Elisabeth Crain, 83 - Atlanta, GA

Elisabeth W. "Gigi" Elisabeth W. "Gigi" Crain passed away December 11, 2019, from a respiratory ailment after a brief hospital stay, just shy of her 84th birthday. She lived her life on her own terms until the end, with love, strength, and independence.

Gigi was born in Travelers Rest, SC, on January 1, 1936, to Elisabeth Martin and W. R. Williams. After graduating from Converse College in Spartanburg, SC, she moved to Key West, FL, to take a position as a school teacher. Within months of arriving, she met and became engaged to her future husband, Samuel R. Crain III, of Newnan, GA. Married in 1959, they spent the next few decades raising their four children and sowing the seeds for what would grow into a big, beautiful extended family.

In 1993, suddenly widowed after 34 happy years of marriage, she spent the next three decades reminding the world what a strong and fiercely independent woman she was. The early years of her marriage were spent moving around the southern and eastern U.S., but she and Sam ultimately chose Atlanta as the place to put down roots. The city came to be her home and a place that helped define her. Many will remember her from her years of work in politics and with civic organizations. She was an active member of the Georgia Republican Party, working on a variety of state and national campaigns in the 1970s and 1980s. Similarly, she has a long history of involvement in community work in Vinings Village. She called that close-knit community her home for almost 50 years, and her presence there left an indelible mark. Many more, however, will have been touched during the nearly five decades she spent working in Atlanta residential real estate, particularly in the Vinings and Buckhead communities.

She is survived by her four children, Lib Myers, Caroline Sosebee, Bo Crain, and Ben Crain; four grandchildren; a great grandchild; and her beloved brother, Dick Williams.

A private memorial service will be held at the family's mountain house in South Carolina.

In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests donations be made to Trinity Presbyterian Church, of Travelers Rest, SC (trinitytr.org) or The Vinings Historic Preservation Society (vinings.org).