1. Beulah George "Georgia" Tann was an American social worker and child trafficker who operated the Tennessee Children's Home Society, an unlicensed adoption agency in Memphis, Tennessee.
41 Facts About Georgia Tann
1. 2.
Georgia Tann died of cancer before the investigation made its findings public.
3.
Georgia Tann was born on July 18,1891, in Philadelphia, Mississippi, to Beulah Isabella and George Clark Georgia Tann.
4.
Georgia Tann was older than her brother, Rob Roy Tann, by three years.
5.
Georgia Tann had aspirations of his daughter becoming a concert pianist, and, beginning at the age of five, he put her in piano lessons that continued into adulthood.
6.
Nelli Kenyon with The Nashville Tennessean reported that Georgia Tann's childhood home in Hickory, Mississippi, was a popular neighborhood gathering spot.
7.
Georgia Tann attended Martha Washington College in Abingdon, Virginia, graduating with a degree in music in 1913, and took courses in social work at Columbia University in New York for two summers.
8.
Georgia Tann found employment at the Mississippi Children's Home Society as the Receiving Director at the Kate McWillie Powers Receiving Home for Children.
9.
Georgia Tann had recently given birth to a son out of wedlock and, around this time, appended Hollinsworth to her name, likely to give the impression that she had been widowed.
10.
In Memphis, Georgia Tann was hired as the Executive Secretary at the Shelby County branch of the Tennessee Children's Home Society.
11.
Georgia Tann eventually took over the organization, using what author Robert Blade called "aggressive" tactics.
12.
However, Georgia Tann arranged for out-of-state, private adoptions for which she charged a premium.
13.
Alma Walton and Regina Waggoner worked for Georgia Tann and made a trip every three weeks with four to six babies: Walton to California and Waggoner to New York.
14.
Georgia Tann failed to report the income to either the Society's board or the Internal Revenue Service.
15.
Notable personalities who used Georgia Tann's services included actress Joan Crawford.
16.
Georgia Tann said she preferred to receive the children early "before they developed thrush or some other infection" in the hospital.
17.
Georgia Tann was documented taking children born to unwed mothers at birth, claiming that the newborns required medical care.
18.
Georgia Tann destroyed records of the children who were processed through the Society and conducted minimal background checks on the adoptive homes.
19.
Georgia Tann's threats were fulfilled with the aid of Shelby County Family Court Judge Camille Kelley, who used her position of authority to sanction Georgia Tann's tactics and activities.
20.
Georgia Tann would identify children as being from homes that could not provide for their care, and Kelley would push the matter through her dockets.
21.
Georgia Tann enjoyed a lavish lifestyle and was widely respected in the community, counting among her friends prominent families, politicians, and legislators.
22.
Georgia Tann regularly ignored doctors' recommendations for sick children, denying them care or medicine, which often led to preventable deaths from illnesses such as diarrhea.
23.
Georgia Tann assigned Memphis attorney Robert Taylor to the case.
24.
Georgia Tann died of uterine cancer three days before the state filed charges against the society, thus escaping prosecution.
25.
Georgia Tann resigned shortly after the start of the investigation and died in 1955 without any charges having been brought against her.
26.
Georgia Tann bought the lot sometime before 1923 and recorded the children there by their first names.
27.
In 1922, Georgia Tann adopted an infant girl whom she named June.
28.
Georgia Tann adopted Ann Atwood Hollinsworth on August 2,1943, in Dyer County, Tennessee, a legal provision that same-sex couples used at the time to ensure that their partners would inherit their property.
29.
Georgia Tann died of uterine cancer on September 15,1950, aged 59, three days before Governor Gordon Browning of Tennessee filed charges against Georgia Tann's home.
30.
Georgia Tann was buried in her family's plot in Hickory Cemetery.
31.
Atwood Hollinsworth was the executor of her estate, and inherited the home she and Georgia Tann shared, which Georgia Tann had purchased in August 1949.
32.
Georgia Tann asked that the vacation home be accessible to Atwood for the rest of her life.
33.
Georgia Tann is featured as a villain in the historical fiction novel "Before We Were Yours," a NY Times Bestseller by Lisa Wingate, Copyright 2017 by Wingate Media, LLC, Ballantine Books, Penguin Random House, LLC,.
34.
Georgia Tann was the subject of aforementioned December 13,1989, episode of the crime show Unsolved Mysteries.
35.
Beales is played by Lea Thompson; Georgia Tann is played by Mary Tyler Moore, who won an Emmy for her performance.
36.
Georgia Tann was featured in an episode of Investigation Discovery's series Deadly Women titled "Above the Law", which aired on September 13,2013.
37.
Georgia Tann is the subject of Barbara Bisantz Raymond's 2007 nonfiction book The Baby Thief: The Untold Story of Georgia Tann, the Baby Seller Who Corrupted Adoption.
38.
Georgia Tann is featured in the 2017 novel about the scandal, Before We Were Yours, by Lisa Wingate.
39.
Georgia Tann is featured in the 2019 novel, The Pink Bonnet by Liz Tolsma.
40.
Georgia Tann is featured in an episode of Stuff You Should Know released on 25 April 2024 called "The Awful Crimes of Georgia Tann".
41.
Georgia Tann had taken her daughter Irma in the spring of 1946 under the pretense of providing medical care; a few days later Tann informed Sipple that her daughter had died of pneumonia and had already been buried.