George Fayne

Georgia "George" Fayne is a character in the popular Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series. She is one of Nancy's best friends and cousin of Bess Marvin. Her birth name is Georgia, although no one calls her that except her parents. (This is a change made in the 1980s; one volume, The Clue in the Old Stagecoach in 1960, mentioned her real name as Georgia on the title page, but this was altered after the first few printings. In the original novels, her name was simply George, named for her grandfather, with, depending on the ghostwriter, a chain of either boys or girls ahead of her.) She is most frequently depicted with short brown hair and brown eyes. She is an athletic woman and is not easily scared when involved in Nancy's sleuthing. Her boyfriend is first a friend of Ned Nickerson's named Buck Rodman; she later dates Burt Eddleton. In the files series, she dates Jon. George and Bess were introduced in The Secret at Shadow Ranch. In the Nancy Drew Girl Detective Series, she has a little brother named Scott. In the original version of The Ringmaster's Secret, she has a nephew, indicating there are other siblings. A change in ghostwriters in 1933 resulted in George and her cousin Bess both being indicated as only children; their siblings, if there are any, are omitted from a will where their names are read. This can be explained in the text by assumption that they were the only children of their mothers known to their benefactor personally (The Sign of the Twisted Candles). With Nancy, George and Bess encountered an elderly man who was a distant relation and showed friendliness and compassion toward him. As such, they may have been named; it was an oddity in the series. In the original series, George is a somewhat forward girl, and often less than proper in her demeanor and mannerisms. This, combined with a propensity toward clumsiness or danger-prone behavior, results in the title of "George the Terrible" among adult collectors. She is clearly feminine, though, despite her dress and mannerisms—when criticizing Bess for shopping habits, she is reminded she purchased several dresses, stockings, and a hat herself, and she shows concern for keeping her new silver pumps free of scuffs from clumsy dancing partners in one story.