Lula Dobbs McEachern

Lula Dobbs McEachern
Photograph of a woman wearing a necklace and eyeglasses.
Born
Lula Cordelia Dobbs

(1874-05-16)May 16, 1874
Cherokee County, Georgia
United States
DiedApril 24, 1949(1949-04-24) (aged 74)
Powder Springs, Georgia
Resting placeMcEachern Cemetery
Marietta, Georgia
United States
NationalityAmerican
Alma materYoung Harris College
OccupationTeacher
SpouseJohn Newton McEachern

Lula Dobbs McEachern (May 16, 1874 – April 24, 1949) was an American teacher and religious leader.

Biography

Lula Cordelia Dobbs was born in Cherokee County on May 16, 1874 to farmers Rason and Vesta (née DuPree) Dobbs.[1][2][3] As a child, McEachern was a member of the McBeth Literary Society, and she attended Young Harris College.[4]

McEachern was a teacher in the Oregon area of Cobb County in her early 20s.[4] She married fellow Cobb County native and Confederate veteran John Newton McEachern, a future Atlanta alderman, on September 30, 1896.[1][5][6][7] They lived in the West End and had three children: Elizabeth Florine (Jul. 22, 1897), John Newton Jr. (Feb. 20, 1899), and Lula Christine (Jan. 30, 1901).

She was the president of the Atlanta Women's Club in 1916 and 1917.[4] During this time she advocated for "a housing law that will insure every citizen the chance to live in a place of physical and moral safety."[4]

McEachern and her husband both attended Ebenezer Methodist-Episcopal Church, South.[5] She served as the president of Ebenezer's missionary society and later was elected to the board of the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church's Women's Missionary Society, where she established a summer camp for children. McEachern was the first woman to be vice-president of the International Council of Religious Education.[8]

After John McEachern died on December 6, 1928, the church decided to construct a new building in his honor — the John N. McEachern Memorial Methodist Church, which was dedicated on June 5, 1932.

McEachern also became the chairman of the board of the Life Insurance Company of Georgia, from second vice-president since 1924, after John McEachern's death.[9][10] She served in the role until 1948 with a hiatus in 1933.[8] Within the company, she was known as "Miss Lula".[4]

She also served on an advisory committee for the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, and was a member of the board of trustees of the UMC-affiliated Clark University. From 1926 to 1930, McEachern was a member of the Commission on Interracial Cooperation.[11][4] During World War II, she worked with the American Red Cross. In 1936, she was named president of the National Council of Federated Church Women; that summer she visited religious leaders across seven countries.[4] McEachern was head of the Atlanta Community Chest's women's division in 1938.[12] She was also a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.[13]

McEachern died on April 24, 1949 aged 74.[14][15] She established in her will the McEachern Trust Fund at McEachern Memorial, giving the church $4,000 per year.[2] Another plot of land she donated became McEachern High School.[16]

In 2002, McEachern was inducted into the Georgia Women of Achievement.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b "McEachern, John N.". Georgia: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (PDF). Atlanta: State Historical Association. 1906. p. 667.
  2. ^ a b "About McEachern". McEachern Memorial. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  3. ^ Lineage Book of the Charter Members of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Vol. 98-99. Daughters of the American Revolution. 1928.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Coleman, Kenneth; Gurr, Charles Stephen, eds. (1983). Dictionary of Georgia Biography. Athens: University of Georgia Press. p. 660. ISBN 0820306622.
  5. ^ a b McElreath, Walter (December 1957). "McEachern Memorial Methodist Church". The Georgia Historical Quarterly. 41 (4): 365–382.
  6. ^ Rickenbaker, Hugh K. (1991). Generations: The Centennial History of Life Insurance Company of Georgia, 1891-1991. The University of California.
  7. ^ "Society". The Atlanta Constitution. October 4, 1896. p. 4.
  8. ^ a b Greenfield, Sidney M.; Strickon, Arnold; Aubey, Robert T., eds. (1979). "Life Insurance Company of Georgia, 1891-1950". Entrepreneurs in Cultural Context. University of New Mexico Press. pp. 99–100.
  9. ^ Sears, Kyle (January 24, 2019). "Mercer to Celebrate Grand Opening of McEachern Art Center in Downtown Macon". Mercer University.
  10. ^ Bowden, Yvette (September 14, 2013). "Life Insurance Company of Georgia". New Georgia Encyclopedia.
  11. ^ "Southern Women and Race Coöperation. A Story of the Memphis Conference, October Sixth and Seventh, Nineteen Hundred and Twenty". University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 1921.
  12. ^ a b "Lula Dobbs McEachern". Georgia Women of Achievement. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  13. ^ "Atlanta Chapter, U.D.C.". The Atlanta Constitution. No. 224. January 25, 1918. p. 6.
  14. ^ "Mrs. J. N. McEachern". The Spectator: 38. June 1949.
  15. ^ Martin, Harold H. (1987). Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events: Years of Change and Challenge, 1940-1976. Athens: University of Georgia Press. ISBN 0820309133.
  16. ^ Paden, Rebecca Nash; McTyre, Joe (2005). Images of America: Cobb County. Arcadia. ISBN 9780738541648.