Judge Frank Sellars Cheatham, Jr., was born on January 11, 1924 to the late Frank and Margaret Cheatham. He contracted polio in October of 1925 and began treatment in Warm Springs, Georgia every summer from 1933 to 1938. While there he met President Franklin D. Roosevelt and drew strength from the "Roosevelt spirit", going on to graduate from Savannah High School in 1942 and Armstrong Junior College in 1944. He attended the University of Georgia from 1944 to 1948, gaining a BA in 1946 and was awarded membership in several organizations, including the Gridiron Society, the Blue Key National Honor Society, Omicron Delta National Honor Society, and the Sphinx Club. In 1948 Cheatham graduated with a law degree and returned to Savannah to practice, forming the Cheatham and Exley Law Firm in 1949. In 1953, he was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives and remained there through 1960. While serving, he was Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee in 1958 and 1959. In 1972, Governor Jimmy Carter appointed Cheatham to the Eastern Judicial Circuit as a Superior Court Judge, a post that he held for 21 years, retiring in 1993. Frank Cheatham Jr. died in 2008. Cheatham was active in many civic and professional organizations. He chaired several fundraisers for the March of Dimes, was president of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) of Savannah in 1964 (in which the Habersham branch was built), and was an active member of Wesley Monumental Methodist Church. He was the past president of the Savannah Bar Association, the Judicial Council of Georgia, and the Savannah Kiwanis Club. He married former Rebecca McCrary and had one daughter, Margaret Cheatham, and a stepdaughter, Lara Brotherton. Frank S. Cheatham Jr. is the only son of Frank Sellars Cheatham, Sr., (1898-1977) and Margaret Caldwell Cheatham (1901-1997) who married in 1921. Frank Sellars Cheatham, Sr., worked as a draftsman for the Central of Georgia Railroad until the mid-1940s when he left to work for Prudential Insurance. After retiring in 1963, he turned his attention to his art career, writing, and genealogical research on the Cheatham family. Margaret Caldwell Cheatham was a homemaker and active in church and civic activities.
From the description of Frank S. Cheatham, Jr., family papers, 1899-2008. (Georgia Historical Society). WorldCat record id: 61249385
