Griffin Bell’s condition worsens

Former U.S. Attorney General Griffin Bell was being treated at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta on Saturday for complications due to pancreatic cancer.

The 90-year-old also was experiencing kidney failure and had developed pneumonia, according to his granddaughter, Katherine Bell McClure of Atlanta. Bell has battled kidney disease for years and was recently diagnosed with cancer. Bell told the AJC in early December that the cancer was not treatable.

On Monday, Bell was admitted to a hospital in his hometown of Americus and by midweek was transferred to Piedmont, McClure said.

“He’s in a lot of pain right now, but he’s still talking,” McClure said.

Bell is one of Georgia’s legal icons. As a judge, he was one of the architects of Georgia’s school desegregation plan, an achievement Bell himself said in a recent interview was one of the most important of his career.

He started that career as a young attorney in Savannah, and he eventually became a senior partner at the King & Spalding law firm in Atlanta.

In the early 1960s, Bell was appointed to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals by President John F. Kennedy. In 1977, Bell was appointed attorney general by President Jimmy Carter.

Bell served as a private attorney to President George H.W. Bush and had a client list that included many top names in politics and business, including E.F. Hutton and former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young.

Last month, Bell’s new book, “Footnotes to History: A Primer on the American Political Character,” was published by Mercer University Press. It is largely a collection of speeches delivered during his long career. Originally scheduled for spring release, the publisher pushed up the date after Bell’s health worsened.

On Saturday, Bell’s hospital room was filled with family members who listened as Bell told them stories about his youth and the family’s history, McClure said.

Late in the day, a minister came by to talk with Bell. McClure, who was present, said Bell told the minister, “I have certainly gotten a fair deal in life, despite having a difficult death.”