Joseph M.A. "Joe" Ledlie

1943 - 2015

LEDLIE, Joseph M.A. Joseph M. A. Ledlie, affectionately known to his close admirers as Joe, Boss, and Dad, died on Christmas Day, the birthday of Jesus, whose work and philosophy he greatly admired. Born in Savannah, one of Mother Nature's most fortunate shores, on December 2, 1943, Joe's purpose in life was to see something, meet someone, to experience a thing, and then to tell the story, whatever the story was. During his childhood in Savannah, Joe was a student of Blessed Sacrament and Benedictine Military School, becoming a weekly newspaper columnist for the Free State by the age of 16. While attending Spring Hill College in Mobile, AL, Joe was a member and vice-chancellor for the Phi Omega fraternity and a student editor for the Springhillian, which became the smallest publication in the country to win the top collegiate award of Columbia University for general excellence. Joe completed his Masters degree and worked as a college instructor at Louisiana State University and taught English at Spring Hill. In 1971, he married Savannah native and St. Vincent's Academy and Armstrong State alum, Kathryn Walsh Rochefort. Following positions as a bureau chief in Statesboro and as city editor for the Savannah Morning News, Joe became an editor of the Atlanta Journal, and a correspondent for the Washington Post, the Detroit News, the Daily Mail of London, and Reuters. As a scriptwriter, he authored "The Sea," which was awarded an Emmy from the Atlanta Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, while his print journalism won prizes from the Associated Press and the Society of Professional Journalists. His departure from journalism occurred following a life-changing lunch involving numerous gin and tonics at the Commerce Club in Atlanta in the early 1980s. Joe was named the director of public relations for the Life Insurance Company of Georgia, and then joined the Atlanta office of Manning, Selvage & Lee, to become managing director in 1991. Like a good Southerner, Joe, two partners, and much of the workforce seceded from the New York-based company to start an Atlanta communications firm during the mid-1990s. In 1998, Joe started The Ledlie Group and became the only nationally honored newsman to head an Atlanta public relations firm. Joe was greatly influenced by the charitable work of family members, especially his aunt, Sister Mary Cornile Dulohery, a Sister of Mercy, who built two hospitals in Savannah and Atlanta and managed a leprosarium in Trinidad. Joe served his adopted city of Atlanta as marketing chairman for Zoo Atlanta, president of the Parish Council of Sacred Heart, and founder of Leadership Sandy Springs. During his career, he was a board member for Trees Atlanta, the Village of St. Joseph, and the Atlanta-Fulton County Library Foundation. He held roles with the Georgia Press Association, the Atlanta Press Club, and the Public Relations Society of America, in addition to national president of the Spring Hill College Alumni Association. Joe was a life member of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, and a member of Leadership Atlanta, the Commerce Club, the Aquinas Center of Emory University and the Atlanta Rotary Club, where he was a Paul Harris Fellow. Joe was also a member of the Hibernian Society of Savannah, an owner-member of the Public Relations Global Network, a trustee of the Catholic Foundation, a member of the Friends of Purification Church, and board member of the Flannery O'Connor-Andalusia Foundation. Joe joins a party of Savannahians and beloved family and friends in heaven, including his parents Gertrude Dulohery Ledlie and Samuel Ford Ledlie; his aunts, Margaret Dulohery Johnson, Sister Mary Cornile, and Sister Mary Immaculata; and his sister-in-law, Patricia Daly Ledlie. He is survived by his wife, Kathryn Rochefort Ledlie; his children, Caroline Seton Ledlie, Jane Ledlie Batcheller and husband, Gardner Brooks Batcheller, Kathryn Ford Ledlie and Christopher Jeremy Ledlie; his siblings, Eugene Ford Ledlie, Leonard Gerard "Roddy" Ledlie, and Margaret Mary Ledlie; his treasured grandson, William Daly Batcheller; numerous cousins, nieces and nephews; and many friends, including Jerold Pace and Edward Overbey. Joe was a guiding mentor, good friend, cheerful giver, and gifted storyteller. He could eat the hell out of some boiled peanuts and fried chicken and embraced competent composers, great works of literature and well-made clothing and cars. He loved his God and country, which included writing letters of condolence to the families of fallen service members, and was a staunch Republican, with the surprising exceptions of voting for Michelle Nunn and against Richard Nixon. He raised strong and smart daughters, who are funny and beautiful, and had a number of dogs, some that were good. During his life, Joe lived with integrity, truth and character, and will be remembered as an honorable Irish-Catholic father and husband, and, most truly, as a southern gentleman. A funeral mass will be held at 10am on Friday, January 8, 2016 at the Cathedral of Christ the King on Peachtree Road in Atlanta, GA. In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made to the Cathedral of Christ the King School, Spring Hill College, the Flannery O'Connor-Andalusia Foundation, Friends of Purification Church, Little Sisters of the Poor, or the Youth Villages-Inner Harbour Campus.