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| Grave of Flannery O'Connor |
The daughter of devout Cathlolic parents (and a devout Catholic herself), O'Connor moved with her family from Savannah to Milledgeville when she was thirteen. She went on to graduate from what is now Georgia College & State University (then the Georgia State College for Women) in Milledgeville before obtaining admission to the exclusive Iowa Writer's Workshop at the University of Iowa. She had God given talent as a writer, which was nurtured and encouraged by such noted literary figures as Robert Penn Warren.
The often deadly disease of Lupus, however, was hereditary in her family and in 1951, when she was only 26 years old and living with Robert and Sallie Fitzgerald in Connecticut, O'Connor suffered a life-threatening attack from the disease. She decided to move home to Milledgeville where she could enjoy the comfort and support of family and friends, as well as the peaceful lifestyle of her family's Andalusia farm on the northern outskirts of town.
Flannery O'Connor lived out the rest of her life in Milledgeville and it was there that she completed some of her finest work, including her novels Wise Blood and The Violent Bear it Away. She also wrote many short stories while in Milledgeville, compiling some of her finest into a collection titled A Good Man is Hard to Find. Tragically, she died from from Lupus related complications on August 3, 1964. She was only 39 years old.
To learn more about Flannery O'Connor and the sites associated with her in Milledgeville, including Andalusia Farm and her grave at Memory Hill Cemetery, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/flannery.
