Margaret Mitchell helped French town after WWII

ATLANTA — When a tiny French town destroyed during World War II needed help rebuilding, "Gone With the Wind" author Margaret Mitchell came to the rescue.

Mitchell's efforts on behalf of Vimoutiers are little known, even to those who have studied her life and papers. Like other aspects of Mitchell's life, her penchant for charitable giving has been overshadowed by the best-selling book and subsequent film, said Hillary Hardwick, spokeswoman for the Margaret Mitchell House museum.

"I think people do not understand the extent to which she was involved in philanthropic efforts both in Atlanta and elsewhere," Hardwick said.

There is no mention of Mitchell's connection to Vimoutiers at the museum, said Hardwick, who said she hadn't heard the story until an Associated Press reporter called. There's a brief mention on a timeline of Mitchell's life on the museum's Web site: "Helped to rebuild French town of Vimoutiers after World War II."

The story of how Mitchell came to donate enough money to rebuild the town's hospital begins in mid-1944, when she got a letter from Denis Barois, a French Air Force pilot stationed in southwest Georgia. He wrote to tell her how her book had resonated with him.

"The description of Scarlett's escape from Atlanta reminded me of the roads I traveled as I left France," said Barois, now 86 and living in Mexico City.

It was 1942 when a 20-year-old Barois fled his occupied country, crossing the Pyrenees Mountains on foot, and headed to north Africa to answer Gen. Charles de Gaulle's call for resistance. In Morocco, he joined the French Air Force and was sent to the U.S. for pilot training.

In November 1944, Mitchell received Barois and a friend of his at her home when they came to Atlanta after completing advanced training.

"She was very small but very nice and very funny," Barois said in a recent interview in French.

Mitchell served Barois and his friend champagne and gave Barois a monogrammed handkerchief scented with her perfume and an inscribed copy of her book, two items he still treasures today.

When Barois returned to France after the war, he married a woman from Vimoutiers and discovered the devastation there. The town had been mistakenly bombed by Allied forces.

"The town was extremely destroyed," Barois said.

He and Mitchell remained friends after the war, often exchanging letters and trinkets by mail. Mitchell would send Barois and his wife things they couldn't get easily in France after the war, like toothpaste and color film, and he would send her perfume, lace and French magazines.