Fayette Mourns Emily Poole, a Magnetic Community Leader Whose Warmth Touched Countless Lives

To know Emily Poole was to feel instantly welcomed.

Friends say she had an almost supernatural ability to make people feel important within moments of meeting them. She listened intently, remembered details, connected people effortlessly, and made strangers feel like old friends. Her signature greeting — “Hi Honey!” — became instantly recognizable across Fayette County, where her warmth, style, humor, and seemingly endless network of relationships made her one of the community’s most familiar and beloved faces.

Now, the community she spent so much of her life pouring herself into is mourning her loss.

Emily Marie Poole, a Fayetteville resident in the Town of Trilith, nonprofit leader, economic development professional, and longtime community advocate, died Sunday, May 24, at age 40 after a struggle with depression, anxiety, and alcoholism. Friends and family say she had attempted to take her own life several days earlier.

The loss has reverberated throughout Fayette County’s civic, nonprofit, business, and community circles, where Emily served on numerous boards, chaired organizations, advocated for vulnerable children, and cultivated friendships that seemed to span every corner of the county.

“Emily had a rare gift for bringing people together,” said Becky Davenport, executive director of Bloom. “Her warmth, magnetic personality, and genuine love for others allowed her to make a lasting difference in her community. We will miss her tremendously and will never forget the light she brought into every room.”

‘You simply cannot teach that’

Matt Forshee remembers hiring Emily years ago for a role in economic development, not because of her résumé, but because of something far more difficult to quantify.

“She had something you simply cannot teach,” Forshee said. “The ability to make anyone she had just met feel like they had known her for years.”

That natural charisma quickly propelled Emily through Fayette County’s civic and professional circles. Over nearly two decades, she worked for the Fayette County Development Authority, the City of Fayetteville, the Georgia Department of Economic Development, Clayton State University, and several private consulting firms specializing in site selection, business recruitment, and strategic partnerships.

Most recently, she served as Manager of Alliances for DMA – DuCharme, McMillen & Associates, helping launch the company’s Strategic Realty Partners initiative.

But titles never fully captured Emily’s role in the community.

Forshee described her as someone who “packed 100 lives into 40 years,” throwing herself fully into every cause, friendship, and challenge she encountered.

“She gave herself to her community, to young people, to causes that needed a champion, and to the people lucky enough to be in her orbit,” he said. “The world lost contributions it will never get to receive.”

Emily’s community involvement became almost impossible to summarize.

She served as board chair of AV Pride, worked with Bloom for years advocating for foster children, served on the boards of Fayette Senior Services, Main Street Fayetteville, the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce, and the MHS Chiefs Foundation, and previously served as president of the Young Professionals of Fayette County.

Greg Detwiler, who mentored Emily through a Fayette Chamber young professionals program roughly 15 years ago, said Emily left a lasting impression almost immediately.

“When I first met Emily, I was struck by her energy, curiosity, wisdom, and poise beyond her years,” Detwiler said. “We shared a special mentor-mentee relationship that often made me wonder who was truly mentoring whom.”

Detwiler said Emily taught others through “her boldness, courage, and, most of all, the love and grace she showed to everyone.”

Dawn Oparah, co-founder of AV Pride and executive director of Fayette FACTOR, said Emily’s positivity and enthusiasm made an immediate impression.

“It was because of her captivating personality and positive energy that I invited Emily to serve on the AV Pride board,” Oparah wrote in a remembrance shared with The Citizen. “Not only did she enthusiastically agree, she quickly became the board chair.”

Oparah said Emily “embodied kindness and care” and helped grow the organization through her leadership and encouragement of others.

Her mother, Karen Akins Lowery, said Emily’s desire to help others was visible from childhood.

“She wanted you to be the best you could be,” Lowery told The Citizen. “She was very generous with her heart.”

Lowery said family members later realized Emily often internalized responsibility for the struggles of others and felt personal grief when she could not help people become happier, healthier, or more confident in themselves.

A fierce love for Fayette County

Lowery said Emily’s love for Fayette County and Georgia shaped much of her identity and professional mission.

“She loved this world,” Lowery said. “I never met a girl, a woman, a child in my life that was more proud to be born [and] raised in Fayette County.”

Joe Hanna, Emily’s fiancé of more than a decade, said Emily passionately believed in Fayetteville and spent much of her life trying to help the community grow stronger.

“When I met her doing film work, when I was just passing through, and she helped me with film work locally, she helped me with my business locally, and that’s what Emily loved, was helping people with small business in her community,” Hanna said. “That was what she lit up like a Christmas tree talking about — her community and her friends and her circle.”

Hanna said Emily advocated constantly for Fayetteville and wanted others to build their lives there as well.

“Emily loved this town,” Hanna said. “She loved this community, and she wanted people to do better.”

Although Emily became well known publicly, her mother said she rarely sought attention for herself.

“She did not brag about herself,” Lowery said. “She just served a lot.”

A personality impossible to forget

Emily’s friends and family describe someone who lived loudly, stylishly, and passionately.

She loved colorful suits, designer sunglasses balanced atop her head, luxury fashion, true crime documentaries, travel, grilling for friends, and sharing new discoveries — whether it was a restaurant, a streaming series, or something online she thought someone needed to see.

She was intensely disciplined about fitness and once won a bikini competition. She loved firearms instruction and shooting sports. She was an avid reader, a gifted cook, a meticulous decorator, and a devoted dog mom who treated her five dogs — Eloise “Ellie,” Dudley, Pippa, Earl Gray, and Hibiscus — “like babies,” according to her sister, Addison Gilmore. Emily’s dogs will continue to live with and be cared for by Hanna. 

