(reverent instrumental music) - From US Soldier to two term Georgia Governor, Nathan Deal has spent a lifetime in public service.

In his latest role as a children's book author, he not only fulfilled a promise to his late wife, but continues their work in promoting reading and literacy here in Georgia.

John Nathan Deal was born August 25th, 1942 in Millen, Georgia.

The only child of Noah and Mary deal, both teachers, Nathan spent his early years in the town of Sandersville where both parents taught.

- The school superintendent in Washington County had known them because they had both taught in Soperton in Treutlen County, previously.

Well, he was desperate for a first grade school teacher when we moved to Sandersville.

And he knew my mother was a teacher, so he got on her case about, he needed her to come to go to work as a first grade school teacher.

And she said, "Well, what am I gonna do with Nathan?"

So he finally said, "Well, I tell you what.

If you will agree, come teach first grade, we'll put a little desk in the back of your room and we'll let Nathan stay there," so I got off to a start of education being an important part of my life, and my father was a vocational agriculture teacher, so I grew up with two school teachers.

- [Jeff] As a boy, Deal helped his mother raise chickens to sell the eggs for extra income, but he says it had an additional benefit.

- The good thing about having chickens in those days was you had to buy your feed and then they would come in in hundred pound bags of chicken feed.

That sounds like something ordinary, but those chicken feed sacks were gonna be my shirts that I wore because they had all sorts of colors on the broadcloth that they were using for the feed sacks.

So I got to climb up on the back of their feed truck and pick out the sacks that I wanted because I knew that was gonna be my wardrobe in the very near future.

And so, my mother would make me shirt to wear to school out of chicken feed sack.

- [Jeff] Mary Deal didn't want any shyness to hold Nathan back in life, so she arranged speech lessons for him.

- [Nathan] I did pretty well with it.

- [Jeff] Yeah.

- I'd gotten involved in debate in high school, and we had a very good debate team.

We won our state competition for two years in a row, my junior and senior year in high school, and I actually got a debate scholarship to go to Mercer.

- [Jeff] But deal says Mercer University was not his first choice.

- I was planning to be a veterinarian.

I was on track to go to University of Georgia, I'd already been accepted, and my intentions were to go to the University of Georgia and become a veterinarian, go to their vet school.

- [Jeff] He eventually decided to take the scholarship offer and signed up for an accelerated undergrad program that would have him in the university's law program after three years.

He also signed up for ROTC, eventually earning a second lieutenant commission when he graduated with his undergraduate degree in 1964.

Deal contemplated making the army his career.

- They offered me the Quartermaster Corps.

Well, I was gung-ho.

I mean, I had gone through a rough summer camp down at Fort Benning, and I thought I proved myself pretty well, but I had poor eyesight, so I could not qualify for combat arms, and they knew I was very disappointed that I couldn't get a combat arms, so they said, "Well, since you already have one year of law school under your belt, if you'll go ahead and finish law school, then you can get a commission in the JAG Corps."

So that's what I did.

I finished two more years of law school, then I went into JAG Corps and had a great career in the Army as a JAG officer.

- It was during those college years that Nathan Deal's life would also be impacted in a different way.

He met Sandra Dunagan on a blind date in 1962.

The young co-ed was attending nearby Georgia State College For Women in Milledgeville.

You had a connection from the beginning.

Was it one of those kinds of relationships you just knew very early on that there was something here that worked?

- I was hoping it did.

(chuckles) She supposedly went home to her parents that weekend and told 'em she'd met the man she was going to marry.

She just didn't tell me that at the time.

But yeah, she was a great woman.

- [Jeff] The two got married in 1966 as Deal was starting his career in the Army.

After serving for two years at Fort Gordon in Georgia, he decided to leave active duty at the rank of Captain.

- I did not think that the limited use of my legal talents in a JAG officer position was all I wanted to do.

I wanted to do more than that.

So I decided that I would apply to be released, and that's what you have to do when you're regular Army officer.

You have to apply to resign your regular Army commission.

And then I had to take a reserve commission because I had reserve obligations after, after my active duty time.

I was an only child, and my father was in very poor health when I got out, and that was part of the contributing factor to my decision.

