Without her, the ‘Gone With the Wind’ film might not have sounded as Southern

Editor’s note: The following story is part of a feature called Home Grown in which we take a look at the people and products that have made a name for themselves well beyond our Middle Georgia borders.

Susan “Sue” Myrick was a Macon Telegraph columnist who taught cast members of “Gone With the Wind” how to speak with an authentic Southern accent.

Myrick was a close friend of Margaret Mitchell, who wrote “Gone With the Wind.” Mitchell picked Myrick to be a technical adviser on the film. In addition to the accents, Myrick also made sure the film got the details of Southern life right.

“The sincerest compliment her work received was that practically no one mentioned the Southern accents of the actors,” Mitchell said. “I think the South owes Sue a very great debt for her work in Hollywood.”

She died in 1978 at age 85.

This story was originally published November 11, 2016 at 4:36 PM with the headline "Without her, the ‘Gone With the Wind’ film might not have sounded as Southern."