Q: I recall some details of a tragic plane crash in which many prominent Atlantans were killed in France around this time in the 1960s. Can you provide more information?
A: The Woodruff Arts Center stands in part as a tribute to the 106 Atlantans who died in a plane crash 52 years ago today. A group of the city's cultural leaders were returning from a three-week trip to visit many of Europe's great museums and architectural wonders when their Boeing 707 crashed on takeoff from Orly Field outside Paris on June 3, 1962. Overall, 122 people were killed, with only two flight attendants surviving what was, at that time, the worst crash in aviation history. Atlanta was devastated to learn of the disaster that claimed so many of the people trying to build the city's arts community. "It was Atlanta's version of Sept. 11 in that the impact on the city in 1962 was comparable to New York of Sept. 11," Ann Uhry Abrams, author of the book, "Explosion at Orly: The True Account of the Disaster that Transformed Atlanta," told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2002. The disaster spurred the city into raising funds and building the Memorial Arts Center – now called the Woodruff Arts Center — which broke ground on the fourth anniversary of the crash. It opened two years later and now includes the High Museum of Art, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Alliance Theatre and Young Audiences.
Q: Can you tell me more about former Georgia Gov. John B. Gordon, who I believe, also fought in the Civil War?
A: Gordon was born in Upson County, raised in Walker County and attended the University of Georgia before becoming one of the most prominent Georgians of the 19th century. He was a major general in the Confederate Army – he was wounded five times at Antietam – and settled in Atlanta after the war. Gordon was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1872 and was governor from 1886-90 before returning to the Senate from 1891-97. Fort Gordon in Augusta and Gordon State College in Barnesville were named for Gordon, who died in 1904, and there's a statue of him on the grounds of the Capitol.
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