Juliette Gordon Low, founder of Girl Scouts of the USA, was born on October 31, 1860, in Savannah, Georgia. "Daisy," as she was affectionately called by family and friends, was the second of six children of William Washington Gordon II and Eleanor Kinzie Gordon. Family members on her father's side were early settlers in New Jersey and moved to Georgia after the Revolutionary War, and her mother's family played an important role in the founding of Chicago, Illinois. A sensitive and talented youngster, Daisy Gordon spent a happy childhood in her large Savannah home, which was purchased and restored by Girl Scouts of the USA in 1953. Now known as the Juliette Gordon Low Girl Scout National Center, or often referred to as the Birthplace, the handsome English Regency house was designated a registered National Historic Landmark in 1965, the first in Savannah.
Young Daisy Gordon developed what was to become a lifetime interest in the arts. She wrote poems; sketched, wrote and acted in plays; and later became a skilled painter and sculptor. She had many pets throughout her life and was particularly fond of exotic birds, Georgia mockingbirds and dogs. Daisy was also known for her great sense of humor.
In her teens, Daisy attended boarding school at Virginia Female Institute (now Stuart Hall School) in Staunton, Va. and other schools in Virginia and New Jersey. She later attended Mlles. Charbonniers, a French finishing school in New York City. Following her school years, Juliette Gordon traveled extensively in the United States and Europe.
