Outcomes
The Georgia Tann/Tennessee Children's Home Society scandal resulted in adoption reform laws in Tennessee in 1951. Adults who come forward with evidence that Tann handled the adoption have open access to records that may have involved their adoptions.
The Tennessee Children's Home Society was closed in the 1950s, and is not to be confused with the Tennessee Children's Home, which is accredited by the state of Tennessee. The Tennessee Children's Home has no legacy connection with Georgia Tann or the Society she operated.
In 1991, 60 Minutes reported on the scandal, and the efforts of both adoptees to find their birth parents and birth parents seeking their now grown children. The report also reinvigorated the efforts to open adoption records by both birth mothers and adoptees.
Well-known personalities who used Tann's services include actress Joan Crawford (twin daughters Cathy and Cynthia were adopted through the agency). June Allyson and husband Dick Powell also used the Memphis-based home for adopting a child. Professional wrestler Ric Flair's autobiography reported that he was a victim of the Society, having been illegally removed from his birth mother (the opening chapter was titled "Black Market Baby"). Auto racer Gene Tapia also had a son stolen by the agency.
The scandal was also the subject of two made for television films:
- Missing Children (1981)
- Stolen Babies (1993)
Read more about this topic: Tennessee Children's Home Society