- [Jeff] The Deals moved to Sandra's hometown of Gainesville, where he took a job in private practice while Sandra taught elementary education and raised four children.

It was during this time he says he gained a new appreciation for the law.

- I learned to appreciate the law itself and all of its variations.

As an assistant district attorney, I learned to appreciate the prosecutorial side of things and how difficult it is to prosecute cases appropriately.

You've gotta be able to select a jury that's gonna side with you, and that's of course true whether you're prosecution or defense.

In civil cases, the same thing.

- [Jeff] He became an assistant district attorney in 1970 in the Northeastern Judicial District, and, a year later, was appointed as a Hall County juvenile court judge.

In 1980, he ran and was elected as a Democrat in the Georgia State Senate, eventually rising to the position of Senate President Pro Temp.

Seeking new challenges in 1994, he ran for a US congressional seat in Georgia's ninth district, still as a Democrat.

But that was soon to change.

- I ran as a Democrat and got reelected in '94, but that was the year of the Republican Revolution, the Contract with America period and all of that, so things changed in Washington, and I changed with them.

I realized that, after a while, that the Democrat Party of which I was a member, they were asking me to vote against things that I had campaigned for when I got elected, and I finally told 'em, "I can't do this anymore," and that's when I changed parties in 1995.

- He served for the next 17 years in the US House, rising to chairman of the Health Subcommittee of Energy and Commerce.

How hard was that sort of juxtaposition of Washington, of Gainesville, of Hall County, of family life, of just keeping your sanity with all of the balls in the air?

- Well, very different of being a part-time legislator where you at least got to go home.

In my case, I went home every day, to being in Washington where you couldn't go home every day.

I did go home every chance I got.

I think I only spent about four weekends in Washington during my 17 plus years in Congress, and those were only times when we had not agreed on a budget and we had to stay there in session in order to get a budget passed.

- [Jeff] In 2010, Governor Sonny Perdue was finishing up his second term.

Nathan Deal and some of his fellow Georgia congressmen were looking at who was running for the state's top job.

- We were looking and saying, "We need somebody else to run for this position," so we started looking at each other in the G8.

They said, "You need to run, we've gotta have a better candidate in the Republican Party to run," so they persuaded me.

And so, I came home and talked with Sandra, and we decided to get in the race, and then it was full throttle from there on out.

- [Jeff] After winning a close runoff in the primary, Deal went on to beat former governor and friend Roy Barnes in the general election, becoming Georgia's 82nd governor.

- I, Nathan deal, do solemnly swear.

- [Jeff] One of the first big pieces of legislation he championed was criminal justice reform.

- We did it by biting off a piece of the apple at a time.

That first year, we took on what we now call accountability courts, drug courts, DUI courts, to try to make those better funded and to make them more effective, and I'm proud to say that, when we started, we only had a handful of accountability courts, a few DUI courts, and some drug courts, but when I left office, every judicial circuit in the state of Georgia had at least one accountability court.

Some of them had multiple ones, and they began to diversify as the needs were identified.

You had veterans courts, especially in those areas that are close to military installations, which we're blessed to have quite a few.

You had mental health courts, which have now become recognized as an important ingredient in trying to get the judicial system in sync with the constituency that comes before them.

We had family courts, something that is really an effective, too, and we had a number of others that were tailored to specific needs in the communities.

- [Jeff] Deal also signed into law a bill that limited lobbyist spending and influence over state legislators.

In his second term, Deal expanded the number of state supreme court justices.

He signed HB 87, which increased the state's enforcement powers regarding illegal immigration, requiring employers to check the legal status of employees.

And he signed the Safe Carry Protection Act, which allowed licensed Georgians to bring guns into many public and private places.

But not all of the governor's ideas were met with the same enthusiasm, sometimes angering his own party.

He vetoed two controversial bills, the Religious Liberty bill, which had concerned many of the large companies and businesses headquartered in Georgia, as well as the Campus Carry bill.

Deal opposed that law's allowance for guns at childcare centers and other places on college campuses, but signed the bill the following year after some stricter revisions were added.

Deal also made major changes to Hope Scholarship funding to keep the program solvent after tuition costs outpaced lottery proceeds, and, in 2014, dealt with an ice storm that brought Atlanta to a standstill.

