Adelaide Ponder served as editor of Morgan County’s The Madisonian for forty years, leaving a lasting mark on Georgia journalism. From 1957 to 1996, her leadership shaped the state’s editorial sphere as she overcame gender barriers and modeled excellence. Her contributions inspired colleagues and elevated standards within the profession.

 

Born Adelaide Wallace in Madison in 1925, Ponder’s love of journalism began early. She was editor-in-chief of her high school and college newspapers, graduating from Wesleyan with honors in 1946. After a brief stint at The Madisonian and several months as a copywriter in Atlanta, Adelaide returned to Madison to marry fellow Madison High graduate Graham Ponder in 1948.

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While raising her four children, Adelaide stepped away from journalism. Then, in 1957, she heard The Madisonian was for sale. Adelaide convinced her husband that they should buy it. Circulation of The Madisonian was just 1,500 and finances were tight. Locals doubted the new owners, but Adelaide proved unstoppable—writing, editing, composing, and laying out the paper. Years later, Adelaide recalled, “Everybody predicted we’d last about a year, but we managed to hang on… It was hard for the public to accept a woman editor [but] I was around all the time, and they finally accepted me.” Two years into the Ponders’ ownership, The Madisonian was running smoothly with the proud slogan, “The Best County Newspaper in Georgia.”

 

Editorial control of The Madisonian rested firmly with Adelaide, while Graham oversaw business operations as publisher. Together they modernized The Madisonian, moving production from a flatbed press to offset printing and relocating to a renovated historic building. Adelaide trained a talented staff, some of whom went on to edit other newspapers. Awards followed, most notably from the Georgia Press Association (GPA). In 1975, The Madisonian set a GPA record, earning nine awards and one honorable mention. The Athens Observer declared that Ponders’ newspaper “maintained a standard of excellence that is unique in the state for weekly newspapers.”

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Adelaide Ponder’s growing influence in Georgia journalism was reflected in broad professional respect. Ponder served on panels for Theta Sigma Phi, the professional society for women in journalism. She was one of the first women on the Henry W. Grady School of Journalism’s Advisory Board at the University of Georgia, where also she taught as an adjunct instructor. Although she gravitated toward supportive roles outside her editorial work, she chaired the Georgia Press Institute and the Georgia Press’s “Cracker Crumble.”

 

In civic life, Ponders served on Governor Jimmy Carter’s Commission on the Status of Women, and the Georgia Commission on Abused Children. She was involved in education through the Board of Trustees for Wesleyan College and the Board of Visitors for the University of Georgia. Governor Carter also appointed her to the Georgia Heritage Trust Board, and she later became a member of the Board of Managers of the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation.

 

A supporter of the arts, Ponder was instrumental in founding the Madison-Morgan Cultural Center (MMCC), housed in a historic school building on Madison’s Main Street. With her friend Christine Lambert, Ponder co-chaired fundraising efforts and helped secure foundational grants. After MMCC became a regional center for history, arts, and events, other towns sought to emulate the Center, and Adelaide Ponder and Christine Lambert traveled the state, offering guidance. “Chris and I became a road-show act for a while,” she later recalled. Ponder served as vice-chair of MMCC’s board and remained active for decades—yet, true to form, declined the chairmanship.

 

Working to preserve and revitalize downtown Madison, Adelaide was a fundraising spark-plug. Efforts that she championed, such as the construction of Madison’s Town Park, have inspired other towns in their development of historic tourism. She was also a founding board member of the Madison-Morgan Conservancy, helped organize two garden clubs, and served on the Madison-Morgan Chamber of Commerce, the Madison Downtown Development Authority, and the Morgan County Bi-Racial Commission.

 

When the Ponders acquired The Madisonian in 1957, it was three years after Brown v. Board of Education. Editorially, the newspaper took what Adelaide later described as “a very moderate stand.” Although The Madisonian did not take an explicit position, it strongly advocated adherence to the law and continued operation of public schools, which led some community members to describe their editor as too liberal. Retrospective tributes have credited The Madisonian’s evenhanded approach with helping integration to go more smoothly in Morgan County than it did in many other Georgia counties—especially those, like Morgan, which had a majority black school-age population.

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In recognition of her accomplishments, Adelaide Ponder received numerous honors, including the Governor’s Award in the Humanities during Governor Zell Miller’s administration. When the Madison-Morgan Cultural Center received the Governor’s Award in the Arts in 1978, many credited Adelaide Ponder’s leadership. Wesleyan College granted her the Distinguished Alumnae Award.

 

Her highest journalism honor came in 1994, when the National Newspaper Association (NNA) awarded her the Emma C. McKinney Memorial Award for outstanding service to community journalism. The NNA Foundation chair said Ponder was “one of the finest community journalists I know.” He added, “She makes a difference for the good in everything in which she is involved.”

 

In 1996, the Ponders sold The Madisonian. In her farewell column, Adelaide reflected: “I have believed through these years that a newspaper can make a difference in how a community perceives itself and the direction it takes, that the paper can be a positive influence… I always felt fortunate that I had the opportunity to make a small difference by pursuing a profession that I have truly loved.” Those who knew Ponder would contend the difference she made was much more than “small.”

 

Adelaide and Graham remained leaders in Madison for another decade before moving to St. Simons Island, where they had long enjoyed Georgia’s coast. Graham passed away in 2013; Adelaide followed in 2015 at age 90. As Georgia novelist Philip Lee Williams, who worked under her early in his career, said, “What a magnificent life she led.”