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19 presidents and 9 dozen candles: Times' matriarch Lessie Smithgall has seen it all
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The Times’ co-founder Lessie Smithgall is the oldest-living graduate of UGA’s Grady school. She is credited with being among the founders of the Peabody Awards program at the University of Georgia. - photo by Scott Rogers
When Lessie Smithgall graduated from the University of Georgia in 1933, Amelia Earhart had just recently completed the first solo, nonstop trans-Atlantic flight by a woman. Now, Smithgall has completed an impressive feat of her own. The oldest-living graduate of the university and co-founder of The Times, Celestia “Lessie” Smithgall, will turn 108 years old Monday, April 1.