Julie Murphy from Brooks County attended a fashion show sponsored by this group at the Beltwide Cotton Conference and became interested in organizing a Cotton Women’s group in Georgia. She solicited the help of Bardee Underwood of the National Cotton Council and at a meeting in Quitman in the fall of 1989, Georgia Cotton Wives was born. A year or so later the name was changed to Georgia Cotton Women to be more closely aligned with the national group. The group was later incorporated by the State of Georgia as a non-profit group.

This group of volunteers has spread the “Cotton” word throughout the state by organizing and presenting fashion shows, setting up exhibits at Young Farmers’ conventions, Farm Bureau conventions, state fairs, festivals, and the Sunbelt Agricultural Expo. We have done mall promotions, presented programs to school children, distributed teaching kits to schools and extension groups across the state, worked at apparel markets, and spoken at civic groups. We have appeared on radio, television and newspapers. We have produced our own television commercial.

The work of Georgia Cotton women is financed with funds from the Georgia Cotton Commission which conducts programs of research, promotion, and education for Georgia’s cotton producers.

While the group encourages working to preserve agriculture in general and promotes a sense of camaraderie among its members, the main mission of the group is to promote cotton encouraging consumers to buy cotton products.