The Way We Were: Betty Sanders went from the farm to Augusta to the governor's mansion

Betty Sanders, who died last week at 95, could always say she was the last Georgia first lady that Augusta sent to Atlanta, and the last Georgia first lady to have to deal with the challenges of the old governor's mansion.

The widow of Augusta's Carl Sanders — Georgia governor from 1963 to 1967 — had plenty of problems with the granite structure built atop a hill just north of downtown Atlanta, which was part fortress and part "Addams Family" movie set.

Gov. Gene Talmadge famously grazed cows on the front lawn of the official residence of Georgia governors from 1910 until 1967.

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The mansion had a tiny, outdated kitchen, furnaces that had to be started by hand at 6 a.m. in winter and so many roof leaks, Betty once said, the trick was where to place buckets to catch all the drips.

She told a reporter in 1966 that her most satisfying achievement as first lady might be all the planning she had to put into construction of the new governor's mansion, even though she didn't get to use it.

Betty Bird Foy Sanders, however, achieved a lot more in almost a century of life.

She was born on a farm in a small Bulloch County community named Adabelle. When her father died while she was still a teen, her mother not only kept the farm going, but sold insurance so Betty could go to college. The young woman started out at Georgia Southern in nearby Statesboro developing her talents as an artist. She went on to the University of Georgia to finish up and there she met Carl Sanders, the Augusta all-state athlete, who had served as a bomber pilot in World War II and was trying to complete law school.

He impressed her with his hard-working diligence, particularly the effort to earn enough money to buy her a ring. She told an interviewer in 2008 that he sold corsages to school dances, filled snack machines at fraternity houses and on weekends would do "stunt flying" around Athens, taking people up for thrill rides in an old airplane.

They married in 1947 on a day so hot the church candles melted. Their honeymoon was interrupted when she almost died from an intestinal blockage. She recovered and would move to Augusta where her young husband's law career took off. They lived in a garage apartment, then a little house on Helen Street, then their nice modern home at 2212 Morningside Drive.

They had a girl (named Betty) and a boy (Carl Jr.) and as her husband's professional and political career thrived, Betty was profiled in the Augusta newspapers as a successful and gracious political hostess and active and supportive mom.

When the Sanders family moved to the old governor's mansion in Atlanta in 1963 she expanded her efforts. She not only helped design, construct and furnish the aforementioned new mansion, but helped create the Georgia Council for the Arts. She also became a benefactor for the Georgia Southern Department of Art, which today bears her name and benefits from the scholarships she funded.

She was looking forward to moving into the new governor's mansion she had helped build in 1972, but her husband was upset by a newcomer named Jimmy Carter. Betty Sanders told a 2008 interviewer that the couple had to figure out whether to live in Augusta or stay in Atlanta where Carl's law firm had bright prospects.

They happened to look at a big old Atlanta house that impressed her with its high ceilings and large closets. It impressed her Augusta-born husband even more because it had been the home of golfer Bobby Jones, co-founder of Augusta National Golf Club and its Masters Tournament.

She said he loved living in the place where both golf milestones had been discussed and created, and often joked that they would have to move him out "feet first." That pretty much happened in 2014 when the former governor passed away at age 89. On May 29, his wife would join him.

Betty Sanders wrapped up that 2008 interview by reciting a poem she'd presented years before on the steps of the Bulloch County Courthouse.

Its message was simple: Every day we come into contact with at least a dozen people. Our day is successful if we do something to help them.

Bill Kirby has reported, photographed and commented on life in Augusta and Georgia for 45 years.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: First Lady Betty Sanders boosted arts but not old governor's mansion