{{Infobox person | name = Lurline Collier | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Lizzie Lurline Collier | birth_date = {{birth date|1893|10|16}} | birth_place = [[Jefferson, Georgia]], U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1986|01|13|1893|10|16}} | death_place = [[Commerce, Georgia]], U.S. | resting_place = Woodbine{{endash}}Jefferson City Cemetery | spouse = | occupation = Teacher, deputy sheriff. [[Home demonstration clubs|home demonstration agent]] | alma_mater = [[State Normal School (Athens, Georgia)|State Normal School]], 1913<br/>[[University of Georgia|UGA]] [[University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences|College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences]], 1924<br/>(BSHE, agriculture; ''cum laude'') }}
'''Lizzie Lurline Collier''' (October 16, 1893 – January 13, 1986)<ref name="gwa-2022"/> was an American home demonstration agent and teacher. In 2022, she was posthumously named a [[Georgia Woman of Achievement]].<ref name="gwa-2022"/>
==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, Georgia|Jackson County]] Police Department.<ref name="jh-1986-obit"/> 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.{{cn|date=February 2024}}
Collier then studied teaching at the [[State Normal School (Athens, Georgia)|State Normal School]] in [[Athens, Georgia|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.<ref name="jh-1986-obit"/>
Collier worked as a [[Home demonstration clubs|home demonstration agent]] for Jackson County from 1917 to 1923,<ref name="chirhart-2005"/> 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.<ref name="gwa-2022"/><ref name="hearld-today-2020"/>
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, Georgia|DeKalb County]] from 1924 to 1926,<ref name="jh-1986-obit"/> 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.<ref name="atl-const-1940"/> 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.<ref name="herald-1945"/> Collier retired in December 1953.
Collier was the chairman of the Georgia Nutritional Committee until her resignation in 1950.<ref name="gnc-about"/> In 1952, Collier was honored as "Woman of the Year in Service to Georgia Rural Progress" by [[Birmingham, Alabama]]-based magazine ''[[The Progressive Farmer|Progressive Farmer]]''.<ref name="4h-news-1952"/>
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,<ref name="4h-news-1952"/> and was the first woman who qualified to vote in Jackson County following the passage of the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|19th Amendment]].<ref name="gwa-2022"/>
Collier died on January 13, 1986, aged 92, at Banks-Jackson-Commerce Hospital in [[Commerce, Georgia]] due to complications following a stroke.{{cn|date=February 2024}}
==References== {{Reflist|refs= <ref name="gwa-2022">{{cite web |title=Lizzie Lurline Collier |url=https://www.georgiawomen.org/collier-lizzie-lurline |website=[[Georgia Women of Achievement]] |access-date=March 12, 2022 |date=2022}}</ref>
<ref name="jh-1986-obit">{{cite news |title=Miss Collier, state and area leader, dies at 92 |work=The Jackson Herald |date=January 15, 1986}}</ref>
<ref name="herald-1945">{{cite news |title=Home Agents Aid Farm Women |url=https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn89053140/1945-04-05/ed-1/seq-6/ |access-date=12 March 2022 |work=The Jackson Herald |date=April 5, 1945 |page=6}}</ref>
<ref name="4h-news-1952">{{cite journal |title=Magazine Cites Rural Leaders |journal=National 4-H News |date=March 1952 |volume=30 |issue=3 |page=33 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ehIdAQAAMAAJ |access-date=March 12, 2022}}</ref>
<ref name="atl-const-1940">{{cite news |title=United Georgia Farmers to Convene in Macon Tuesday |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/397934575/ |access-date=March 12, 2022 |work=The Atlanta Constitution |date=January 7, 1940}}</ref>
<ref name="chirhart-2005">{{cite book |last1=Chirhart |first1=Ann Short |title=Torches of Light: Georgia Teachers and the Coming of the Modern South |date=February 28, 2005 |publisher=[[University of Georgia Press]] |location=[[Athens, Georgia|Athens]] |isbn=9-780-8203-2669-6 |oclc=232005696 |page=144}}</ref>
<ref name="gnc-about">{{cite web |title=About GNC |url=https://site.extension.uga.edu/gnc/about-us/ |publisher=Georgia Nutritional Council |access-date=March 12, 2022 |quote=In 1950, the resignation of Miss Lurline Collier as Chairman of the Georgia Nutrition Committee led to the formation of the Georgia Nutrition Council.}}</ref>
<ref name="hearld-today-2020">{{cite web |title=Collier was the first woman to qualify to vote in Jackson County |url=https://www.mainstreetnews.com/jackson/news/collier-was-the-first-woman-to-qualify-to-vote-in-jackson-county/article_0f59b1bd-b9c4-5e37-8cca-728f1f7798c7.html |publisher=Jackson Herald Today |access-date=March 12, 2022 |date=August 18, 2020}}</ref>}}
{{Georgia Women of Achievement}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Collier, Lurline}} [[Category:1893 births]] [[Category:1986 deaths]] [[Category:Schoolteachers from Georgia (U.S. state)]] [[Category:People from Jefferson, Georgia]] [[Category:20th-century American women]]