{{Short description|American journalist, educator, author, conservationist (1893–1978)}} {{Distinguish|Sue Myrick}} {{Use mdy dates|date=December 2020}} {{Infobox person | name = Susan Myrick | image = Susan Myrick (cropped) on the set of Gone With the Wind, 1939.jpg | image_upright = 0.8 | alt = | caption = Myrick on the set of ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone with the Wind]]'' (1939) | birth_name = Susan Dowdell Myrick | birth_date = {{Birth date|1893|02|20}} | birth_place = [[Baldwin County, Georgia|Baldwin County]], Georgia, United States | death_date = {{Death date and age|1978|09|03|1893|02|20}} | death_place = [[Macon, Georgia]] | resting_place = [[Memory Hill Cemetery]]<br/>[[Milledgeville, Georgia]] | occupation = Journalist, educator, author, [[dialect coach]] | alma_mater = [[Georgia Normal and Industrial College]] | spouse = }} '''Susan "Sue" Dowdell Myrick''' (February 20, 1893 – September 3, 1978)<ref name="nge-myrick">{{cite web |last1=Morris |first1=Susan D. |title=Susan Myrick (1893–1978) |url=https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/susan-myrick-1893-1978 |website=New Georgia Encyclopedia |publisher=University of Georgia Libraries |accessdate=September 28, 2019 |date=May 26, 2006}}</ref> was an American journalist, educator, author, and [[Conservation movement|conservationist]]. Her friendship with author [[Margaret Mitchell]] led to Myrick's role as a technical advisor and [[dialect coach]] during the production of ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone with the Wind]]'' (1939), ensuring the film accurately portrayed the [[Southern American English|accents]], customs, and manners of the [[American South|South]].<ref name="nyt-gwtw-schuessler-2020">{{cite web |last1=Schuessler |first1=Jennifer |title=The Long Battle Over 'Gone With the Wind' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/14/movies/gone-with-the-wind-battle.html |work=The New York Times |accessdate=June 22, 2020 |date=June 14, 2020}}</ref> Due to this expertise she has been called the "[[Emily Post]] of the South". Myrick also was a columnist, reporter, and associate editor for Macon-based newspaper ''[[The Telegraph (Macon)|The Telegraph]]'', working at the paper for fifty years.
==Early life and education== Myrick was born to James Dowdell Myrick and Thulia Katherine Myrick (née Whitehurst)<ref name="the-story-of-the-myricks">{{cite book |last1=Bowden |first1=Allie Goodwin Myrick |title=The Story of the Myricks |date=1952 |publisher=J. W. Burke Company |location=Macon |oclc=1375017 |url=https://archive.org/details/storyofmyricks00bowd}}</ref> on February 20, 1893, on the 1,000-acre Dovedale Plantation in [[Baldwin County, Georgia]], the fifth out of eight siblings. She studied education at [[Georgia Normal and Industrial College]] from 1910 to 1911, and taught physical education there following her graduating. Myrick also taught at the Student Normal School of Physical Education in [[Battle Creek, Michigan]], from 1913 to 1914, where she also studied at the [[American Medical Missionary College]]. In 1916 she moved to [[Hastings, Nebraska]], where she was the public school's physical education supervisor. The next year Myrick attended a physical education program at [[Harvard University]] during the summer before moving back to Georgia.<ref name="nge-myrick"/>
==Career== ===Physical education=== Myrick worked for the [[Georgia Department of Education]] from 1918 through 1922, after which she served as director of physical education at [[Central High School (Macon, Georgia)#Lanier and Miller|Lanier High School for Girls]] from 1923 to 1928.<ref name="nge-myrick"/>
===The ''Telegraph''=== While working at Lanier High School, Myrick started writing an [[advice column]] geared towards young girls and women called "Life in a Tangle" for Macon's ''[[The Telegraph (Macon)|Telegraph]]''. The articles were published under the pseudonym "Fannie Squeers" and quickly became popular, leading Myrick to quit teaching and begin working for the ''Telegraph'' full-time in 1928. She continued her work as a columnist, wrote recipes, features, and [[obituaries]].<ref name="sl-lindsley"/>
