Pearl Hale McEachern was born in Fayette County on April 20, 1899. Her parents were Dr. John and Pearl Hale. She had three years of college. In 1920, she married David William “Bill” McEachern, a member of the prominent Marietta family that helped to fund McEachern High School. His father was Samuel Capers McEachern, who owned the large cemetery plot where we are standing. Much like his father, Bill McEachern was very interested in modern farming practices. Interestingly, when Samuel McEachern died, Bill, as administrator of his estate, sued the government for overtaxing. The case ultimately reached the US Supreme Court, and McEachern won.
When the Marietta Journal mentioned the couple, it was often in reference to a road trip or party they were hosting. Their house was on Marietta’s Church Street and still stands today. Pearl was very close friends with Virginia Yates, whose husband Boling was superintendent of Kennesaw Mountain.
In 1943, Bill McEachern died after a heart attack. Pearl was left in charge of the estate, and ended up selling the farm. The land was sold on March 7, 1944. Before the month was over, she enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps. She trained at Fort Oglethorpe. According to the Marietta Daily Journal, “there is no more popular young matron in the city [Marietta]. Endowed with a personality that combines vivacity and charm, she also possesses the gift of making and retaining friends… so we feel assured as a WAC she will give to her outfit her best.”
Pearl McEachern would serve as a recruiter for the WAC and the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron. In 1947, she joined the newly created US Air Force. In 1952, she learned through Women Flyers of America how to fly a plane. She next went to Germany, returning to Marietta in 1955. When she came home her close friend B. C. Yates wrote an article for the paper detailing the unusual goods and trinkets she brought home. Her close friend Virginia Yates joined the Air Force at this time. Pearl McEachern would be discharged from the Air Force in 1965. She passed away in Dublin, Georgia on November 29, 1971. She was laid to rest here in the McEachern family plot.