Henderson, Harold P.

Samuel Ernest Vandiver was born to Samuel Ernest and Vanna Bowers Vandiver in Canon, Franklin County, Georgia, on July 3, 1918. In 1945 after serving in the Air Force, Vandiver ran for city mayor of Lavonia and won the election unopposed in November 1945. In addition to his mayoral duties, Vandiver practiced law. After serving as Adjutant General and Lieutenant Governor of Georgia in the early 1950s, Vandiver won a landslide victory in his bid for governor in 1958.

Harold Paulk (Hal) Henderson, Sr., the collection's primary interviewer, is a retired professor of political science from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Georgia. His main research field is mid-twentieth century Georgia politics, and he has written two monographs in this area: The Politics of Change in Georgia: A Political Biography of Ellis Arnall (1991) and Ernest Vandiver, Governor of Georgia (2000). With Gary L. Roberts, he also co-edited Georgia Governors in an Age of Change: From Ellis Arnall to George Busbee (1988).

Ellis Gibbs Arnall was born to Bessie Lena Ellis and Joseph Gibbs in Newnan, Georgia, on March 20, 1907. Arnall began his political career in 1932, when he was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives to represent Coweta County. As a freshman legislator, he was elected to Speaker pro tempore, a position to which he was reelected in 1935. In 1939, Arnall became the youngest attorney general in the country at thirty-one years old. In 1942, Arnall was elected governor, defeating Eugene Talmadge. He was the youngest governor in the country at that time. Arnall served from 1943 to 1947. In 1947, Arnall was involved in the "three-governor controversy" when governor-elect Eugene Talmadge died before he could take office. Arnall lost his bid and retired from Georgia politics until a 1966 failed run for governor.