MORE ON FAMOUS PEOPLE

Last week I was watching CNN when Piers Morgan was interviewing Ted Turner, the originator of the 24 hour news channel.

I’d not thought of Ted in many years, but it brought to mind the few times we met and spoke with Ted at various events around the city of Atlanta.

 My husband started his new job Director of Marketing with The National Bank of Georgia in October 1997 and was at the OMNI the night where everyone awaited the presidential election returns. The president of the bank was Jimmy Carter’s best friend, campaign manager and later head of the OMB in Washington DC., so my husband was working with very well-known people until the bank was sold four years later.

On June 1, 1998, Ted Turner officially started the Cable News Network. (CNN) The affair was out of doors and open to the public, but even though we were invited, we chose not to go because it was very, very hot and no one was sure a 24 hour news network would even last.

We attended many large events where Ted showed up. I specifically remember when three of us were talking to him at a cocktail party and although we were in a conversation, his eyes were darting elsewhere to see who else was in the room. I was talking to a judge later and told him about Ted’s being able to carry on a conversation while scanning the room. The judge told me the only other person he’d seen able to do that was Teddy Kennedy.

One night we were seated at a cabaret show and a very nice woman joined us. Her boss hadn’t been able to attend so he gave her the ticket. That’s right, her boss was Ted Turner and she was his executive assistant. The job required her to be always by his side. She got the job through a fluke, she had accompanied her friend who was interviewing for the position when Ted called her in too, talked for a few minutes and told her to start the next day. He never asked if she wanted the job. When we saw him on the national news at the Newport Yacht Races, the cameras constantly followed him and we saw her walking right beside him taking notes.

More about life in Atlanta later.