Courtney Oldenburg, one of Emily’s close friends, said Emily approached nearly everything with intensity and generosity.

“She gave 100% to all the charities she committed to,” Oldenburg said. “She fiercely loved her friends.”

Locals may also remember Emily from her years working at Allan Vigil Ford of Fayetteville and Autrey’s Armory, where her outgoing personality, professionalism, and ability to connect with people quickly made lasting impressions. Oldenburg joked that car salesmen “did not want to see her coming” because Emily could “negotiate the crap out of anything.”

Gilmore described her older sister as both fiercely loyal and endlessly funny.

“She was my best friend,” Gilmore told The Citizen. “She cared so deeply about everybody else. She cared so much, and she was so kind, and she would do anything for anybody.”

Gilmore said Emily possessed a sharp wit and intelligence but never used it to make others feel small.

“She was brilliant and witty, the wittiest person I know,” Gilmore said.

She said Emily had a way of making people feel completely embraced and protected.

“She was always on your side,” Gilmore said. “No questions.”

Hanna said Emily’s greatest quality was her ability to love people unconditionally.

“She always remembered us for who we were, and not always our actions,” Hanna said. “She was a ride-or-die friend.”

He said Emily had an unmatched gift for connecting with people everywhere she went.

“Everywhere we’d go, she was leaning in, talking to everyone, trying to help them, and trying to get to know them,” Hanna said. “She was truly concerned with people she didn’t know.”

One friend described Emily as “the personal equivalent of a beautifully knit blanket” — vibrant, unforgettable, and always wrapping others in warmth.

Hanna said Emily brought that same attentiveness and care into their everyday life together.

“Want to go to the gym? What do you want for dinner tonight? Your breakfast is ready. Hey, let’s go for a walk. Let’s take the dogs out,” Hanna recalled her saying. “Here’s your shake, here’s your tea with honey, here’s your vitamins.”

“She was very thoughtful and proactive,” he added. “She made me feel that I count and I’m important to her.”

The struggle behind the smile

But behind Emily’s outward confidence and seemingly boundless energy, friends say she struggled privately for years.

Several close friends told The Citizen they had become increasingly concerned in recent months about Emily’s worsening depression and alcoholism. Some had pleaded with her to seek treatment, attend rehab, or step away from the pressures she carried.

Gilmore said she had spent years trying to convince her sister to seek help.

“I was gonna do everything,” Gilmore said. “Fill out her FMLA paperwork, get the rehab place, do all of the stuff that needed to be done for that, and just all she had to do was just say yes.”

Hanna said Emily had been “losing the battle to alcohol” in recent months and that those closest to her recognized she needed professional treatment.

“She needed help,” Hanna said. “She needed a program. She needed detox.”

He said family members and close friends repeatedly tried to encourage her to seek care.

“She was getting pushed real hard,” Hanna said. “Her sister was pushing her, her dad was pushing her. We were all talking about how do we get her help.”

Gilmore said Emily never entered rehab or meaningfully pursued treatment despite repeated encouragement from family and friends.

“She was so willing to help everyone else,” one friend said. “But she just couldn’t accept help for herself.”

That contradiction now haunts many who loved her: a woman known throughout the community for lifting others up while quietly battling darkness alone.

Her family has chosen not to hide the circumstances surrounding her death, hoping honesty may help others recognize the seriousness of mental health struggles and addiction.

“Mental health is a disease just like heart disease,” Lowery said.

Lowery said the family wanted to speak openly about Emily’s depression and alcoholism because secrecy surrounding mental illness often prevents people from getting help.

“People need to be honest,” Lowery said. “That’s why we’re here.”

Friends say Emily’s death has already sparked difficult but important conversations throughout the community about depression, addiction, burnout, and the pressures often carried silently by highly capable people.

In death, many hope Emily’s story will become not only a remembrance of an extraordinary life, but also a reminder that even the people who appear strongest may be struggling invisibly.

‘Emily loved the world more than she loved herself’

The outpouring of grief since Emily’s death has been enormous.

Social media has filled with stories from former coworkers, nonprofit leaders, business owners, classmates, friends, and acquaintances who each believed they shared a uniquely special bond with her.

And perhaps they did.

Because Emily had a way of making people feel like they mattered deeply to her.

“To know Emily was to love her,” Oparah wrote.

Despite the struggles she carried privately, Lowery said she hopes people remember above all else how deeply Emily cared about others and about the community she called home.

“Emily loved the world more than she loved herself,” Lowery said.

Hanna said he hopes to honor Emily by living the way she encouraged him to live.

“Emily lived to take care of me and make me a better person,” Hanna said. “I’m gonna live better. I’m gonna take better care of myself, eat better, work out better, work less, and think about who I am and what I want to do.”

Emily is survived by her mother and stepfather, Karen Akins Lowery and Tim Lowery; her father and stepmother, Mark and Patricia Poole; her sister, Addison Gilmore; her fiancé, Joe Hanna; her nephews, Baylor and Nathan Cipollone; and countless extended family members, friends, colleagues, and community members whose lives she touched.

Visitation will be held Saturday, May 30, at 10 a.m., followed by a memorial service at 11 a.m. at Dogwood Church in Tyrone. Friends have encouraged attendees to wear purple, Emily’s favorite color, in her honor.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to AV Pride, Bloom, or Royal Animal Refuge.