Earline Evans McClain, of Strawberry Plains, TN, died October 27, 2009. A life-long educator, Earline graduated from Swift Memorial Jr. College in Rogersville, Tennessee. She received her undergraduate degree from Barber-Scotia College in Concord, North Carolina and her master’s degree from the University of Tennessee, College of Education, Health and Human Sciences. Earline also completed graduate work at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was a professor at Knoxville College for 20 years, retiring as an associate professor from Pellissippi State Technical College in 1999. Earline was also a published poet, with a poem submitted to the Library of Congress by Congressman John Duncan.