"I am grateful for a life well-lived" reads a Burnella "Bunnie" Jackson-Ransom social media 2020 birthday post. She was Atlanta's first Black First Lady, the ex-wife of the city's first Black mayor Maynard Jackson.
Expressions of sympathy poured in upon the announcement of Jackson-Ransom's death last week. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said "The City of Atlanta is sending prayers of comfort and peace to the family of Bunnie Jackson-Ransom. The former wife of Mayor Maynard Jackson was an incredible force of her own," Councilman Michael Julian Bond said in a statement "She was a trailblazer in whatever venture in which she pursued. Intellectual, gracious, and everlastingly beautiful."
When she and the mayor divorced in 1976, the former First Lady became the founder and CEO of one of the city's first agencies owned by an African-American woman. First Class, Inc. Public Relations served numerous clients including the King Center, Burger King, and musical artists, CAMEO, Larry Blackmon, and SOS Band among them.
A former President of the Atlanta Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Jackson-Ransom was remembered during a service at Murray Brothers Funeral Home on Sunday. She was a member of the international organization for nearly 64 years.
Jackson-Ransom's son Maynard III telling this reporter "She's no longer in pain and I know that she is in a better place."
A private funeral service was held Monday at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta for the trailblazer who died on February 2. Jackson-Ransom was 82.