September 21, 1944

Actress, comedian and author Fannie Flagg was born in Birmingham. Flagg is best known for writing the best-selling novel “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Café” and its film adaptation, which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1991. The author of 10 novels, Flagg’s works often focus on small-town life with strong female figures who question gender and racial norms. In addition to writing, Flagg appeared on television regularly from 1967 to 1982, appeared in several films, performed on Broadway and recorded four comedy albums. She was inducted into the Alabama Stage and Screen Hall of Fame and the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

First edition cover of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flag. (Wikipedia)

Irondale Cafe in Irondale, AL, 2012. The restaurant was the inspiration for the Whistlestop Cafe in the book Fried Green Tomatoes (and the film of the same name). (Rivers Langley; SaveRivers, Wikipedia)

Fannie Flagg, 1972. (Baltimore Sun, CBS Network, Wikipedia)

I Still Dream About You, by Birmingham native Fannie Flagg, was published in 2010. The comedic novel tells the story of former Miss Alabama real estate Maggie Fortenberry and features many of the aspects of Birmingham social life that Flagg experienced in her youth. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.