Cecelia Seiler, 'mom of Uga,' dies in Savannah

Cecelia Seiler, the University of Georgia graduate whose love for a little white bulldog pup more than half a century ago gave birth to a dynasty of UGA mascots, died Thursday afternoon at the Oaks at the Marshes of Skidaway after a lengthy illness.

She was 80.

Although her love for family and her contributions to her community were evident to everyone who knew her personally, she is most widely known as the young bride who turned a wedding present into a legend, lovingly caring for perhaps the most famous college mascot in the country for more than 50 years.

She and her husband, well-known Savannah attorney Sonny Seiler, received the first white bulldog puppy as a wedding gift in 1956 when they were still students at the University of Georgia.

For Cecelia, it was love at first sight.

"I was in law school at the time," Sonny recalled in an interview several years ago. "We were your typical starving newlyweds. We didn't have enough money to feed ourselves, let alone a bulldog pup."

But his bride was adamant. The Seilers took in the 4-month-old puppy that would become Uga I, and a dynasty was born.

Uga I graced the sidelines of the university's first home football game that fall and the Seilers have been the voluntary keepers and caregivers of nine generations of the legendary mascots ever since, a task that continues to bring the family immense pride and joy.

While Sonny escorted Uga and his predecessors to games and other university events, it was Cecelia who provided most of their day-to-day care at home.

"What most people don't realize," Sonny said in the same interview, "is that, to us, Uga was never an icon, he was a family pet."

That didn't stop Cecelia Seiler from being fiercely proud of each mascot and what he stood for.

It was reported in the book "Damn Good Dogs! - The Real Story of Uga," that when Uga V was about to portray his father, Uga IV, in the film version of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," director Clint Eastwood playfully informed the pup, "Uga, I'm going to make you a celebrity."

"Excuse me, Mr. Eastwood," Cecelia said politely, "but Uga is already a celebrity."

Cecelia Seiler is survived by her husband, four children and seven grandchildren.

Visitation will be Monday morning at the Savannah Golf Club, with the funeral at 11 a.m, at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Ascension on Wright Square. Burial will be in the Greenwich section of Bonaventure Cemetary.

Fox and Weeks Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.