A collection of memorabilia is on the walls and shelves of my office. Among the items is a yellow-faded campaign poster of Roscoe Emory Dean Jr., from when he ran for governor in 1980. The former state senator lost, but the issues listed on his poster were prophetic.
Stick with me.
Back in the 1970s, I asked, “Senator, how’s your campaign going?”
Plucking a cigar from his lips, Roscoe said, “It’s going to be a long, hot summer.” That was 50 years ago, and that’s exactly what we’re facing in Georgia today.
I have no clue who is going to win what race. But Roscoe’s failed-bid-for-governor poster targets two issues: high taxes and high electric rates. Sound familiar?
In the 1940s, when most Jesup boys were chasing balls, Roscoe was batting around grandiose political dreams. In high school, he helped Homerville’s Iris Blitch win a seat in Congress. At the University of Georgia, he gave Christmas trees to every sorority house, hoping the young ladies would remember his name.
And while at UGA, he befriended a student leader and gifted debater from Enigma. Both Roscoe and Bobby Rowan—still in their 20s—would become Georgia state senators. And at different times, each ran for governor and lost.
Bobby was later elected to the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC), and he did a splendid job advocating for his constituents. I loved my visits with Bobby. All were deep dives into Roscoe Dean history, often humorous.
Bobby urged me to write a Roscoe book, but I’ve never gotten around to it. Oglethorpe County veterinarian Dr. Ed Rowan’s dad died in 2021. I missed a good chance. Bobby was a walking encyclopedia about Roscoe’s deeds and misdeeds.
In one of our conversations, Bobby and I agreed on this. Roscoe was a nemesis of Georgia Power. Roscoe should have run for the PSC. The cigar-smoking populist would have been an Altamaha River “snapping turtle.” Roscoe wouldn’t have turned loose of the utility until it thundered.
But Roscoe’s ambition (and his mother’s) was to be governor. And in the process, he did two unfortunate and very sad things. He burned through his family’s fortune, and he wound up in federal prison.
Roscoe was convicted of conspiring to import drugs to finance his 1980 gubernatorial campaign. And until his death, he told me, over and over, “There were never any drugs involved.”
Some believe Roscoe’s enemies entrapped him. Maybe. Regardless, Roscoe got hopelessly tangled in his web of ambitions and ruined his life. Even worse, he brought disgrace and misfortune to his family.
Roscoe Sr. was a humble man and a onetime real estate baron whose holdings included extensive timberlands and rental properties. Before he died, attorney Joe Thomas told me a story that defined the senator’s father. C.L. McCarthy, Joe’s father-in-law, owned as much as 20,000 acres in Camden County.
Roscoe Sr. heard that his fellow timberman was in a financial tight. So, he gathered $25,000 cash in a Winn-Dixie grocery sack and presented it to his friend. Roscoe Sr. apologized, “This is all I could raise.” McCarthy, surprised, handed it back and said, “I don’t know where you heard that, Roscoe, but I’m OK. Thank you.”
In his final years, Roscoe Sr. borrowed money to pay his Georgia Power bill. Once in my office to repay a loan, he shook his head and said of his wife, “I believe Lilly would cut off her right arm for Roscie.” And she all but did.
In 2016 their son died in the Baxley hospital. But his last address was in Jesup public housing.
As I look at that faded poster, I think about what could have been. Bobby Rowan was right. Roscoe’s “calling” was on the PSC. He would have—using his favorite phrase—blasted much of what’s going on with today’s power bills as “a sham and a farce.”
But misguided illusions of grandeur took Roscoe down the wrong path.
And into infamy.
What a tragedy.
dnesmith@cninewspapers.com
