Memorial Service For Joan Garner Scheduled For May 6

ATLANTA, GA -- The memorial service for Fulton County Commission Vice Chair Joan Garner will be held in early May at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church.

The service will be held at 3 p.m. May 6 at the church, which is located at 101 Jackson Street NE in Atlanta.

Two visitations will be held for Garner: 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, April 21 at the Commerce Club at 191 Peachtree Street NE and 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, April 23 at the Hammonds House Museum at 503 Peeples Street.

Garner, who represented District 4 on the commission, died Tuesday following an extensive battle with breast cancer. She was first elected to the Board of Commissioners in 2010 and re-elected in 2014 and 2016. She was appointed to serve as vice chair by her peers in January. District 4 encompasses the heart of the Atlanta, Midtown, and neighborhoods west of downtown Atlanta to Fulton Industrial Boulevard.

Commissioner Garner was also committed to service on a statewide and national scale. She was currently serving as third vice president of ACCG – Georgia’s County Association. She was also engaged with the National Association of Counties, serving as past chair of the National Association of Counties’ Healthy Counties Initiative Advisory Board, chair of NACo’s Medicaid and Indigent Care Subcommittee, and as chair of the Health Policy Committee.

A native of Washington, D.C., Garner earned a bachelor's degree in English from the University of the District of Columbia and a master's degree in Organizational Communication from Howard University. She moved to Atlanta in 1978. She and spouse, Jane Morrison, a Fulton County State Court judge, lived in the Old Fourth Ward.

Before she was elected to the Fulton County Commission, Garner was known for her work in the nonprofit sector and for her leadership in the community.She served on numerous community and nonprofit boards, including those of the Atlanta Beltline Affordable Housing, Historic District Development Corporation, National Council of Foundations, the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Southerners on New Ground, Sweet Auburn Works, Inc., Georgia Share Funding Exchange, Caring Works, the African American Lesbian Gay Alliance.

She was appointed to the transition team of Mayor-Elect Maynard Jackson and the Atlanta Olympic Citizen’s Advisory Commission. She also served as senior advisor on Gay and Lesbian Issues under Mayor Jackson. Under Mayor Kasim Reed, Commissioner Garner served as a member of the Public Works Commissioner Search Committee. She also served on the Atlanta-Fulton County Library Board and the Atlanta Liquor License Revue Board.

Commissioner Garner was an entrepreneur, as founder of Garner Results, Inc., a consultancy that develops giving strategies and provides management support to the non-profit and philanthropic communities. She previously served as president and CEO of the Historic District Development Corporation, and as executive director of the Southern Partners Fund, a community-based public foundation committed to equal rights. She was co-director of the National Network of Grant Makers, which supports social justice work; and, as executive director of the Fund for Southern Communities, which fosters social change in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Commissioner Garner also served as chair of Neighborhood Planning Unit-M.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks the community make donations to the Joan P. Garner Health & Human Services Internship Program, care of Association of County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG) Civic Affairs Foundation, 191 Peachtree Street, NE, Suite 700, Atlanta, Georgia 30303. For more information, contact Beth Brown at bbrown@accg.org.

Image via Fulton County government