I had heard of Hattie Goodhue for many years before I became friends with her and her husband, Mr. Marshall. I knew she was the only female lawyer in Henry County and I also knew she was the first woman to graduate from Georgia Tech. She was a fixture around the McDonough Square and could be seen around town on a daily basis. She also had the only boarding house at the time and we called it “The Hattie Goodhue Hotel.”

  Hattie Lewis Goodhue was born in Henry County in May of 1900. Her family heritage went all the way back to the founding of Henry County. Why, her great-grandfather, Peter Lewis was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. That’s how far back her roots to Henry County go.

  Being the daughter of a local farmer, she learned two important things early on. One – she didn’t like working in the fields, and two – she was not fond of milking cows, mind you at 4:00 a.m. in the morning. Instead she decided she would go in a different direction and get and education after high school. She went to Atlanta and found a place to live and a job at Georgia Tech.

  She started off doing work in the admissions office. Even though Georgia Tech was an all-male college, she managed to convince them to let her take some courses at night. By doing this she became the first female to graduate from the school.

  Next she went and enrolled at the Atlanta Law School and passed the bar exam on the first try. She then became the first woman to practice law in Henry County. By doing this, she showed two fine qualities she had. One was that she was very patient and two she was very, very persistent.

  She and her husband, Marshall bought the historic Brown House from Miss Bess Fouche in 1954. The property served as her residence and her law practice. (After she retired she gave me her business sign, which read “Hallie Goodhue, Attorney at Law.”) Later on, the Brown House also housed the Henry County Credit Bureau, which she started and for which she received recognition from the Henry County Chamber of Commerce membership Honor Roll. There were very few women of her era who were courageous enough to start a business in the first place. She was also one of the first members of the Henry County Business and Professional Women’s Club when it was started some 25 years later in 1960.

  After she started the Credit Bureau, she was also proud of being instrumental in getting Henry County and McDonough in particular “toll free” calls to the Atlanta area. Around 1963 if you made a call to Atlanta, for any reason, you had to pay for long distance. Most of the local attorneys didn’t like having a female attorney among them except for Ed McGarity. She and Ed got along pretty well and they had both attended night school to get their law degrees. They became friends and Ed was an experienced local politician also. Mr. Ed once told me to never burn bridges with people for you did not know when you might need their help down the road.

  With Miss Hattie’s help Mr. Ed led a petition to Southern Bell and the Public Service Commission for “free” calls to the Atlanta area and our phone bills became no higher than what Atlanta residents were paying at the time.

  Mr. Ed McGarity won his petition and there is no telling how much money that saved businesses in McDonough, Hampton, Locust Grove and Stockbridge. Mr. Ed and Miss Hattie believed it helped bring more industry to the area at the time.

  One day Miss Hattie and Jett (her beloved canine friend) were on the way to the Courthouse and they noticed posters on the McDonough Theatre announcing that Lassie was coming to town in a movie. When she got home that day, she called my dad to see when the picture would be playing. She wanted to know if she could bring Jett to the movie!

  Now my dad knew that was her dog. She walked that dog all over town. Why, my dad even knew that she loved that dog as if it was her very own child. My dad replied, “sure, you can bring your dog to the movie, but you will have to buy a ticket for him.”

  On the day of the movie, Miss Hattie and Jett showed up and they each purchased a ticket on the back row. Jett seemed to love watching the movie about Lassie and Miss Hattie had to tell Jett not to bark too loudly when he saw Lassie running. Jett seemed to be very happy at the movie. My dad remembers looking to the back row and seeing Miss. Hattie and Jett together. Miss Hattie looked happy, Jett looked happy and we had sold an extra ticket that night. He said we all came out fine on that deal. That was the only time in the theatre’s history that they can remember a dog coming to watch a movie!

  Annie Spencer’s property was between Miss Hattie’s house and the First Baptist Church of McDonough. From the time they became neighbors they never could agree as to where the property line was located.

  Miss Hattie was calling my dad, who was on the city council back then, and reporting what Miss Annie had done again. This time Miss Hattie reported to my dad that Miss Annie was burning leaves. We used to do that in the fall every year and you could smell leaves burning all over town.

  She reported to my dad and asked what she could do to stop the smoke. My dad asked her if she had a large fan and she said that she did. He replied, “why don’t you take it out to the property line and blow the smoke right back into her yard.” So Miss Hattie did just that. She thought my dad had talked her into something ridiculous, but it worked!

  Miss Hattie and Marshall were world travelers when most people around McDonough barely went to Atlanta.

  They would put several items of their clothing in a large paper sack and off they would go. She didn’t care about luggage that had to be checked and carried around. They just wanted to see places that most people in Georgia had never thought about. She met Betty Crocker (the cake lady) on one of her trips and they became good friends. Betty Crocker was famous worldwide and came to McDonough to visit Miss Hattie when she was traveling in Georgia. Miss Hattie would tell you she wasn’t much of a cook, so when Betty Crocker came to visit Miss Hattie would take her down the street to Jackson’s Restaurant for a good ole Southern meal.

  Another thing about Miss Hattie was that you would not call her a “fashion plate” either. Well, one day she was going to the First National Bank on the Square and wore her dress inside out just to see if they noticed and if anyone said anything. She told me that they may have noticed, but did not say a word. That was probably because she and Marshall were some of the most frequent depositors in town.

  She was one of the most interesting Southern ladies I have ever known. I used to ask her to let me interview her for one day I wanted to write a book about McDonough and its people. Little did she know that every time I visited her I was getting information about her life, she just didn’t know it!

  Good for you Miss Hattie, good for you!