Lurline Collier
Born
Lizzie Lurline Collier

(1893-10-16)October 16, 1893
Jefferson, Georgia, U.S.
DiedJanuary 13, 1986(1986-01-13) (aged 92)
Commerce, Georgia, U.S.
Resting placeWoodbine–Jefferson City Cemetery
NationalityAmerican
Alma materState Normal School, 1913
UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, 1924
(BSHE, agriculture; cum laude)
Occupation(s)Teacher, deputy sheriff. home demonstration agent

Lizzie "Lurline" Collier (October 16, 1893 – January 13, 1986)[1] was an American home demonstration agent and teacher. In 2022, she was posthumously named a Georgia Woman of Achievement.[1]

Biography

Lizzie Lurline Collier was born on October 16, 1893, in Jefferson, Georgia to Benjamin Howard Collier and Frances Arnold Collier, the eighth of eleven children. Her father worked as a sheriff for the Jackson County Police Department.[2] Growing up she attended the Martin Institute, where at the age of 13 she passed the teachers licensing exam and taught a 3rd grade class at Center Union School during the summers.

Collier then studied teaching at the State Normal School in Athens and graduated in 1913. She worked for a year at a school in Troup County, then moved back to Jackson County to teach 8th grade.[2]

Collier worked as a home demonstration agent for Jackson County from 1917 to 1923,[3] traveling by train and wagon across rural Georgia; during the outbreak of the Spanish flu, she helped care for 27 families. Additionally, Collier was a delegate to the White House Conference on Children and Youth in 1919, and would go on to serve on its executive committee throughout her career. At one point she worked for her father as a deputy sheriff, the first woman to do so in Jackson County.[1][4]

After graduating cum laude from the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences in 1924, Collier's work as a home demonstration agent continued for decades. She was promoted to northwest district director, served as the first home demonstration agent for DeKalb County from 1924 to 1926,[2] was named clothing specialist for Georgia's home demonstration program in 1926, became an agent for the Georgia girls 4-H club in 1927, and in 1933 was promoted again to run the state's agricultural extension program.[5] In 1944, the Jackson Herald reported that as head of the extension program, Collier oversaw an agency of 116 people serving over 120,000 families across Georgia.[6] Collier retired in December 1953.

Collier was the chairman of the Georgia Nutritional Committee until her resignation in 1950.[7] In 1952, Collier was honored as "Woman of the Year in Service to Georgia Rural Progress" by Birmingham, Alabama-based magazine Progressive Farmer.[8]

Collier was involved in her local community in Jackson County as well. She helped found the Piedmont Regional Library, worked with the Jackson County Historical Society, and was active in the Jefferson United Methodist Church. Collier also ran her own farm,[8] and was the first woman who qualified to vote in Jackson County following the passage of the 19th Amendment.[1]

Collier died on January 13, 1986, at the age of 92 at Banks-Jackson-Commerce Hospital in Commerce, Georgia due to complications following a stroke.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Lizzie Lurline Collier". Georgia Women of Achievement. 2022. Retrieved 12 March 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 "Miss Collier, state and area leader, dies at 92". The Jackson Herald. January 15, 1986.
  3. ↑ Chirhart, Ann Short (February 28, 2005). Torches of Light: Georgia Teachers and the Coming of the Modern South. Athens: University of Georgia Press. p. 144. ISBN 9-780-8203-2669-6. OCLC 232005696.
  4. ↑ "Collier was the first woman to qualify to vote in Jackson County". Jackson Herald Today. August 18, 2020. Retrieved 12 March 2022.
  5. ↑ "United Georgia Farmers to Convene in Macon Tuesday". The Atlanta Constitution. January 7, 1940. Retrieved 12 March 2022.
  6. ↑ "Home Agents Aid Farm Women". The Jackson Herald. April 5, 1945. p. 6. Retrieved 12 March 2022.
  7. ↑ "About GNC". Georgia Nutritional Council. Retrieved 12 March 2022. In 1950, the resignation of Miss Lurline Collier as Chairman of the Georgia Nutrition Committee led to the formation of the Georgia Nutrition Council.
  8. 1 2 "Magazine Cites Rural Leaders". National 4-H News. 30 (3): 33. March 1952. Retrieved 12 March 2022.
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