Atlanta, GA Taxicab Kills Margaret Mitchell, Aug 1949 - Dies of Injuries

Margaret Mitchell Dies of Injuries

ATLANTA, Ga., Aug. 16. (AP)--Margaret Mitchell, author of "Gone With the Wind," died today as doctors prepared for an emergency operation to try to save her life.

Miss Mitchell, 43, was struck down by a speeding automobile on Peachtree street last Thursday night. She and her husband, John R. Marsh, were crossing the street to go to a movie near their home.

Miss Mitchell never fully recovered consciousness. Doctors said she had a fractured skull, fractures of the pelvis and other injuries.

She was taken to the operating room at Henry Grady Memorial Hospital this morning. She died at 11:59 a.m., before the operation was performed.

Marsh, a semi-invalid as the result of a heart attack several years ago, was not at the hospital when his wife died. Her brother, Stephens Mitchell, left to inform Marsh.

Mrs. Stephen Mitchell was the only member of the family in the operating room when Miss Mitchell died.

Funeral arrangements were not announced immediately.

Miss Mitchell and her husband were crossing a walkway when a car speeding down the street went over the center line and smashed into her. She was dragged 15 feet. Marsh held his wife in his arms until police and an ambulance arrived.

Police charged the driver of the car, Hugh D. Gravitt, 28, with suspicion of manslaughter. A taxi driver, he was off duty, at the time and in his private car. Police records show he had 23 previous traffic violations against him.

Miss Mitchell turned the Civil War tale she heard as a child into "Gone With the Wind," a book outsold only by the Bible.

But, she scoffed at any idea it was an easy job.

"Actually, I began writing at the age of six years. I worked 12 years on "Gone With the Wind" and threw away a lot of novels I had written before that," she once said.

Miss Mitchell began her career as a newspaper feature writer.

Fresh from Smith College and a debut as one of Atlanta's social set, she joined the staff of the Journal in 1922. The next four years many stories in the Atlanta newspaper were bylined, "Peggy Mitchell."

In 1925 she married John R. Marsh, advertising manager of the Georgia Power Company, and a year later left the newspaper field to become a full-time housewife.

Then, "Gone With the Wind" began to take shape. But the volume wasn't published until 1936.

The day after it hit bookstands all copies of the first edition were sold.

It made the best seller list immediately and turned the bright light of publicity on the quiet little Atlanta author.

Since then the book has sold some eight milion[sic] copies in 40 countries and 30 different languages. Today GWTW, as it is shortened in book circles, still sells 60,000 copies yearly in the United States and probably than many overseas.

At one time it seemed everyone in the country was speculating on who would star in the movie version of the best-seller.

Clark Gable finally was chosen to portray Rhett Butler and Vivian Leigh the tempestuous Scarlett O'Hara in the movie which had an Atlanta premier in 1939.

Abilene Reporter News, Abilene, TX 16 Aug 1949