About Miss Mary
{Mary Lin}
Miss Mary Lin’s connection with this community began around the turn of the century. Records show that Mary Lin joined Epworth Church by certificate in 1894. It is natural that she is a Methodist for her father was a Methodist Minister. He was also a teacher and the first President of Reinhardt College.
To give themselves to lives of teaching is an attribute of the Lin family: Her sister, Miss Louise Lin, has for many years taught music at Wesleyan College; her brother, Dr. J. Reese Lin, was head of the Philosophy Dept. at Millsaps’ College until his death. Miss Mary started her teaching career at the old Edgewood Academy, where her father was Principal, when this section was known as Edgewood, Ga. After this area became part of Atlanta, she continued as a teacher at the Edgewood Elementary School on Iverson Street, and later became Principal there. When the new building was built on Mayson Ave., it became Mary Lin School in her honor. In 1947 she retired after 37 years as a teacher and 25 years as a principal with the Atlanta Public School System.
At Epworth she has spent all of her adult life as a teacher and superintendent in the Primary Department. Hundreds and hundreds of children have touched by the sunshine of her spirit and the steadfastness of her faith. But her activities haven’t been confined just here: she never misses a meeting of the Woman’s Society of Christian Service and when younger was member of the Epworth Choir.
In this community, no other one person is so loved by so many for her goodness, her unselfishness, and her loyal devotion to high ideals as is our Miss Mary. That is why we call Sunday, June 8, 1952, Mary Lin Appreciation Day.
