A former first lady of the City of Atlanta
By Maria Saporta
An outpouring of friends, family and civic leaders came to honor the life of Bunnie Jackson-Ransom on Monday.
It is not surprising given the many lives she touched in Atlanta and beyond, moving here in 1964 to be close to her then-boyfriend – Maynard Jackson Jr. – marrying him in 1965.
She became Atlanta’s first lady after Jackson was elected the city’s first African American mayor. They had three children – Elizabeth “Beth” Jackson Hodges, Brooke Jackson Edmund and Maynard “Buzzy” Jackson III. The couple divorced in 1976. She married Ray Ransom in 1978, but they also divorced.
During her life, Jackson-Ransom was quite an entrepreneur. She founded First Class Inc., a public relations company, in 1975 with three of her friends – Anne Allison, Linda Gulley and Billye Aaron. All attended the celebration of life at Ebenezer Baptist Church.
Jackson-Ransom died on Feb. 2. A service was held in her honor on Monday at Ebenezer that included an invocation from U.S. Senator Rev. Raphael Warnock.
The service was followed by her internment at South-View Cemetery and then a repast back at Ebenezer.
Here are a few photos from friends and family at the repast.
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