A Resolution
No.________
Whereas, born Lula Carson Smith on February 19, 1917, in Columbus, Carson
Smith McCullers was the daughter of Lamar Smith, a jewelry store owner, and
Vera Marguerite Waters.
Whereas, Lula Carson, as she was called until age fourteen, attended
public schools and graduated from Columbus High School at sixteen. An
unremarkable student, she preferred the more solitary study of the piano.
Encouraged by her mother, who was convinced that her daughter was destined for
greatness, McCullers began formal piano study at age ten.
Whereas, Carson spent a great part of her early life reading and studying
at the Columbus Public Library, then located downtown at Mott?s Green.
Whereas, she was forced to give up her dream of a career as a concert pianist
after rheumatic fever left her without the stamina for the rigors of practice
or a concert career. While recuperating from this illness, McCullers began to
read voraciously and to consider writing as a vocation.
Whereas, in 1934, at age seventeen, McCullers sailed from Savannah to New
York City, ostensibly to study piano at the Juilliard School of Music but
actually to pursue her secret ambition to write. Working various jobs to
support herself, she studied creative writing at New York's Columbia University
and at Washington Square College of New York University.
Whereas, back in Columbus in the fall of 1936 to recover from a
respiratory infection, McCullers was bedridden several months, during which
time she began work on her first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. Her first
short story, "Wunderkind," was published in the December 1936 issue of Story
magazine, edited by Whit Burnett, her former teacher at Columbia.
Whereas, in September 1937 she married James Reeves McCullers Jr., a
native of Wetumpka, Alabama, whom she met when Reeves was in the army stationed
at Fort Benning, near her hometown.
Whereas, in April 1938 Carson McCullers submitted an outline and six
chapters of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter to Houghton Mifflin and was offered a
contract and $500 advance. It received accolades in America and even more
honors throughout Europe.
Whereas, in addition to the New York Drama Critics Circle and Donaldson
awards for her play The Member of the Wedding, McCullers also received two
Guggenheim fellowships (1942, 1946), an Arts and Letters Grant from the
American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and
Letters (1943), and various other awards and honors. She was inducted into the
National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1952 and Georgia Women of Achievement
in 1994. In 2000 she was inducted as a charter member into the Georgia Writers
Hall of Fame.
NOW THEREFORE, THE COUNCIL OF COLUMBUS, GEORGIA, HEREBY RESOLVES:
In honor of Carson McCullers, the street known as Citizens Way in
Columbus, Georgia is hereby designated ?Carson McCullers Drive,? in its
entirety. This honorary designation shall not change the official street map,
but the Traffic Engineer is hereby authorized to erect appropriate signage in a
color distinguishable from standard street signage.
---------------
Introduced at a regular meeting of the Council of Columbus, Georgia held on the
13th day of May, 2014, and adopted at said meeting by the affirmative vote of
______ members of Council.
Councilor Allen voting _________.
Councilor Baker voting _________.
Councilor Barnes voting _________.
Councilor Davis voting _________.
Councilor Henderson voting_________.
Councilor Huff voting _________.
Councilor McDaniel voting_________.
Councilor Pugh voting_________.
Councilor Thomas voting _________.
Councilor Woodson voting_________.
__________________________ ____________________________
TINY B. WASHINGTON TERESA PIKE TOMLINSON
CLERK MAYOR
Attachments
No attachments for this document.