Miss Lucy

Savannah has produced some amazing women. The city we all love would not have the grandeur it has achieved without the women. One of those women who lived a life of care and love for Savannah and the world about her was Lucy Barrow McIntire. She was not born in Savannah but in the city of Athens, Georgia in 1886. She moved to Savannah when she married local attorney Francis Percival McIntire. She quickly became a leader in Savannah and Georgia.

A list of her many activities would overwhelm this blog entry. She was a Progressive during the height of that movement. She would help found local chapters of the League of Women Voters and the Junior League. Holding her progressive views close, she served as the President of the Savannah Suffrage Association. More significant for her at least was the role as President of the Georgia Federation of Women’s Club. This would lead her to serve as the first Georgia committeewoman on the Democratic National Committee during Woodrow Wilson’s campaign.

Despite being a mother of six she was also one of the voices to start the public school lunch program, one of the five women to form the Poetry Society of Georgia Association, in the seventies she spoke out for the civil rights of African-Americans, was a founder of the Savannah Nursery School, the Women’s Relief committee, the Juvenile Protection Association, the Savannah Health Center, the Chatham Nursing Home, and Savannah’s Christmas Stocking, She became a familiar sight on the streets of Savannah and the halls of City Hall where everyone referred to her as “Miss Lucy”. She also was a founder of Savannah Country Day School

Miss Lucy was not only an activist but an artist, winning prizes for her poetry and amateur theater work. She took her artistic heart to preserve the city of Savannah. She was one of the original ‘seven’ who founded the Historic Savannah Foundation and was the first woman to serve on the Metropolitan Planning Committee of Savannah.

Her professional work reflected her charitable and political views. She worked as a Field Supervisor for the Works Progress Administration under Franklin D. Roosevelt. During World War II, she founded the U.S.O.–Soldiers Social Service of Savannah and became Service Director of the American Red Cross. 

Because of her contributions to the civic life of Savannah, she was named Woman of the Year in 1955 and was given both the Groves Award for outstanding contributions to Savannah’s philanthropic progress, and the Oglethorpe Trophy, Savannah’s highest civic award, in 1958. She has also been named as a Georgia Woman of Achievement.

Lucy McIntire died in 1967 and is buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery. Here are some of her words from an interview she gave in the later years of her life:

​‘I think two major considerations were incentive for the founding of Historic Savannah. One was the need for organization, the other necessity for making leading citizens aware of the rare heritage they possess.  We had one of the most beautiful cities and unique in the United States.  There was considerable interest but it was dormant until a crisis arose, and then it was too late.  Dedication and appreciation were important but implementation was necessary.   Year after year architecturally beautiful homes and historic structures were going down and interest did not save them. The waterfront, one of the most historic and distinctive in the country, was being neglected and was decaying.  In 19 __ I wrote the Chamber of Commerce calling attention to the potentialities of developing this area and asking their support. The letter was politely acknowledged. Perhaps the catalyst for taking action was loss of the old market, one of the handsomest and most traditional city buildings.  When destruction was threatened those of us interested were told – at the last – that if a constructive use could be found for it, it could be saved.  Desperate skirmishes were futile, and it went down and with it one of our greatest tourist potentials. All around us rare architectural treasurers were going into decay, chief among them the Davenport House. Our group had planned not to announce our plan until we had completed a long range program, in order to be prepared in event of a crisis.  Ironically the crisis developed with the purchase of the Davenport House.  We sounded the call and had the good sense to appeal to the male contingent, many of whom had previously regarded such groups as “hysterical.”  None of us sought office but approached leading citizens in the industrial and business world.   Having noticed the gradual blotting out of the distinctive character and fine architecture of old Savannah by a universal lack of zoning, we realized some organization should be established to keep Savannah a part of the historical tradition to which it belonged.’

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