Myrick joined the [[Georgia Press Association]] through which she became acquainted with a variety of journalists and reporters, including [[Sherwood Anderson]]<ref name="anderson-rideout">{{cite book |last1=Rideout |first1=Walter B. |title=Sherwood Anderson: A Writer in America, Volume 2 |date=January 2007 |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |location=Madison |isbn=978-0-299-22020-4 |oclc=315495542 |url=https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/4014.htm}}</ref> and, notably, fellow Georgia native [[Margaret Mitchell]]. Myrick and Mitchell soon became close friends,<ref name="walker-2000">{{cite book |last1=Walker |first1=Marianne |title=Margaret Mitchell & John Marsh: The Love Story Behind Gone With the Wind |date=2000 |publisher=Peachtree |location=Atlanta |isbn=978-1-56145-231-6 |oclc=1038144104 |page=[https://archive.org/details/margaretmitchell00mari/page/249 249] |url=https://archive.org/details/margaretmitchell00mari/page/249 }}</ref> often visiting each other in Macon and [[Atlanta]], respectively, "sit[ting] up all night talking".<ref name="gpb-bennett-2011">{{cite web |last1=Bennett |first1=Josephine |title=Margaret Mitchell, An Independent Woman |url=http://www.gpb.org/news/2011/06/16/margaret-mitchell-an-independent-woman |publisher=Georgia Public Broadcasting |accessdate=September 28, 2019 |date=June 16, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160703175404/http://www.gpb.org:80/news/2011/06/16/margaret-mitchell-an-independent-woman |archive-date=July 3, 2016}}</ref> Additionally, Myrick became a member of the [[Macon Writers' Club]].
She briefly also wrote for ''Telegraph''-owned ''[[The Macon News|The News]]'' in 1940, and was editor of the ''Telegraph''{{'}}s Sunday-edition ''Georgia Magazine''.<ref name="grimes-linotype">{{cite book |last1=Grimes |first1=Millard B. |title=The Last Linotype: The Story of Georgia and Its Newspapers Since World War II |date=1985 |publisher=Mercer University Press |location=Macon |isbn=978-0-86554-190-0 |oclc=13100149}}</ref>
After the outbreak of [[World War II]], Myrick began working as the ''Telegraph''{{'}}s war editor; after the war she served as farm editor starting in 1946, producing a page each Sunday,<ref name="grimes-linotype"/> and she was made [[associate editor]] in 1948. She was given an award by the [[Women's National Press Club]] in 1950.
Despite retiring as associate editor in January 1967, Myrick continued to publish two editorial columns a week for over a decade – her last column for the ''Telegraph'' was published on August 17, 1978, less than a month before her death.
===''Gone with the Wind''=== [[File:Olivia de Havilland, Susan Myrick, and Vivien Leigh on the set of Gone With the Wind, 1939.jpg|thumb|Myrick (center) coaching [[Olivia de Havilland]] and [[Vivien Leigh]] during production of ''Gone with the Wind''.]] When production first started on the 1939 [[Gone with the Wind (film)|film adaptation]] of Margaret Mitchell's novel ''[[Gone with the Wind (novel)|Gone with the Wind]]'' (1936), Mitchell recommended to producer [[David O. Selznick]] that Myrick should be a consultant on the film. Myrick spent six weeks in Los Angeles coaching the actors on how to speak with a [[Southern American English|Southern accent]] ([[Selznick International Pictures|Selznick International]] wrote in a letter that she was "one of the best authorities on this matter, who will come to the studio from Atlanta just for this particular job"),<ref name="ut-audtin-cella-gwtw">{{cite web |last1=Cella |first1=Claire |title=Fan Mail: Producing Gone With the Wind |url=https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/gwtw/?cat=Protests&story=6 |website=Harry Ransom Center |publisher=The University of Texas at Austin |accessdate=June 22, 2020 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801060709/https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/gwtw/?cat=Protests&story=6 |archive-date=August 1, 2020 }}</ref><ref name="mt-crenshaw">{{cite web |last1=Crenshaw |first1=Wayne |title=Without her, the 'Gone With the Wind' film might not have sounded as Southern |url=https://www.macon.com/living/article114217348.html |work=The Macon Telegraph |accessdate=September 28, 2019 |date=November 11, 2016}}</ref> and her voice was recorded and pressed onto [[Phonographic record|records]] for the actors to use as reference. Myrick would later explain that she "went out there [to Hollywood] fully prepared to argue and to quote authority to them that the Southern people do not talk like Negroes, but the Negroes like Southerners".<ref name="watchtower-wesleyan">{{cite news |title=Sue Myrick Visits School |accessdate=September 29, 2019 |work=The Watchtower |publisher=[[Wesleyan College]] |date=September 29, 1939 |url=https://archive.org/details/Watchtower19391940 }}</ref> She also continued to act as a technical consultant during filming, providing insight on how to make the film's [[production design]] as authentic as possible.<ref name="nyt-gwtw-schuessler-2020"/><ref name="mdj-gillooly">{{cite web |last1=Gillooly |first1=Jon |title=A touch of Tara: Crowd gathers at Marietta museum to applaud new book |url=https://www.mdjonline.com/news/a-touch-of-tara-crowd-gathers-at-marietta-museum-to/article_49e78dd5-6d09-5488-a59f-5225b8010c52.html |work=Marietta Daily Journal |accessdate=September 28, 2019 |date=February 21, 2011}}</ref> Myrick also re-watched each recorded scene to check for mistakes.
