Lynn Hatcher McGary Biography
We are celebrating the life and work of Lynn Neree' Hatcher McGary. Thank you for sharing this sacred time of reflection and rejoicing with our family.
Lynn was born in Lexington, KY, on September 10, 1949, when her father and mother, John and Alta Hatcher, were founding Highland Baptist Church, Shelbyville, KY. She is the eldest of five children who from the age of six years old grew up in the capital city, Manaus, of the state of Amazonas, Brazil.
Lynn was married to E. Ross McGary on August 14, 1971, a few months after her oldest brother married Wanda McGary, Ross's sister. They have five children and two daughters-in-law. Dr. Kris McGary and Eryn, Austin, Texas; Lisa Lynn McGary, who moved from Louisville, KY in August to assist her mother with Stone Soup, John Victor McGary, Nashville, TN, Ryan Andrew Hatcher McGary and Bethany, Cool Springs, TN and Virginia Jane McGary, at home. All are faithfully serving Christ within their calling and are involved in church planting and leadership. They rise up and call her blessed among women. She gladly "adopted" others who wanted to be in our family.
She held a graduate degree in special education from Lynchburg College, Lynchburg, VA. She graduated with dual certifications in Pre-school and Elementary Education from the University of Kentucky in 1974. She had extensive hours in Biblical studies, theology, and ancient languages as well. She held closely to the study and practice of the Bible.
Her parents and siblings serve as missionaries and educators in Brazil and France. Parents, John and Alta Hatcher are still serving in planting churches in Brazil, since arriving there in 1955. Paul and Wanda Hatcher and Dr. David and Pennie Hatcher serve in Manaus, Brazil, Kathy (Hatcher) and Odali Barros, serve in Garca, Sao Paulo, Brazil. John Mark and Judy Hatcher serve in the south of France. She has 16 nieces and nephews all of whom are faithfully serving Christ around the world. She has two faithful adopted Brazilian sisters, Maria and Helena.
At the age of 19 years, while studying at the University of Kentucky, Lynn founded Blue Grass Baptist School with Lowell and Barbara Blake, which is celebrating its 39th year of successful operation. Three years later she served to co-found Bible Baptist Academy in Clarksville, TN with Elton Wilson and Sue Jones. In 1979, she served as a founding consultant to Dr. Carl Frensley, on staff of the Hendersonville Christian Academy, Hendersonville, TN, leading the principal of her first school, Jim Miller, to be the founding headmaster of the Academy.
She served in the successful growth and establishment of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Appalachia (Eastern Kentucky). While there, she established that county's first program in special education in one school and led to the establishment of special education in all the county's schools the following year. In the early nineties, she established the first pre-school special education program in Henderson, KY. She served with her husband in pastorates in Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee and Virginia.
She taught in the Schaffer Schools in Falls Church, VA and supervised a pre-school division at Springfield Academy, Springfield, VA, where she counseled many parents on child development, many of whom worked at the White House.
She homeschooled her children and had a private practice to parents and their children in development and education. She wrote a widely used pre-school church curriculum for Acorn Publications.
After many years of conducting church-based ministry in special education, she established Stone Soup - Friends of All Abilities in 2003 on the campus of and in cooperation with Judson Baptist Church, Nashville, TN. Stone Soup, building a community of friends with families who have a child or young adult with special needs, expanded to Thompson Station Church, Thompson Station, TN and Faith Baptist Church in Monroe, Georgia, in 2008 with great success.
In 2006, she presented a Child Development Seminar "Raising Genius Children for Christ" spoken in Portuguese for video distribution in Brazil. Her book on games to play with newborns will be published posthumously.
Lynn is admired by all who met her. She is known to take exorbitant amounts of time to encourage all she met, including her own children, as she saw and practiced the clear implications of the Bible's I Corinthians' teaching on the qualities of love.
While she is yet here, we anticipate her joyful presence again in the resurrection and await that time with a charge to keep.
The Lynn Hatcher McGary Family
Ross, Virginia, Lisa, John, Ryan and Bethany, Kris and Eryn and her extended family.