Aunt Estelle was a Doozy
My great-aunt Estelle was a doozy. She was born in 1892 in Macon, Georgia, married three times (twice to the same man), and resided in Atlanta. When Gone With the Wind was premiered on December 15, 1939, at the Loew's Grand Theatre. The spotlights included the famous stars Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, and Olivia de Havilland. The theater's facade was renovated to resemble a southern mansion, and a three-day celebration preceded the premiere. Nearly 300,000 people attended the premiere, including my Great Aunt Estelle!
Atlanta was the center of grand performances at the opera house and movies at the Regal Fox Theatre. During the 1940s, homes were heated by coal furnaces, and women wore full-length fur coats if they could afford it! Aunt Estelle wore her mink in downtown Atlanta. There were no expressways, and few automobiles were on the streets. Underground Atlanta and Terminal Station were in downtown Atlanta.
Aunt Estelle was a high-minded, sophisticated woman whose opinions were often abrasive, if not rude. I recall that once, upon my singing solo in front of our piano, Aunt Estelle remarked, "She has a lovely, untrained voice!" The stab came on "untrained." My family could not afford voice lessons; only one sister was given piano lessons.
When she died, her husband (first and third) buried her at a church in Morrow, Georgia. Oddly enough, when I later visited the site, a lone elderly man stood by her grave. He had also buried their only child, a daughter, in that cemetery. I recalled some things about him: even though he and Estelle seldom got along, he had financially supported the daughter all of her life.
The Chambliss genealogy is available online to members of georgiapioneers.com'