Myrick was against the decision to cast [[Hattie McDaniel]] as the character Mammy,<ref name="black-ambition">{{cite book |last1=Watts |first1=Jill |title=Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood |date=2005 |publisher=HarperCollins |location=New York |isbn=978-0-06-051490-7 |oclc=1084825622 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/hattiemcdanielbl00watt }}</ref> as she thought McDaniel didn't have the "dignity, age, [or] nobility" for the role.<ref name="grio-2009">{{cite web |title='Gone with the Wind' shouldn't be romanticized |url=https://thegrio.com/2009/12/15/gone-with-the-wind-shouldnt-be-romanticized/ |website=The Grio |accessdate=September 28, 2019 |date=December 15, 2009 |url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190814084542/https://thegrio.com/2009/12/15/gone-with-the-wind-shouldnt-be-romanticized/ | archive-date=August 14, 2019 }}</ref> McDaniel went on to win the [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress]] for her performance, becoming the first African American to win an [[Academy Awards|Oscar]].
Overall Myrick worked on the production for seven months, earning $125/week<ref name="nge-myrick"/> from January to July 1939. Following the film's release, Myrick gained prominence discussing her work across the country, earning her the title "the [[Emily Post]] of the South".
Her first freelance article, "Pardon My Un-Southern Accent: Why ''Gone with the Wind'' Won't Jar Southerners", appeared in the December 16, 1939, issue of ''[[Collier's]]'', and she wrote an additional article for ''[[Southern Living]]'' in October 1967 about the experience. When [[NBC]] first premiered ''Gone with the Wind'' on [[broadcast television]] on November 7, 1976, Myrick was a main presenter of an hour-long introductory program broadcast on [[WSB-TV]].
Years after her death, Myrick's coverage of the film's production—a total of 58 columns that she wrote for the ''Telegraph'' while in California<ref name="pages-of-history">{{cite web |last1=Grisamore |first1=Ed |title=From the pages of history: 185 things you may have not known about The Telegraph and Macon |url=https://www.macon.com/news/article28623562.html |work=The Telegraph |accessdate=September 29, 2019 |date=November 3, 2011}}</ref>—was compiled into a 1982 book titled ''White Columns in Hollywood: Reports from the Gone with the Wind Sets'', edited by [[Richard Barksdale Harwell]].
==Conservationism and agriculture== Myrick had a passion for agriculture and farming throughout her life. Her work as farm editor for the ''Telegraph'' brought her statewide praise and even national recognition. Myrick often promoted the use of [[Lupinus perennis|blue lupine]] as a winter [[forage crop]] that would prevent erosion, building [[soil]] and holding water, and in 1949 a conservationist group in [[Dooly County]] named Myrick the "Bloomin' Lupine Queen". In 1950 she wrote a children's book titled ''[[Our Daily Bread (book)|Our Daily Bread]]'' about environmental conservationism that was used as an official textbook in Georgia, [[North Carolina]], and [[Tennessee]].
In 1956, the ''[[Progressive Farmer]]'' bestowed upon her their Woman of the Year in Service to Agriculture award, and the [[National Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts]] recognized her work with a special citation in 1963.
Additionally, Myrick was a member of the [[Macon Chamber of Commerce]]'s livestock and farming committees.
