husband served was very different from today.<br /> <br /> "There was no staff," she said. "I had a nurse that had been with me for the birth of my second child, and I convinced her to come with me."<br /> <br /> Kidd said her childhood wasn't much different from a typical child. She and her friends rode their bike around the neighborhood.<br /> <br /> "The only rule was we had to be home by 5 o'clock for supper," Kidd said.<br /> <br /> The push to build a new mansion began when Vandiver was in office, but it really got going under former Gov. Carl Sanders.<br /> <br /> Sandra Deal said Sander's wife, Betty, wrote letters at that time to all the living previous first ladies to ask them what they thought should be included in a new mansion.<br /> <br /> "It was wonderful that she did that," Deal said. "She took all those ideas she collected and added them to the mix as they planned out the new mansion."<br /> <br /> When Roy Barnes was elected governor in 1988, his and Marie's children were college age or older, so they didn't have children living in the mansion full time. But Marie Barnes told one story about her son, who was working in Mableton but staying with his parents at the mansion. Barnes said her son had gone to Buckhead with his friends.<br /> <br /> "When he came home the gates to the mansion were closed because they closed at 11:30 when we were in the mansion with nowhere to be," Barnes said. "And he didn't have his cell phone.