George Busbee

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George Dekle Busbee (August 7, 1927–July 16, 2004) was an American politician who served as the governor of the U.S. state of Georgia from 1975 to 1983.

Busbee was born in Vienna, Georgia, and attended Georgia Military College and Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College before joining the navy. After his discharge, he completed his education at the University of Georgia, where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Literary Society, earning a bachelor's degree in 1949 and a law degree in 1952.

He served nine terms in the Georgia House of Representatives, and was floor leader for Governor Carl Sanders. Busbee won the Democratic nomination for governor in 1974—Jimmy Carter's final year in that office—over Lieutenant Governor Lester Maddox. In the fall, he handily defeated Ronnie Thompson, the first Republican to have served as mayor of Macon. In 1976, voters approved a wholesale revision of the Georgia Constitution, which included a provision that allowed Busbee to become the state's first governor to serve two consecutive four-year terms.

After his service as Governor, Busbee joined the Atlanta law firm King & Spalding and moved to the Atlanta suburb of Duluth.

Busbee died of a heart attack at the Savannah International Airport in Savannah, Georgia. Busbee Parkway in the Town Center Mall area of Cobb County, Georgia is named in his honor.

[edit] External links

• New Georgia Encyclopedia profile of George Busbee

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