Joanne (Lott) Bishop

Joanne Lott Bishop of Tucker, Georgia, passed away peacefully in her sleep on January 4, 2020 while under Hospice Care at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. Mrs. Bishop was born in Augusta, Georgia on November 11, 1932. She was the daughter of Daniel Joel Lott and Levy Magdalene (Maggie) Pafford Lott.

Mrs. Bishop is survived by her husband of 63 years, Joe Richard Bishop of Tucker, a son, Richard Daniel Bishop of Warner Robins, a daughter, Joye (Tim) Bishop Cauthen of Tucker, and grandsons, Joseph and Jacob Cauthen, both of Atlanta.

Mrs. Bishop grew up in Waycross, Georgia and attended Quarterman Elementary School and Waycross High School. She attended Mercer University in Macon, Georgia and earned a Bachelor of Education from The University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia in 1954. She also earned a Master in Education in 1976 and an Education Specialist Degree in 1985 from Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Georgia. Her enthusiasm for learning continued, as a senior citizen Mrs. Bishop took classes for more than fifteen years at Georgia Perimeter College in Clarkston in Creative Writing, Music and Film Appreciation, Astronomy, Chemistry, Environmental Science, and art classes in Drawing, Water Color Painting, Mixed Media, and Ceramics. An art teacher submitted her work to a contest where it received first place and was chosen to be on the cover of The Polishing Cloth, the college literary magazine.

After a year of teaching high school in Watkinsville, Georgia, she worked as a welfare caseworker in Atlanta placing children in adoptive homes. While in Watkinsville she met the love of her life, Mr. Joe Richard Bishop. The couple married, lived in Tennil, Georgia, and later settled in Sylvester, Georgia where Mrs. Bishop taught bookkeeping, typing, and shorthand at Worth County High School. She was appointed to serve as one of the first hospital homebound teachers in the State of Georgia. This new statewide program brought individual instruction to students in grades one through twelve. She served as a school librarian for Worth County High School until 1992 and retired from T.J. Reddick Middle School in Tift County in 1993. The Bishops moved to Tucker, Georgia to be near their daughter, son in law, and grandchildren.

Mrs. Bishop had a variety of interests and delighted in new accomplishments. In her seventies she began violin lessons, started a poetry guild, joined the Georgia Poetry Society, and began displaying her artwork. She was invited by Emory University’s Marble Library staff to organize an extensive special collection on her aunt, Caroline Miller, author of Georgia’s first Pulitzer prize winner for fiction. Mrs. Bishop donated her own collection (believed to be the largest personal collection in existence) to the Marble Library (formally known as the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library) for historical reference and research.

Known in academic and literary circles as an authority on Miller and her award winning novel, Lamb in His Bosom, Mrs. Bishop collaborated with the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, the Georgia Women of Achievement, the Georgia Historical Society, and the New Georgia Encyclopedia to preserve the renowned writer’s memory and achievement. The Georgia State Senate issued a Resolution from the Senate floor on March 7, 2011 during the General Assembly honoring the life and work of Miller, the impact this author had upon the literary landscape of this nation, and the cultural and historic significance of Lamb in is Bosom. Mrs. Bishop authored Caroline Miller: A Portrait which is hosted on the Peanut.org website.

Mrs. Bishop was a lifelong member of the Methodist Church. She was an active member of Tucker First United Methodist. She sang with the New Horizons choir for several years and attended the Lockhart Seekers Sunday School Class and the Wesley Fellowship Class.

A Memorial Service will be held at Tucker First United Methodist Church on 5095 LaVista Road at 11:00AM on Saturday, January 11, 2020. Visitation with the family will be at the church from 10:00AM-11:00AM.

Interment will take place at a later date at Lott Cemetery in Waycross, Georgia.