Elizabeth McAliley

1928 - 2018

Elizabeth Dunlap McAliley AUSTELL, GA - Reverend Elizabeth Henry Dunlap McAliley (Libby), 90, of Austell, GA, entered the church triumphant on Wednesday, July 25, 2018. Born May 15, 1928, in York, SC, to Robert Floyd and Edna Henry Dunlap, she married the Reverend William Samuel McAliley, Sr. on August 11, 1979. Ms. McAliley graduated from Agnes Scott College in 1950. In 1954, she began a 23-year career as a missionary of the Presbyterian Church U.S. in the Belgian Congo. While on furloughs, she completed her Master of Christian Education (1959) from Presbyterian School of Christian Education followed by a Master of Divinity from Columbia Theological Seminary (1973). That same year Reverend McAliley was the first woman in South Carolina to be ordained as a minister of the Presbyterian Church U.S. After leaving the mission field in 1977 until her retirement in 1993, she held a staff position in the national offices of the Presbyterian Church. She and her husband moved to Presbyterian Village Austell in 1996. Ms. McAliley, known as "Reverend Libby," served at Cobb Hospital and then at Tranquility Hospice at Cobb, retiring after 17 years as their weekend volunteer chaplain. She is preceded in death by her parents, husband, and a sister (Kay D. Adams). Surviving Ms. McAliley are her sister, Barbara D. Wilkerson, nephew Timothy Wilkerson, niece Kathy Adams, and great-niece Amanda Adams. Surviving also are her husband's five children, whom she loved as her own: Sam (Scotty) McAliley, Ruth (Dickie) Harper, Carl McAliley, Richard (Cheryl) McAliley, and Sarah (Naoki) Oba, 12 grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren. A memorial service will be held on August 7, at 11:00 am in the Presbyterian Village Activity Center, Austell, GA.