Donnel Earl Carter, a native of Plains, Georgia and first cousin of former President Jimmy Carter, attended the University of Georgia and became editor of the Red & Black before graduating from Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication in 1940. He became the farm editor for the Atlanta Journal soon after graduating. He was drafted and served in World War II in the China Burma India Theater from 1941-1945. After the war, Don had a career as a newspaperman, working again at the Atlanta Journal, helping the Wall Street Journal implement the Newspaper Fund, and serving as the founding managing editor of the National Observer until 1967. He then left DC to serve as executive editor for The Record in New Jersey until 1971. Don Carter then worked at Knight-Ridder Newspapers, Inc. as vice president until 1982, and then as a consultant until his full retirement in 1990.
Carolyn Mackenzie Carter, a native of Moultrie, Georgia, was the first full-time female photographer to work for the Atlanta Constitution and the first woman named a Master Photographer by the Professional Photographers Association of America. She graduated from the University of Georgia’s Grady College in 1940 and was hired by editor Ralph McGill to work for the paper soon thereafter. During her time with the Constitution she met Don Carter, a reporter for the rival Atlanta Journal, while they were both working on the same story, and they married in 1942. She later worked on the Atlanta Journal Sunday Magazine. After her newspaper work, Carter wrote and edited specialized publications at the Coca-Cola Company. In 1959 she and Don moved to New York where she worked as a freelance writer and photographer for the Georgia Department of Industry, Trade and Travel. In 1986, the department created the previous Carolyn Carter Award in her name to honor travel photographers who exhibit a commitment to tourism, a major Georgia industry. She was honored with the Georgia Women of Achievement Award in 2017.
Related materials in other repositories: Don and Carolyn Carter papers, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
