Marcia Hammons was fierce.
“If she believed in something she went after it with veracity,” said friend LeQuinne Ferebee.
“She never let up and never gave up.”
Her love for children was dynamic. Improving the lives of underprivileged children was among her lifelong goals. She was a board member of Georgia Court Appointed Special Advocates throughout the 1990s.
During her leadership as Chairman of the Board of Directors, 1997-1999, the number of local programs in the state doubled, enabling more abused and neglected children to have a voice in court. She was on the Board for the last two years of her life.
“She wanted children to have a chance and a shot at life,” said Ferebee. “She encouraged me to become a volunteer.”
Marcia McIntyre Hammons, of Atlanta died Monday of cancer. She was 66. A memorial service will be held 2 p.m. Sunday at the Trustees Garden in the Atlanta Botanical Garden, 1345 Piedmont Ave. N.E., Atlanta. The Neptune Society is in charge of arrangements.
Hammons spent time in Florida and was involved in the Kids and the Power of Work organization and worked as a tour guide at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.
“She loved an intellectual challenge and never stopped learning,” said Ferebee.
Hammons was also a member of the Atlanta Botanical Garden, Atlanta History Center and the High Museum of Art.
A woman of adventure, she surprised her parents as a teen when she announced she would attend Duke University. She was the first of her family and the only member of her high school class to travel out of state for college.
“Ohio couldn’t contain her,” said her son Charlie Hammons.
Mother and son embarked on many adventures together. “We would take the train to Boston and we took a road trip when she taught me to drive,” he said.
Hammons earned a Bachelors of Arts from Duke and a Masters in Business Administration from Georgia State University. In the early 1970s she began her career as a business manager in the telecommunications industry working for Southern Bell and AT&T. She retired from Lucent Technologies.
“She was a people person and great communicator; she had a way of getting people to open up,” said Hammons of his mother. “She was also a great cook who could take simple ideas and make them taste amazing, he added.
In addition to her son, Hammons is survived by daughter-in-law Yvonne, sisters Cheryl and Roberta, nephews, nieces, and their children.
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