Chapter 1<br > Atlanta， Autumn 1960<br > IT was early September， toward the end of the social<br >~ season. The dogwood leaves were beginning to turn from<br > green to bronze， altering the contrast with the trees red<br >， berries， swaying like tiny Christmas tree ornaments in the<br >~mild breezes that mercifully ended the long， hot summer.<br > Crowds of festively dressed partygoers milled about under<br > the rough old stone porte cochere of the Piedmont Driving<br > Club， some a bit raucous under the influence of the cham-<br > pagne punch， bourbon highballs， and juleps that had been<br > served at Atlanta s annual debutante baH.<br > For a young lady of prominence， the only debut that<br > counted was the Driving Club s， although in recent years<br > the relatively new Phoenix Club had attempted to assuage<br > the feelings of those devastated young women who were<br > not among the eighty selected to make their debuts at the<br > DHving Club under the aegis of the Debutante Club. Still，<br > everybody who was anybody in Atlanta attended the Driv-<br > ing Club s debutante ball--Mayor Hartsfield， Miles B. Lane，<br > Tr.， of the Citizens and Southern Bank; Robert Woodruff，<br > the recently retired but still powerful head of the Coca-<br > Cola clan; Anne Cox Chambers， of the newspaper Coxes，<br > and Ivan Allen， head of the Chamber of Commerce.<br > In addition to the local establishment， guests included<br > 1<br >~:~ ~:::<br ><br >