Gainesville's Mary Lynn Coyle named Girl Scouts' Woman of Distinction for decades of civic service

Mar. 7—Mary Lynn Coyle isn't sure she considers herself a role model, let alone a woman of distinction, though a recent accolade suggests she's both.

Coyle has been named the Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia's 2023 Woman of Distinction.

The award, according to the organization, honors women who are exemplary role models for young girls and reflect the values of the Girl Scout Promise and Law.

Coyle's roots in Gainesville and Hall County run deep, particularly in the soil of civic service.

As a member of the Northeast Georgia Health System Auxiliary, Coyle co-chaired the inaugural Marketplace in 1991.

She was also the first female layperson to serve on the Lanier Park Hospital board of trustees beginning in 1993 and served on the unification committee when the hospital was acquired by the Northeast Georgia Health System, where she became board chairwoman in 2007, a position she held until 2017.

Today, she serves as chair emeritus while continuing her service on various committees within the health system.

Beyond the health system, Coyle is an active member of Grace Episcopal Church, serving on the vestry as well as the buildings and grounds committee.

She also serves on the board of the Gainesville Hall County Community Food Pantry, an ecumenical partnership between five Gainesville churches including her own.

"Mary Lynn Coyle has been deeply involved in her community her entire life" the Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia said of her in a news release. "Her contributions to the health system, dedication to her community, her passion for philanthropy, and intentionality for serving as a role model make her an ideal recipient for this honor."

The daughter of one of Hall County Hospital's first physicians, the late Dr. W. Cullen McCarver, Coyle came to Gainesville at age 2 by way of a small town in Middle Georgia, where her father was practicing medicine and talk of constructing a hospital was growing cheap.

"It didn't look like it was going to happen. In those days, general practice and family medicine doctors had to travel for hospital facilities, because they did everything from delivering babies to taking your appendix out," Coyle explained. "We found out through a relative that Gainesville was building a hospital; my mother and daddy came up to look at it ... and they decided Gainesville would be home."

In her girlhood, Coyle attended Candler Street Elementary School and was a Brownie and Girl Scout in Troop 5, which she credits with helping shape the woman and civic volunteer she's become.

"Early opportunities in Scouting introduced me to so many different fields and areas to serve before we were really old enough to do much," she said. "The Scouts encouraged you to look into the community to find ways to connect to the community, and there are numerous ways to do that today."

After concluding her studies at the University of Tennessee, Coyle settled in Gatlinburg for about 14 years. As an elementary school teacher, she worked in tandem with the Southern Arts Federation to establish an arts program at the school and secure an art teacher to lead it.

When she wasn't wearing her educator's hat, she was flexing her business prowess as an antique shop owner while helping develop Pigeon Forge's first outlet mall.

In 1985, Coyle added another title to her already impressive resume: wife to John Coyle, a Gainesville native and the widower of one of Coyle's dearest friends, and stepmother to his three children, then a sixth grader, high school junior and senior.

Between the three, John and Mary Lynn have seven grandchildren.

The newly wedded Mrs. Coyle returned to Gainesville and immersed herself in civic service beginning with The Arts Council as "one thing led to another" over the ensuing 38 years.

In all that time, Coyle recalls linking arms with countless women who worked together to share responsibilities and, perhaps more importantly, support for one another.

"It's very important to establish those relationships. I think about my Girl Scout and Brownie buddies that I still see and how wonderful it is to have that support group when you stump your toe, when something tragic happens in your life and when something wonderful happens in your life."

In that sense, Coyle believes Gainesville and Hall County are unique.

"We have so many people who are so dedicated to very generously giving back with their time and their talents and their resources," she said. "That's something that I hope we continue to nurture in this community. When you've grown up in an area where people looked after one another and truly cared about one another, I think that becomes part of your being."

As for the recognition for her decades of service, Coyle said, "It's been a pleasure and a joy to be a part of the fabric of this community, and I am truly honored by the award. I would share it with all of the women I've worked with, who, in my mind, are all women of distinction for the service they've provided and the things they've done to make Gainesville and Hall County such a special place to live, to raise your children, to grow old."

Coyle will be honored during a luncheon March 15 at the Chattahoochee Country Club.