Fannie G. Halstead

Alice was a graduate of Georgia State College for Women in Milledgeville, GA. She taught school for a number of years at Richland Elementary School, Schley County Elementary School and Southland Academy in Americus, GA.



Her first marriage was on December 25, 1939 to Charles Alston Coffin, a cotton broker, merchant, and city councilman in Richland, GA, with whom she had two children, Alice and Charles. During his term as State Senator from the Twelfth District of Georgia, Charles died unexpectedly on August 5, 1951. Alice was elected to fill her husband's unexpired term and became the second woman Senator ever to serve in the Georgia Legislature.



On November 25, 1953 Alice Walker Coffin remarried Paul Leon Gill, a banker, pharmacist, and former mayor of Ellaville, GA. Mr. and Mrs. Gill had two children together, Paula and John. When Mr. Gill was elected State Senator from the Thirteenth District of Georgia, Alice renewed her involvement in Georgia politics by accompanying her husband to Senate sessions in Atlanta. Mr. Gill passed away on March 16, 1975.



Mrs. Gill was always involved with the affairs of her community. She was a Sunday school teacher at the Ellaville Methodist Church as well as a leader in a number of organizations. Mrs. Gill was a devoted mother, grandmother and great-grandmother and enjoyed life to the fullest. She was preceded in death by a sister, Ruth Walker Nicholson of Edgefield, SC.