Working as a basketball coach for more than 30 years and being inducted into the Athens Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000 are just a couple highlights of Elizabeth E. King’s life worth celebrating.
On Friday, King will turn 100 years old and Hill Chapel Baptist church is planning her centennial celebration.
King has been a member of the church’s choir for more than 85 years and continues to be active in Sunday school and Bible study classes.
She graduated from Athens Industrial High School in 1937, earned her bachelor’s degree from Spelman College and master's from Atlanta University. She also did post graduate work at the University of Georgia.
In 1943, she started working as a teacher in Comer, Ga, but returned to her alma mater, Athens Industrial High School in 1945. She worked there until the school integrated and was renamed Burney-Harris High school in 1970. She then worked at Clarke Central High School and retired in 1978 to care for her mother.
During her time at Athens Industrial High School, she taught African American students Social Studies, History and French.
Along with being the girls’ basketball coach, she was the track and field team coordinator, cheerleaders and majorettes trainer and served in many other areas. In August 2012, the Burney-Harris High School gymnasium was renamed in her honor. The building now houses the Westside Boys and Girls Club.
Today at age 99, she is an active and member of:
- Clarke County teachers’ association
- Spelman Alumni Association
- Athens Athletic Hall of Fame
- Athens High School Industrial School/Burney-Harris High school alumni association leadership team
- Bon Bon social an Civil club
- Athenians Social and Civic club
- Eastern Stars international
- Iota Psi Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority
- Athens tutorial program
Ms. King had lived in the same home since she was eight months old. She rebuilt her childhood home in the 1950s. She's own three cars her entire life. Her first car - a 1955 Oldsmobile.
Her Centennial Celebration will take place at Hll Chapel Baptist Church in Athens, GA at 4 p.m. on Saturday, February 3.
