By Miryam Ehrlich Williamson

Cornelia Snively Wallace, former wife of the late Alabama Gov. George Corley Wallace, Jr., died Thursday of cancer in Sebring, Fla.  She was 69.

Mrs. Wallace is probably best known for having thrown herself over her husband’s body to shield him in an assassination attempt as he campaigned in Laurel, Md., for nomination as the Democratic Party’s 1972 presidential candidate. The shooting left Wallace paralyzed from the waist down; he used a wheelchair until his death in 1998.

As first lady, Mrs. Wallace spurred Alabamans to increased self-reliance by urging them to plant vegetable gardens. To set an example, she recruited former state Rep. Pete Turnham, and others to join her in planting a vegetable garden behind the Governor’s Mansion in Montgomery.

She was admired for her devotion to the governer in the aftermath of the shooting, but the couple divorced in 1978, amid never-substantiated charges that she had bugged his phone.

Her obituary and a photo are here.

Posted on January 9th, 2009 by Miryam Ehrlich Williamson
Filed under: Rural Issues, Uncategorized