Resident Spotlights
Grantville Spotlight: Linda Bohannon, "The hidden gem was we looked out for each other."
Grantville Spotlight is a weekly feature celebrating the neighbors who make Grantville home. Know someone we should feature? Nominate them.
For 45 years, Linda Bohannon stood at the front of a classroom. Talk to her for five minutes, though, and she’ll tell you she was never really in charge. She was “that big kid” who taught children how to be children while still pushing them to excel. By her own account, she has been teaching since she was a little girl. When the neighborhood kids played school, she was always the teacher.
Retirement hasn’t slowed her down. Ms. Bohannon serves on the board of Community Action for Improvement (CAFI), the LaGrange-based nonprofit that has helped low-income families in Coweta, Carroll, Heard, Meriwether and Troup counties since 1966. CAFI’s board roster lists her as assistant treasurer, representing the City of Grantville. She is also the board’s representative on the Head Start Policy Council, where, according to CAFI, she helps review school readiness goals, supports teachers’ professional development and advocates for inclusive classrooms.
In June 2026, CAFI presented her with a Certificate of Appreciation, saying her “commitment to positively impacting children and families, combined with her professional expertise, has made a lasting and meaningful contribution” to its Head Start program. In CAFI’s words, she has called children “my major service platform.”
She is quick to point the credit elsewhere: to her church and church family, to a family that once numbered 15, and to the Grantville elders who watched over every child walking through town. She calls herself “a feisty senior citizen” and a helper, not a leader, the kind of person who takes care of what needs doing “when nobody sees.”
We asked her four questions. Here are her answers, in her own words.
"The hidden gem was we looked out for each other."
In your own words, who are you?
“I am a feisty senior citizen who loves children, old people, and adults. I was an educator for 45 years, and I love my community, my church and my church family. I’m a background person. I’m not a leader. I’m a helper.”
“That’s my heart, children. I was a big kid all my life, and I taught like I was a big kid. I was just that big kid that taught the kids how to be children, but yet still how to excel at learning.”
What would you tell your younger self?
“You could be all you could be if you do the work for it. I think I taught all my life. Even growing up, when we played school, I’m gonna be the teacher.”
What makes Grantville special to you?
“The quietness. It used to be the fellowship of all the people in the community, because we knew each other and shared the same experiences. It was a quiet community that thrived on being different, but yet still being a part of each other.”
What’s your favorite Grantville memory, and what’s a hidden gem?
“Being able to walk all over this community when I was younger, and knowing that somebody had an eye on us to see that we were safe wherever we were going.”
“It was our senior citizens that lived in the community. Wherever we went, they were the mama and they were the adult in the community. The hidden gem was we looked out for each other.”
Thank you, Ms. Bohannon, for a lifetime of service to Grantville’s children.