- I don't think anyone could have totally predicted that this was gonna have the magnitude within the short window of time in which it occurred.

- [Jeff] Nathan Deal left the governor's office in January of 2019 with few regrets about his time in the governor's mansion.

- Well, my biggest regret is we lost out on public school, failing schools.

I think we did do enough help on that issue that, you know, they had legislation later that appointed the supervisor who overseeing failing schools, didn't take 'em over, but sort of helped oversee 'em.

That still was not the solution, as they soon found out, I think, after about a year or so.

That's the one thing.

- [Jeff] In 2022, Nathan Deal lost his wife Sandra of 56 years to cancer.

But before she passed away, he was able to fulfill a promise he made to her and her legacy of promoting literacy in the state by writing children's book.

- She read, physically read a book in at least every county, all 159 counties, all 181 school systems in the state, and in over a thousand individual classrooms.

We estimate that over a quarter of a million Georgia students heard her read a book to them after she was no longer the first lady.

She told me, she said, "I have read all the good books I have for children.

I want you to write me one."

- [Jeff] His book follows the Life of Veto, a cat owned by the Deal family, and the lessons Veto learns dealing with other animals at the governor's mansion.

- She got the diagnosis of brain cancer, and I realized I better get started, so I got started, and I wrote the book in its original form and I was able to read it to her, and she liked it, she gave me the thumbs up, and so, that was the incentive to go ahead.

So that's what the book's about.

It's a tribute to her.

- [Jeff] A tribute to one of two women who Deal says contributed to shaping the life he has today.

- [Nathan] I have been fortunate.

I've had very strong and very good women.

My mother was a strong and good woman.

My wife was also a strong and good woman, and without them, I wouldn't have much to show about for my life, I'm afraid.

But they've made me better, and they continue to be sources of strength for me, even now.

- [Jeff] When not teaching an occasional class at Brenau University, Nathan Deal now enjoying his retirement by a scenic stretch of the Chattahoochee River in Habersham County with his children and grandchildren.

After eight years and the great success that you had in the governor's office, do you labor over legacy?

- I've been one of those that never has focused on my legacy, and I think that's a good thing.

You start focused on your legacy, you start either doing or not doing things that you probably should or shouldn't do.

I've always jokingly answered that question by saying, "Just don't name a prison after me," and so far, they have not.

(Jeff laughs) I am pleased that they named the judicial building after me.

That bears my name, and I'm very proud of that.

I put a lot of effort and thought into trying to improve our judicial system, especially at the appellate court level, and we've done that.

- During a book signing tour after its release, we learned of a new talent by the former governor as he would occasionally entertain audiences mimicking the colorful voices of the characters that he created.

While there are many buildings of historical note in our state, one has the distinction of continuously serving Georgia hospitality longer than any other of its kind in the United States.

And, while today it may be a bit off the beaten path, that wasn't always the case.

On the far eastern edge of the state lies a quiet two lane highway, Highway 301, and if you were traveling along it, just outside of Sylvania, Georgia, you would come along a curious site, a welcome center.

And not just any welcome center, but the country's oldest continuously used welcome center.

But why here?

To answer that question, we need to go on a journey.

Joining me on this trip is Brent Tharp, a historian from nearby Georgia Southern University.

- You know, we just don't think about it today in this digital age of being able to pull up all this information on our phone while we're on the road, and that just wasn't available.

It was still a bit of an adventure to drive down 301 for several days to get yourself to Florida.

- If we were on 301 65 years ago today, what would it have looked like?

- Yeah, you would've been driving down, and it was a beautiful trip.

People commented on, you know, the unique environment of the farm fields, cotton fields, peanut fields, and the trees all along the way, but then, studded in between those long things were little communities that suddenly sprouted up a whole variety of motels, motor court motels, but also tourist homes, as well.

So historic houses and other places that were converted over to tourist homes.

Then attractions showed up vendors of all kinds, very famous for the Chenille up in the north part of the state along the Dixie Highway, Claxton has a Chenille factory.

Pecan stands, all kinds of other ag products that we're now being able to sell directly to a market of tourists coming down, so those were dotted all along the way as well.

- [Jeff] Highway 301 was built in the early 1930s, starting in Delaware and ending in Sarasota, Florida.

