Lina Clare Isanhour

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, while her parents were briefly transferred there, she was the daughter of Ernest Clyde Isanhour, Sr., and Agnes Allsop Isanhour, and the sister of Ernest Clyde Isanhour, Jr., all of whom preceded her in death.

After the family returned to Peachtree Road in Atlanta, Georgia, she became a four-year-old regular on Marcus Bartlett’s children’s program on WSB radio, when radio was in its infancy. On the 1932 series of programs, she recited poems which she had learned under the instruction of her expression teacher, Mrs. Wellborn Ellis. Her radio “career” ended when she started kindergarten.

Ms. Isanhour attended Druid Hills Methodist Church as a child, and joined the Methodist Church in 1940 at Peachtree Road Methodist, the “little white church in the heart of Buckhead.” She was a devoted member of Smyrna First United Methodist Church in her adult life.

Known as Lina Clare to her family and Clare to her friends (after she got tired of people calling her “Leena”—“Pronounce it like the end of Carolina” she said), Ms. Isanhour attended several Atlanta and Fulton County schools—Samuel M. Inman, Morningside, and North Fulton—and in 1946 was graduated from the Napsonian School, which later became Westminster. She earned her BA degree from Oglethorpe University and both her Political Science MA and her EdS degrees from the University of Georgia. While at Oglethorpe, she was president of the Honor Society and was named in Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges. At UGA, she was a member of Pi Sigma Alpha, a national political science honor society, and a member of the Georgia Alpha Chapter of Pi Beta Phi sorority.

Her 32-year teaching career included eight years in elementary education at John Carey and Rock Springs Elementary schools and 24 years in high school social studies at Joseph E. Brown High School, where she served for several years as Chairman of the Social Science Department, sponsored the Beta Club, escorted students on the annual Close-Up trip to Washington, D.C., and mentored students’ Social Science Fair projects. She was named STAR teacher at Brown in 1972, an honor she especially appreciated because it is student-chosen. After retiring from the Atlanta Public Schools, Ms. Isanhour worked as Administrative Assistant and Community Relations Coordinator at The Lovett School for several years.

For five years, Ms. Isanhour was Legislative Chairman for the Atlanta Teacher’s Association, as it was then named. Her major contribution was her work with others toward making it possible, through education, activism, and direct lobbying, for Atlanta teachers to join the State Teachers’ Retirement System. In later years she continued a mail campaign to try to resolve the inequities created for those who were unable to afford the change to the state system.

Ms. Isanhour was also active in volunteer work at the Smyrna Public Library, where for several years, she was editor of The Link, the quarterly newsletter of the Friends of the Smyrna Library. A certified genealogist, she taught a course in genealogy at the Smyrna Library, donating the class fee to the library, and was instrumental in the library's accumulating a large genealogy reference section. In recognition of her contributions the Friends of the Smyrna Library recommended to the Smyrna City Council that they name the genealogy reference room for her; the Mayor of the City of Smyrna issued a proclamation so naming the department, and a bronze plaque was placed there, designating it the "Clare Isanhour Room." The Smyrna City Council later issued a second proclamation commending her general good works toward the library and the city of Smyrna, particularly her assistance in finding some of the descendants of those who had lived in Smyrna’s Taylor-Brawner house, as it was being renovated.. A tree was planted there in her name.

Ms. Isanhour wrote, compiled, or assisted in research for numerous books on family history and local history in metro Atlanta and elsewhere, and was working on a final family history book—which her friends plan to finish from her notes—at the time of her death. She became interested in genealogy when, in researching her family so she could join the DAR at her mother’s insistence, she learned that she was a distant cousin of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. One book outside of the family history series was on the life and descendants of Hardy Pace, an early settler and developer of the Vinings area in Atlanta. For this volunteer work, she was honored by the Vinings Historic Preservation Society with her name placed on a brick at the Solomon Pace House in Vinings. Another important local history she published was on the early settlers of Meriwether County, Georgia. Her books are in the Library of Congress as well as local libraries

Ms. Isanhour traveled widely in the USA and abroad, visiting every continent except Antarctica, both for enjoyment and for genealogical research (in the days before on-line research was possible) in Europe and the USA, including classes and research at the Salt Lake LDS Family Research Library.

She was known for her parties, both large and small, that she gave for her church circle, her colleagues, her fellow alumni, her neighbors, and her friends and former students of all ages—and she made friends wherever she went. She would come home from a hospital or physical rehab facility with a new list of professionals and patients who were now friends. She could be found hosting elegant brunches, lunches, and dinners at fine restaurants (especially her favorite, Canoe); hosting more casual meals at other restaurants, especially Giorgios, where she once met and got a kiss from her favorite Bachelor contestant; hosting ladies’ luncheons at the Swan Coach House; hosting children’s birthday parties at a roller rink or at rounding up a magician for a home party; hosting very small gatherings when in physical rehab facilities; and hosting parties of all kinds at her home: cookouts, luncheons, dinners, pizza parties, TV parties, barbecues, July 4 and Christmas parties (sometimes with Santa!) —she just enjoyed helping people enjoy themselves.

Some 100 friends gathered for an 85th birthday party in 2013 and for a 90th birthday party in 2018. Both parties would have been larger had there been any more space, and neither one was stodgy: a Varsity-catered meal for the first, and a Western-themed BBQ meal, with cloggers for entertainment, for the second.

Ms. Isanhour was comfortable escorting students to the White House Rose Garden, buttonholing legislators to tell them why Atlanta’s teachers needed to be included in TRS, poring over dusty genealogical records in Europe, sitting on a camel at the pyramids, visiting the Great Wall, or watching kids play on a slip-n-slide in her backyard. “I have enjoyed all of it,” she said, reflecting on her event-filled life.

There are no immediate survivors, although cousins reside in Florida and Great Britain, and a host of friends, including her wonderful CNAs from Visiting Angels, consider her one of the family.

Funeral services will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 13, 2021, at Smyrna First United Methodist Church, with a procession and graveside service at Arlington Memorial Gardens in Sandy Springs immediately afterward. Masks and social distancing are required.

In lieu of flowers, please send contributions to Smyrna First United Methodist Church, 1315 Concord Road, Smyrna, GA 30080.