Note: This story was updated at 2:37 p.m.

Shirley Gail Martin, a former longtime member of the Anderson County school board who served two years as county election administrator, died Wednesday, September 7. She was 75.

Martin, of Claxton, passed away peacefully surrounded by her loved ones at Methodist Medical Center in Oak Ridge, her obituary said.

“She was an education activist who gave 24 years to the Anderson County Board of Education, as well as being a devoted Democrat,” the obituary said.

Former Anderson County School Director Larry Foster, who retired at the end of June, said Martin will be missed as a personal friend and also as a community leader. She worked for excellence in education in Anderson County, Foster said, and her long service on the school board indicated that.

Martin stayed involved in the educational area even after she left the school board, and she would attend meetings, call Foster from time to time to ask what was happening, and bring issues of concern to him.

“She wanted excellence,” Foster said Friday. [Read more…]