The late Georgia Speaker of the House David Ralston was laid to rest over the past weekend. Ralston, a Republican from Blue Ridge, was eulogized by former governors and legislators, and was notably remembered for his friendships across party lines.
– Speaker Ralston with former Rep. Reece and former Commissioner Jason Winters
Former State Representative Barbara Massey Reece, a Democrat from Menlo, considered Speaker Ralston a friend. Reece told WZQZ News in 2010 that she was pleased when the Georgia House first elected Ralston as speaker. Reece said that Ralston looked out for the interests of North Georgia and even came to his defense while serving the legislature. In 2011, former Rep. Reece said, “Speaker Ralston is a very fine man and I have high respect for him”.
That sentiment was echoed this past weekend by current State Rep. Mack Jackson, a Sandersville Democrat, who remembered how Ralston promised to visit the church Jackson pastors in tiny Tennille, in eastern Georgia. Jackson said he was surprised to arrive at church one Sunday to find two state trooper cars in the parking lot and Ralston standing in the foyer. “I said, ‘Why, Mr. Speaker? Why did you come to see me?’ And he said these words. He said, ‘Because you are my friend.’ And those words resonated in my heart,” Jackson said, adding that Ralston had little reason to spend so much time on a Democrat who wasn’t even a leader of the minority party.
Ralston was buried Sunday after the funeral in a private ceremony in nearby Ellijay, where he grew up the son of the Gilmer County court clerk. Ralston moved to Blue Ridge after graduating from law school at the University of Georgia.
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