Betty Talmadge

Leila Elizabeth Talmadge (née Shingler; September 17, 1923 – November 7, 2005) was an American civic leader, author, socialite, landowner, and businesswoman. As the wife of Herman Talmadge, she served as First Lady of Georgia from 1948 to 1955. Her husband later served as a U.S. Senator, at which time she became known as a prominent socialite and society hostess in Washington, D.C., entertaining other members of the Washington political elite including Lady Bird Johnson, Rosalynn Carter, Pat Nixon, and Judy Agnew.

Following a bitter divorce in 1976, she testified against her ex-husband for financial corruption to the Senate Ethics Committee in 1978. As part of their divorce settlement, Talmadge was awarded ownership of Lovejoy Plantation, her husband's family home in Lovejoy, Georgia, where she ran a restaurant. She became a prominent businesswoman, owning and operating a multi-million dollar meat brokerage company, Talmadge & Associates, and an event planning and hostessing company, Betty Talmadge Enterprises. Talmadge also authored two cookbooks specializing in Southern cuisine. She was a member of the women's business organization The Committee of 200 and was awarded the 1983 Entrepreneur of the Year Award by the Georgia Business and Industry Association. In her later life, she purchased Rural Home, the plantation of Margaret Mitchell's family, but died before she could finish restoring it.