Lula Dobbs McEachern

Lula Cordelia Dobbs was born in Cherokee County on May{{nbsp}}16, 1874 to farmers Rason and Vesta (née DuPree) Dobbs.{{cite web |title=About McEachern |url=https://www.mceachernumc.org/about-mceachern-umc/ |publisher=McEachern Memorial |access-date=4 September 2023}}{{cite book |title=Lineage Book of the Charter Members of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Vol. 98-99 |date=1928 |publisher=Daughters of the American Revolution}} As a child, McEachern was a member of the McBeth Literary Society, and she attended Young Harris College.{{cite book |editor1-last=Coleman |editor1-first=Kenneth |editor2-last=Gurr |editor2-first=Charles Stephen |title=Dictionary of Georgia Biography |date=1983 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |location=Athens |isbn=0820306622 |page=660}}

McEachern was a teacher in the Oregon area of Cobb County in her early 20s. She married fellow Cobb County native and Confederate veteran John Newton McEachern, a future Atlanta alderman, on September{{nbsp}}30, 1896.{{cite book |title=Georgia: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form |date=1906 |publisher=State Historical Association |location=Atlanta |page=667 |url=https://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/georgiabooks/pdfs/gb0030b.pdf |chapter=McEachern, John N.}}{{cite book |last1=Rickenbaker |first1=Hugh K. |title=Generations: The Centennial History of Life Insurance Company of Georgia, 1891-1991 |date=1991 |publisher=The University of California}}{{cite news |title=Society |work=The Atlanta Constitution |date=October 4, 1896 |page=4}} They lived in the West End and had three children: Elizabeth Florine (Jul.{{nbsp}}22, 1897), John Newton Jr. (Feb.{{nbsp}}20, 1899), and Lula Christine (Jan.{{nbsp}}30, 1901).

She was the president of the Atlanta Women's Club in 1916 and 1917. 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."

McEachern and her husband both attended Ebenezer Methodist-Episcopal Church, South.{{cite journal |last1=McElreath |first1=Walter |title=McEachern Memorial Methodist Church |journal=The Georgia Historical Quarterly |date=December 1957 |volume=41 |issue=4 |pages=365–382 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/40577812}} 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.{{cite book |editor1-last=Greenfield |editor1-first=Sidney M. |editor2-last=Strickon |editor2-first=Arnold |editor3-last=Aubey |editor3-first=Robert T. |title=Entrepreneurs in Cultural Context |date=1979 |publisher=University of New Mexico Press |pages=99–100 |chapter=Life Insurance Company of Georgia, 1891-1950}}

After John McEachern died on December{{nbsp}}6, 1928, the church decided to construct a new building in his honor {{emdash}} the John N. McEachern Memorial Methodist Church, which was dedicated on June{{nbsp}}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.{{cite web |last1=Sears |first1=Kyle |title=Mercer to Celebrate Grand Opening of McEachern Art Center in Downtown Macon |url=https://den.mercer.edu/mercer-to-celebrate-grand-opening-of-mceachern-art-center-in-downtown-macon/ |publisher=Mercer University |date=January 24, 2019}}{{cite web |last1=Bowden |first1=Yvette |title=Life Insurance Company of Georgia |url=https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/business-economy/life-insurance-company-of-georgia/ |website=New Georgia Encyclopedia |date=September 14, 2013}} She served in the role until 1948 with a hiatus in 1933. Within the company, she was known as "Miss Lula".

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.{{cite web |title=Southern Women and Race Coöperation. A Story of the Memphis Conference, October Sixth and Seventh, Nineteen Hundred and Twenty |url=https://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/racecoop/racecoop.html |publisher=University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |date=1921}} 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. McEachern was head of the Atlanta Community Chest's women's division in 1938. She was also a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.{{cite news |title=Atlanta Chapter, U.D.C. |work=The Atlanta Constitution |issue=224 |date=January 25, 1918 |page=6}}

McEachern died on April{{nbsp}}24, 1949 aged 74.{{cite journal |title=Mrs. J. N. McEachern |journal=The Spectator |date=June 1949 |page=38}}{{cite book |last1=Martin |first1=Harold H. |title=Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events: Years of Change and Challenge, 1940-1976 |date=1987 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |location=Athens |isbn=0820309133}} She established in her will the McEachern Trust Fund at McEachern Memorial, giving the church $4,000 per year. Another plot of land she donated became McEachern High School.{{cite book |last1=Paden |first1=Rebecca Nash |last2=McTyre |first2=Joe |title=Images of America: Cobb County |date=2005 |publisher=Arcadia |isbn=9780738541648}}

In 2002, McEachern was inducted into the Georgia Women of Achievement.{{cite web |title=Lula Dobbs McEachern |url=https://www.georgiawomen.org/lula-dobbs-mceachern |publisher=Georgia Women of Achievement |access-date=4 September 2023}}

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Category:1874 births

Category:1949 deaths

Category:Educators from Georgia (U.S. state)

Category:People from Cherokee County, Georgia