I know the character is from New York, but I take it that her family are Southern transplants. This is evident especially in the episode "Daddy's Girl". Her mannerisms remind me of girls my sister went to school with At Mary Baldwin College back in the early 1980s. I know Lisa Whelchel is from Texas, but they wanted her more New Yorker ish. Didn't anyone think she was a New York Southerner? BTW, she was HOT.

I think so, but you seem to know more than I do about this.

No, I think Blair and her family were native New Yorkers. Lisa Whelchel is from Texas, so her Southern accent kept slipping in.

Didn't Blair go to a lot of different private schools before she went to Eastland? Maybe she went to one in Texas and that accent just sort of stuck.

Didn't Blair go to a lot of different private schools before she went to Eastland? Maybe she went to one in Texas and that accent just sort of stuck.
If she did, I don't remember.

In the episode where Mrs Garrett may have to leave Eastland in season 3, Blair mentions sending Mrs Garrett to the family dude ranch

The character of Blair was originally supposed to have been a Texas transplant, but because of the way Lisa delivered her lines in the pilot on DS, they made the change to rich NY débutante.

In season 4, in fact in the episode "Take my finals, please"--Blair mentions to Jo that she had attended many private schools and would quickly ask to leave for somewhere else. She says to Jo, "come graduation, you're leaving school. I'll be leaving home".

I always thought the Warner's were born and breed Texans and they migrated to NY. In one episode Blair told Mrs. G she could stay in a farm house they had a in Texas.

No, I think Blair and her family were native New Yorkers. Lisa Whelchel is from Texas, so her Southern accent kept slipping in.
Perhaps, but her character (not accent, or lack thereof) seemed too proper and refined for New York. I dont consider Texas the South.

Perhaps, but her character (not accent, or lack thereof) seemed too proper and refined for New York. I dont consider Texas the South.


I am posting this just out of curiousity about what you said about not considering Texas part of the South. Preyer to the Civil War, they were a Slave State and they did fight on the side of the Confederacy. However, from before the Civil War all the way up to the present moment, they were also influinced by Western and Mexican culture.

I am posting this just out of curiousity about what you said about not considering Texas part of the South. Preyer to the Civil War, they were a Slave State and they did fight on the side of the Confederacy. However, from before the Civil War all the way up to the present moment, they were also influinced by Western and Mexican culture.

I guess to me as Virginian, Texas is out West, so I think of it as a Western state, as it doesnt seem 'Southern' to me- at least not the Southern Im used to. Most Texans I know do not consider themselves "Southern" with the possible exception of East Texas. Its a whole 'nother culture and country outside the South, with its own lingo, culture, and even dialect. Texas is Western. Would you consider El Paso the South? I dont think it is. Dallas, possibly- or Houston. But even those cities are more cowboys and oil men. But no city in Texas is traditionally Southern as in Richmond, Charleston, or Savannah.

I dont think being a slave state makes something 'Southern' as New York was a slave state too- and the War Between The States was not about slavery, but I dont have time to get into that. Off Subject. To me, Texas is not the South- if anything its the part of the Great Divide. I know some people tell me that Virginia is not really the South, and I will challenge them to the death on that, but Virginia shares the heritage and culture of Georgia and The Carolinas, whereas Texas, well Texas, is just well " a whole 'nother country".

I guess to me as Virginian, Texas is out West, so I think of it as a Western state, as it doesnt seem 'Southern' to me- at least not the Southern Im used to. Most Texans I know do not consider themselves "Southern" with the possible exception of East Texas. Its a whole 'nother culture and country outside the South, with its own lingo, culture, and even dialect. Texas is Western. Would you consider El Paso the South? I dont think it is. Dallas, possibly- or Houston. But even those cities are more cowboys and oil men. But no city in Texas is traditionally Southern as in Richmond, Charleston, or Savannah.

I dont think being a slave state makes something 'Southern' as New York was a slave state too- and the War Between The States was not about slavery, but I dont have time to get into that. Off Subject. To me, Texas is not the South- if anything its the part of the Great Divide. I know some people tell me that Virginia is not really the South, and I will challenge them to the death on that, but Virginia shares the heritage and culture of Georgia and The Carolinas, whereas Texas, well Texas, is just well " a whole 'nother country".


As far as the issue of whether the war was about slavery was what the Civil War was about, that is something that has been debated from the end of the war all the way to the present moment! I know that the war did not happen because Lincoln or the people who followed him considered black people their equal or because they wanted to live next door to a black person! However, the institution of slavery was one thing mixed in with import/export taxes and an industrial ecconomy verses and agracultural ecconomy. As far as New York having been a slave state, yes, at the very begining of our country's birth, there were a token amout of slaves all the way up into New England. However, quite a bit before the Civil War, the northern states realized that it was not condusive to their climate and that it was holding back industrialization. This is the main reason they outlawed it. Shortly before the war, the states that slavery was condusive to tended to side with the Confederacy and the states that it was not condusive to tended to side with the Union. However, there were, no doubt exceptions to all of these rules.