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Lurleen Burns Wallace: From Childhood to Alabama's Governor

Lurleen Wallace in her inauguration gown

Lurleen Burns Wallace:
Alabama Governor Remembered

 

Lurleen Wallace as a baby

Lurleen Burns, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry M. Burns of Tuscaloosa,
was born on September 19, 1926.

Lurleen Wallace and children sitting on auto

 

Lurleen Wallace as a childLurleen Wallace with classmates

Lurleen Wallace in class photo

At age 15 Lurleen graduated from Tuscaloosa County High School.

 

Caption of photo: "Miss Neighbors' Home Room
First Row--Left to Right--Nelloise Disney, Emma Jean Bennefield, Merrill Anders, Leona Bell, Cathron Day, Dorothy Coker, Frances Clements, Lurleen Burns
Second Row--Otis Borroughs, Lucille Brown, Signa Cannon , Lucill Barringer, Rachel Curry, Mary Springer, Julia Nealeans
Third Row--Dorothy Crawford, Frances Bagwell, Rachel Bickson
Fourth Row--Lonnie Darden, James Crocker, Miss Neighbors, Sara Bell Anders, Kathleen Franklin, Donald McBrayer
Fifth Row--James Earnest, Robert Adams, Verdo Burroughs, William Elliot"

 

Lurleen Wallace as young adult

Lurleen was not quite 17 years old when she married George C. Wallace
in May of 1943 while he was in the U. S. Army Air Corps.

 

Lurleen and young George Wallace

The young Wallace family shown with firstborn Bobbi Jo.

Lurleen Wallace with her children

Lurleen Wallace shown with her children
George Wallace, Jr., Bobbi Jo, Peggy Sue,
and infant daughter Janie Lee.

 

Lurleen Wallace as governor

 

Lurleen actively campaigned for the position of Alabama Governor.
She became Alabama's first woman governor on January 16, 1967,
receiving 64% of the vote. She is remembered for working for the upgrading of
Alabama's mental health facilities while governor.

 

Lurleen Wallace as turkey hunter

 Presiding over the affairs of state left little time for fishing and the outdoors, but once following a lengthy banquet, the governor returned to Montgomery where she tarried long enough to change from evening dress to a hunting suit. By daybreak she was on her way hunting and bagged a 15-pound turkey with her second shot.

 

Lurleen Wallace and highway fatalities

Obviously already very ill, Governor Lurleen Wallace is pictured with Col. C. W. Russell, director of the Department of Public Safety and J. C. Barry, vice president of the Alabama Safety Council, Inc. as they warned Fourth of July motorists of the four major causes of accidents.

 

Lurleen Wallace's official portrait

In her short term as governor, Lurleen Wallace was hospitalized with cancer
on several occasions before her death on May 7, 1968.

 

Read about Lurleen's administration as Governor of Alabama.

 

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