Today is Margaret Mitchell’s birthday.  She was born in the year 1900.  Peggy wrote “Gone With The Wind” (published in 1936).  She won a Pulitzer Prize for the dang thing in 1937.  Her story is quite remarkable really.  What I didn’t know about her was this:  She died at the young age of 49.  Struck down and killed by a car.

Her obit reads (NY Times: August 17, 1949) :

(Atlanta, GA.) – Margaret Mitchell died today at  Grady Hospital of injuries received when she was struck down by a speeding automobile on Peachtree Street last Thursday.

Not once since the accident had the 49-year-old Miss Mitchell fully regained consciousness, according to hospital attaches. At infrequent intervals, she had murmured vague, incoherent responses to spoken questions.

Shortly after Miss Mitchell died, the driver of the auto which struck her surrendered voluntarily to police and Atlanta Police Chief Herbert Jenkins said an “immediate murder indictment” would be sought. Hugh D. Gravitt, 29, the driver, had been out on bond of $5,450, after having been arrested at the scene of the accident and charged with drunken driving, speeding and driving on the wrong side of the street.

Houses in this town remind me of Gone With The Wind. (And Batman.  But Margaret Mitchell didn’t have anything to do with Batman.)