==Personal life and legacy== Myrick was close friends<ref name="williams-letters">{{cite book |last1=Williams |first1=Tennessee |title=The Selected Letters of Tennessee Williams, Volume 1: 1920–1945 |date=2001 |publisher=Oberon |location=London |isbn=978-1-84002-226-1 |oclc=491906913 |page=385}}</ref> with fellow journalist and author [[Margaret Mitchell]],<ref name="sl-lindsley">{{cite web |last1=Lindsley |first1=Susan |title=Reader Letter: My Aunt Was the "Southern" Expert on the Set of Gone With the Wind |url=https://www.southernliving.com/culture/reader-letter-my-aunt-was-the-southern-expert-on-the-set-of-gone-with-the-wind |publisher=Southern Living |accessdate=September 28, 2019 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171106083019/http://www.southernliving.com/culture/reader-letter-my-aunt-was-the-southern-expert-on-the-set-of-gone-with-the-wind |archive-date=November 6, 2017}}</ref> and remained friends with Mitchell's widower John Marsh following her sudden death in 1949; Marsh would die three years later in 1952.
During World War II, she helped organize [[Red Cross]] events and [[salvage campaign]]s, and she served on the [[Bibb County, Georgia|Bibb County]] War Price and Rations Board.
Myrick was a [[charter member]] of the [[Macon Little Theater]] in 1934, and was the theater's president from 1947 to 1948. She also appeared in over twenty-five stage productions. Myrick also [[watercolor]] painted as a hobby.<ref name="grimes-linotype"/>
Myrick died on September 3, 1978, and was buried at [[Memory Hill Cemetery]] in [[Milledgeville, Georgia|Milledgeville]]. She never married and had no children.
She was added to the [[Georgia Press Association]]'s [[Georgia Newspaper Hall of Fame]] in 1984.<ref name="gpa-hall-of-fame">{{cite web|title=Georgia Newspaper Hall of Fame 2019 Nomination Form | website=Georgia Press Association | url=http://gapress.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Hall-of-Fame-2019.pdf | access-date=July 1, 2020 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701125617/http://gapress.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Hall-of-Fame-2019.pdf | archive-date=July 1, 2020 }}</ref>
In 2008, Myrick was inducted into the [[Georgia Women of Achievement]] Hall of Fame.<ref name="smn-mobley-2008">{{cite web |last1=Mobley |first1=Chuck |title=Group honors Savannah woman |url=https://www.savannahnow.com/article/20080309/NEWS/303099850 |publisher=Savannah Morning News |accessdate=September 28, 2019 |date=March 9, 2008 |quote=The committee eventually chose Barrow for inclusion in the Hall of Fame, along with Amilee Chastain Graves of Clarkesville, an editor, publisher and mayor, and Susan Dowdell Myrick of Macon, a journalist, conservationist and technical advisor to ''Gone With the Wind.'' |url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200902173234/https://www.savannahnow.com/article/20080309/NEWS/303099850 | archive-date=September 2, 2020 }}</ref>
==Bibliography== * {{cite book |last1=Myrick |first1=Susan |title=Our Daily Bread |date=1950 |publisher=Interstate Printers & Publishers |location=[[Danville, Illinois]] |oclc=10089133}} * Myrick, Susan (1967). "All My Friends Have Gone with the Wind", ''Southern Living'', October 1967, 33. * {{cite book |last1=Myrick |first1=Susan |editor1-last=Harwell |editor1-first=Richard Barksdale |title=White Columns in Hollywood: Reports from the Gone with the Wind Sets |date=1982 |publisher=Mercer University Press |location=Macon |isbn=978-0-86554-044-6 |oclc=8907284 |url=https://www.mupress.org/White-columns-in-Hollywood-Reports-from-the-Gone-With-the-Wind-Sets-P216.aspx}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{cite book |last1=Lindsley |first1=Susan |title=Susan Myrick of Gone with the Wind: An Autobiographical Biography |date=2011 |publisher=ThomasMax Publishing |location=Atlanta |isbn=978-0-9842626-8-7 |oclc=716233899}}
==External links== *[https://rose.library.emory.edu/ Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library], Emory University: [http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/8zpq5 Susan Myrick papers, 1913-1978] * [http://hmfa.libs.uga.edu/hmfa/view?docId=ead/ms3700-ead.xml Susan Myrick papers (1916–2010) from the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Georgia Libraries] * {{Findagrave|7968343}}
{{Georgia Women of Achievement}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Myrick, Susan Dowdell}} [[Category:1893 births]] [[Category:1978 deaths]] [[Category:People from Baldwin County, Georgia]] [[Category:20th-century American women writers]] [[Category:Burials at Memory Hill Cemetery]] [[Category:Georgia College & State University alumni]] [[Category:20th-century American women journalists]]