George Busbee

Infobox Governor
name= George Dekle Busbee


order=77th
office= Governor of Georgia
term_start= 1975
term_end= 1983
lieutenant=
predecessor= Jimmy Carter
successor= Joe Frank Harris
birth_date= birth date | 1927|08|07
birth_place= Vienna, Dooly County, Georgia, USA
death_date= death date and age|2004|7|16|1927|8|7|
death_place= Savannah, Georgia
spouse= Mary Elizabeth Talbot Busbee, originally from Ruston, Louisiana
profession= Attorney
party= Democrat
religion=

George Dekle Busbee (August 7, 1927–July 16, 2004) was an American politician who served as the governor of the U.S. state of Georgia from 1975 to 1983.

Busbee was born in Vienna, Georgia, and attended Georgia Military College and Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College before joining the navy. After his discharge, he completed his education at the University of Georgia, where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Literary Society, earning a bachelor's degree in 1949 and a law degree in 1952.

He served nine terms in the Georgia House of Representatives, and was floor leader for Governor Carl Sanders. Busbee won the Democratic nomination for governor in 1974—Jimmy Carter's final year in that office—over Lieutenant Governor Lester Maddox. In the fall, he handily defeated Ronnie Thompson, the first Republican to have served as mayor of Macon. In 1976, voters approved a wholesale revision of the Georgia Constitution, which included a provision that allowed Busbee to become the state's first governor to serve two consecutive four-year terms.

After his service as Governor, Busbee joined the Atlanta law firm King & Spalding and moved to the Atlanta suburb of Duluth.

Busbee died of a heart attack at the Savannah International Airport in Savannah, Georgia. Busbee Parkway in the Town Center Mall area of Cobb County, Georgia is named in his honor.

External links

* [http://www.newgeorgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?path=/GovernmentPolitics/Politics/PoliticalFigures&id=h-595 "New Georgia Encyclopedia" profile of George Busbee]