• Programming
• Leader of the Arts

Mary Rose Taylor

March, 2004

Mary Rose Taylor is a founder, former Chairman of the Board, and Executive Director of the Margaret Mitchell House & Museum. Since 1990, she has led the effort to save and operate the two-acre historic site where Gone With The Wind was written. Today, the site attracts nearly 50,000 visitors a year. Its programming division, The Center for Southern Literature, produces several literary programs each month, offers creative writing workshops for children and adults, and sponsors the Townsend Awards for Literary Fiction.

Taylor is a twenty-year veteran of broadcast journalism. She began her career with “60 Minutes” in 1968, then went on to research, direct, and produce award-winning documentary films for CBS, the BBC, PBS, and other special projects. Following positions as assignment editor for Metromedia in NYC and Post-Newsweek in Washington, D. C., she moved to Atlanta in 1980 to anchor the news for the NBC affiliate, WXIA-TV, where she earned recognition for outstanding achievement in investigative reporting.

Since her retirement in 1984, Taylor has served as a full-time volunteer with a number of civic and cultural non-profit organizations, including the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau, Atlanta’s Cultural Tourism Initiative, and the Atlanta History Center. She also worked with the Woodruff Arts Center, Michael C. Carlos Museum, and Historic Oakland Cemetery. Currently, she is a member of the Board of Directors of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Midtown Alliance, and Budget and Audit Committee of the Atlanta History Center.

Taylor’s service and work reflects her interest in a wide range of major issues that face Atlanta today, including our cultural life, education reform, infrastructure, and economic condition. She has effectively tackled projects in all of these areas, really making an impact in the cultural, civic, and physical landscape of Atlanta. For her far-reaching efforts to make a difference in Atlanta, Mary Rose Taylor exemplifies the spirit of a Lexus Leader of the Arts.