Often referred to as the tobacco trail because of the route followed many of the original roads and trails that brought tobacco to market, it transitioned into one of the primary highways for tourists from the northeast and middle Atlantic on their way to Florida.

- Important to remember, too, that, you know, while it was segregated travel, it was also an important route and travel for African Americans moving up and down the highway.

- "The Green Book" and all that.

- Yeah.

And so, Jesup, and Sylvania, and Statesboro all appear in "The Green Book" with facilities like Mrs. Lee's restaurant or the Grosse Motel in Statesboro that were specifically there for African American travelers moving up.

- [Jeff] It bypassed most of the larger cities and towns, creating financial opportunities for smaller communities along the route like Sylvania, Statesboro, and Claxton.

- It's incredible how much traffic it drew in those early years.

You look at some of the DOT studies, and traffic would back up into the downtown areas of Statesboro on miles on either side during the peak seasons of people moving down, and it transformed these cities.

And it's interesting how many of them, so many of them, they took different tracks about how they were gonna deal with with those tourists.

Many of them decided, "Hey, this is a great economic development for us.

We're gonna provide clean hotels, reliable places to eat and get your car repaired."

All of those kinds of things.

And, in fact, for a long time, Statesboro's city motto was the tourist city.

Not because of what people were coming through, it was just that they were serving the tourists.

Not that they were coming to visit anything in Statesboro.

- [Announcer] In cities of all sizes, the situation is the same, all snarled up - [Jeff] That financial success was short-lived as the new interstates were built, luring tourists and their dollars away.

- When it opened up though, the reality was is it literally kind of collapsed, the economy on this road.

- But the visitor center was, at the time, a vital stop.

It's a very unique part of Georgia, a welcoming center.

It sounds like something from another time, another era in this country when southern hospitality really did matter.

- It did, and it actually did change, kind of, the perception of Georgia.

That was one of Vandiver's biggest, I guess, goals whenever he put us here, and it was so interesting that I read some of the articles that we had, - By Vandiver, you're talking about Governor S. Ernest.

- Yeah.

(laughs) - Vandiver.

- Ernest Vandiver.

He actually was the one who opened us.

He really saw the potential in having welcome centers that catch people coming from the northeast to Florida, and he really wanted to change the idea that Georgia was, you know, some old backwoods, hillbilly place, but the southern hospitality was very indeed real.

- {Jeff] Jessica Godbee, the welcome center's manager, still cheerily greets adventure-seekers and weary travelers who stop in, offering them a cold Coca-Cola and providing any needed information.

- The construction began in 1960.

It was slated to open in '61.

However, as construction projects go, it got delayed a little bit, but it opened January, '62.

It is original building, original structure.

It's mid-century modern design.

The architect would was Edwin C. Eckles who's a Georgia architect and went to Georgia Tech.

He's from Statesboro, Georgia, and then the actual building itself was sourced from Georgia materials, Georgia pecan wood, Georgia glass from the Savannah Glass Company, pink Etowah marble on the front, and it was a Georgia construction company that built it out of Nashville, Georgia.

So they really leaned wholeheartedly into the Georgia whenever they built this place.

- So if we got in a time machine right here, right now, and it's 1961, 1962, how different would it look?

Would we recognize it?

- You would recognize, definitely, the structure of the building.

The fixtures are original, even the design and the globes.

Of course, some things are different.

We've had what we call facelifts.

It had terrazzo flooring at one point, and, through the seventies, carpet went down like carpet went down everywhere.

But they also had a couple of different things.

They had desks out here with full resources because, of course, the internet didn't exist, so they had these huge guides.

- [Jeff] The center is now run by Georgia's Department of Natural Resources as a historic site, ensuring that it will continue in its original role.

The welcome center still gets, on average, 200 visitors a day, and that's okay with the folks that stop in, as well as with Jessica.

- It is the best job I've ever had.

It is very interesting.

We get to meet all sorts of interesting people.

The people are my favorite part, and they're the best part.

It really is, I have learned so much here from my visitors, as well as information about Georgia in general.

(gentle acoustic music fades) - If you're in the area, stop by for some southern hospitality and a cold Coca-Cola.

For "Georgia Legends", I'm Jeff Hullinger.

Thanks for watching.

(reverent instrumental music)