Linda Jo Clovis

Linda Jo Hall Pate Clovis lived with a belief that this life is not the best a Christian will experience and died on September 8th, 2025, with a confident hope she was headed to a better place.

Born to faithful Christians Homer & Grace Hall on January 26th, 1936, she grew up in west Nashville attending the Charlotte Ave church of Christ, almost as an only child as her older brother Kelly was in the Army before she entered elementary school. She was the 1954 Valedictorian of Cohn High School. She was blessed with friends for life from her childhood. Her mother learned to be a disciplinarian as she was clearly her father's pride & joy.

After a year at Lipscomb, she left school to marry Thomas Pate in the summer of 1955 and settled in the Nashville area. About 7 years later, they moved to Corner, Al to be closer to his family. In 1970, she became a widow with 3 boys, aged 22 months, 9 & 13. She almost immediately began talking to them about moving to Nashville & going to school at Lipscomb.

In the summer of '71, Jesse Long was the preacher at the gospel meeting at Antioch church and as was the custom at that time, was fed by the families of the congregation. When he came to the Pate house for a meal, Linda sought his encouragement for the boys to go to Lipscomb. His response was not what she hoped for: "They shouldn't go there. We have a new school in Norcross, GA that would be better for them and Atlanta is a much better place for you to seek employment." To say this was both a surprise and disappointment would be an understatement.

Within 5 weeks, she had visited the school, prayed fervently, sold her house and a small farm down the road and moved to Norcross. She has said ever since that the Lord led her all the way, and her boys are forever grateful for her example of praying and trusting the Lord and her almost unbelievable leap of faith.

She went to work at GACS in 1972 as Jackie Bradford's admin assistant. Working with Jackie while he was the principal and the basketball coach of her 2 oldest sons proved she was both diplomatic & practical. Her office aides and many students found her fun and a good person to share problems with (as if raising 3 boys didn't provide enough problems already). She met John Clovis when he started teaching at GACS in the fall of 1977. On his first Sunday at Campus church, her youngest son Tony asked John if he was married. When he responded that he was not, Tony was quick to point out that his mom wasn't either. They married in 1978 and were active at Campus church for many years. They enjoyed a blended family of 6 children, numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren, travel and great family vacations until his death in 2019.

She left GACS for a few years but returned when Jesse Long called her to come back to work with the alumni. She later served as the Director of Admissions until her retirement in 2011 at the age of 75. She proved she was a lousy salesperson of multiple products but could present GACS as positively and confidently as probably anyone not named Jesse Long. She loved GACS almost as much as her family. She was blessed by many and a blessing to many through her work there.

She will be missed in so many ways by her family. She leaves them with great memories and the confidence they were loved by a generous follower of Jesus, challenged to be their best and forgiven when they weren't. She was always quick with a smile, full of compassion, consistently demonstrated unlimited hope based on her faith and confident that the best was yet to come.

A visitation will be held from 4:00- 8:00PM on Friday, September 12, 2025 at Wages & Sons Funeral Home. An additional visitation will take place from 12:30- 1:45PM on Saturday, September 13, 2025 at Gwinnett Church of Christ with the Celebration of Life service to follow at 2:00PM.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to GACS or Georgia Agape.