Image Credit: Elyse Butler
Year Erected: 2025
Marker Text: Journalist, humorist, and author Lewis McDonald Grizzard, Jr., was born in Fort Benning, Georgia. Following his parents’ divorce, Grizzard and his mother, Christine, moved to Moreland. Attending the University of Georgia, he served as sports editor of the Athens Daily News and became the youngest-ever executive sports editor of the Atlanta Journal at age 23. In 1977 Grizzard began writing a column for the Atlanta Constitution that was syndicated in 450 newspapers. Grizzard wrote more than twenty books, eighteen of which were New York Times bestsellers (with titles like If Love Were Oil, I’d Be About a Quart Low), ranging in subject from his parents, his multiple marriages, his deep love of UGA football, and Southern life and culture. He also performed as a standup comic and actor. Lewis Grizzard died of heart failure at 47.
Erected by the Georgia Historical Society, the Town of Moreland, and the Moreland Cultural Arts Alliance
Tips for Finding This Site: At Moreland Hometown Heritage Museum; A Tribute to Lewis Grizzard, 7 Main Street, in Moreland