David Franklin, ex-husband of Atlanta mayor, dies

David McCoy Franklin, ex-husband of Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and a key adviser to former Mayor Maynard Jackson, died Sunday. He was 65.

Franklin’s death was confirmed Monday night by the mayor’s office.

AJC file photo

David Franklin was a key adviser to former Mayor Maynard Jackson.

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Longtime friend Tom Houck, an Atlanta political consultant, said Franklin had suffered several strokes in recent months.

Houck called Franklin the “James Carville of Atlanta politics.”

“I credit David with building the political machine that got Maynard elected and every mayor since,” he said. “He was the one who brought together white liberals, public housing [residents], the universities, neighborhood groups and senior citizens. That’s his coalition.”

Franklin was also able to bridge the gap with the city’s white business community, Houck said.

“Everyone in power knew who he was,” he said.

A native Atlantan, Franklin joined Jackson’s law firm in 1972 after returning home from Washington. D.C., where he had attended American University law school. It was there he met Atlanta’s current mayor.

Before entering politics, Franklin represented a celebrity clientele including Richard Pryor, Miles Davis and Peabo Bryson.

Jackson’s former wife, Bunnie Jackson-Ransom, said Franklin played a crucial role raising money for her ex-husband.

“He was a great contributor to Maynard’s career,” she said. Franklin organized the first major fund-raiser for Jackson’s historic 1973 campaign, featuring clients Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway.

“They did a free concert for a virtual unknown,” said Jackson-Ransom, a public relations executive in Atlanta. “David made that happen.”

Franklin later would become a political liability to the city’s current mayor. The couple divorced in 1986, the same year David Franklin was recommended for disbarment by the District of Columbia Bar Association. He was charged with unethical and financial misconduct in connection with a real estate and loan deal handled on behalf of a Kuwaiti business firm.

He went on to found Franklin & Wilson Airport Concessions, which at its peak ran 15 retail outlets at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Franklin’s work was deemed a conflict of interest by some critics when his former wife was elected mayor in 2001.

At that point, he claimed “veto power” in Franklin’s administration. The mayor strongly rejected his assertion that he was an influential adviser.

The couple remained friendly, she said, for the sake of their three children, two of whom worked for Franklin’s concessions company.

In May 2007, the city opened an investigation of Franklin’s airport business. His name had surfaced in connection with an ongoing federal criminal investigation of a major drug-smuggling operation. His three airport stores eventually were shuttered in February of this year by state agents seeking to recoup $176,000 in unpaid taxes and penalties. “You’d never know he had problems,” said Houck, describing his old friend as a political junkie and noted gourmet. “He always had a smile on his face.”

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m., Sept. 11 at Radcliffe Presbyterian Church on Hamilton E. Holmes Drive in Atlanta. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Morehouse College Scholarship Fund in honor of David Franklin.

Franklin is survived by three children, Kai, Kali and Cabral Franklin, all of Atlanta; two sisters; and three grandchildren.