Georgette Garner

She remembers being motivated by the social consciences of women like Marian Anderson and Eleanor Roosevelt, but no one had a bigger influence on Georgette Garner than her sister.

"She inspired me with how she treated others, and how she encouraged and supported me. And I could see other people differently because of her," Georgette said. From the age of 15, she lived with her older sister, who "treated me like a daughter. She was always there, and always made you feel like you could do it," she said.

So Georgette received nothing but support when she decided to follow her heart into the Peace Corps. President Kennedy inspired many starry-eyed young men and women to represent their country in the poorer places of the world. Georgette joined the Peace Corps in 1962, and went to Africa in 1963.

She enjoyed helping to improve the standard of living in Lagos and Tunisia, but while in Africa, she also learned that "even in the poorest countries like Mali, they had riches of culture and family."

While serving in the Peace Corps, Georgette met and married John Garner. They spent most of the next 27 years working for the Foreign Service at U.S. embassies in West Africa, Paris and Geneva. They have one son, Robert, a Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Air Force.

Georgette had a variety of jobs in the Foreign Service, and she retired as staff assistant to the assistant secretary of state for consular affairs. "Our consulates serve Americans abroad, and those thinking about traveling abroad," she explained.

Until the late 1960s, the Foreign Service had a policy excluding married women from employment. Fortunately for Georgette and other women, a class-action lawsuit brought an end to that discriminatory practice. "And the Foreign Service had also been coming to the realization that policy was counterproductive," Georgette said.

When the Garners retired from the Foreign Service, they came to Eureka Springs. John had been from Booneville, so he knew this area, and they had friends from Mali who had also retired here.

"I knew it was just the kind of town I wanted to be in," Georgette said, and the area has been everything she hoped it would be. "This town is so rich in willingness to help," she said.

She has pitched in pretty well herself. The Greater Eureka Springs Chamber of Commerce and the Arkansas Urban Forestry Council both named Georgette "Volunteer of the Year" in 2004, and last year, the governor appointed her to the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission.

In just 12 years of living here, she has served with a dizzying number of local and regional organizations, and most of the county knows about her wildflower projects.

Whether working with schoolkids to clean up Conway Spring, or helping to rejuvenate the building and grounds at Eureka Springs Hospital , Georgette has made this a more attractive area.

She still finds time to needlepoint, paint, sew, or cross-stitch. "I grew up doing a lot of those things. It's a part of my life."

And a busy life it is.