Eddy Ariail
Eddy Ariail is a native of Habersham County. He attended Piedmont College, where he received his degree in history. He continued his education at the University of Georgia and received his MBA.
He married Alice Crowder in 1984. Together, they have two daughters, Cat and Caroline. They have lived in the same Amilee Graves Circle home since marriage.
Eddy is currently on his second career as a financial advisor with Carson Advisory Group/Raymond James out of Athens, Georgia.
He is a member of Grace Calvary Episcopal Church. He is also a Trustee Emeritus at Piedmont University, a Grace Gate Clinic board member, and a lifetime Kiwanian.
He is a Leadership Georgia alumnus and a member of The Gridiron Secret Society at the University of Georgia.
His favorite pastimes are reading history, but he also enjoys hiking in the North Georgia mountains and walking for exercise on the streets and greenways of Clarkesville.
Diane Black Brown
Diane Black Brown is a native of Clarkesville and a graduate of the University of Georgia.
Diane is currently a partner and broker for The Norton Agency’s residential and commercial mountain divisions.
Her career in Habersham County has always been community-focused.
Diane is a past nominee for Georgia Realtor of the Year and served as president of Habersham, White, Stephens Board of Realtors for two terms. She currently serves on the board of directors for the Georgia Mountain and Lakes Realtor Association. Additionally, she serves as the chair of the Faith Christian Academy Board of Directors.
She is a member of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Habersham County Rotary Club, Alpha Gamma Delta Alumni Chapter, past member of Emma Shepherd Burns Chapter Children of the Confederacy, Habersham Chapter United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Diane is married to Franklin Brown, has three children, nine grandchildren, and a very faithful Cocker Spaniel, Dixie Rose. She enjoys cooking, collecting antiques, and genealogy.
Kerry Edwards
Kerry Edwards, the newest member of the board, is a multi-generational native of Habersham County, raised just outside of Clarkesville, and a 1984 graduate of Habersham Central High School. Kerry attended Piedmont College, earning a bachelor’s degree with dual majors in Business Administration and Sociology.
He also attended North Georgia College & State University (now UNG) and earned a bachelor’s degree in Middle Grades Education. His first career was in retail management, working in corporate retail, first for Belk Stores, and then as an executive at Saks Fifth Avenue, Atlanta. After earning an MBA with a concentration in Accounting from Brenau in 2013, he has pursued a second career in auditing and accounting; he currently works as a government auditor for Rushton, LLC, with offices in Gainesville and Alpharetta.
Outside of work, Kerry serves as Treasurer at Grace-Calvary Episcopal Church where he is a member. Kerry is a Georgia Master Gardener since 2005 and has taken coursework in Environmental Horticulture. He moved back to Habersham County in 2021 and built a home on his maternal grandparents’ property outside of Clarkesville. He is enthusiastic about plants, particularly Japanese maples and conifers which are heavily featured in his personal garden.
Kerry is also an avid runner, and you might see him running Clarkesville’s Washington Street and the streets around the cemetery and Grace-Calvary in the early hours of the morning. His mother, Barbara, twin brother, Terry, and sister, Margie, are lifelong residents of Clarkesville.
Brooks Garcia
Brooks was born in Atlanta, attended The Lovett School and then the University of Georgia, where he majored in Landscape Architecture and received his BLA. Garcia then toured Europe and studied classical garden design.
After working for the renowned garden designer Ryan Gainey, Brooks launched his own garden design firm, Fine Gardens, which he headed for almost 25 years. Fine Gardens specialized in high-end residential design.
While in Atlanta, Brooks served on the Hills and Dales Estate board in LaGrange, Georgia, and helped open the historic Fuller Callaway home and gardens to the public. He also served on the board of The Historic Oakland Foundation, which is charged with restoring and preserving Historic Oakland Cemetery. He also worked at the cemetery as a gardener, helping to plant and maintain the Victorian-style gardens there.
He brings his six years of experience working at Oakland to the Old Clarkesville Cemetery board and project. He desires to return the Old Clarkesville Cemetery to the Victorian splendor it once might have been.
What brought this new resident to Habersham County was a lifelong desire to fulfill his dream of living in the mountains, owning property, and farming. He designed his Tuscan-style villa and oversaw its construction in Demorest. When asked if he misses Atlanta, he responds, “Where!?” “I have never been happier than I have been living here.”
E. Lane Gresham–Chair
E. Lane Gresham relocated with her family to Habersham County in 1999, seeking a deeper connection to community.
Lane, a writer and photographer, is the Advancement Director at the John C. Campbell Folk School.
She is a former member of the Clarkesville City Council and a past member of several other boards and committees, including Habersham 200 [Habersham County’s Bicentennial committee], the Georgia Literary Festival, The Little School, the Sautee-Nacoochee Community Association, and the Foothills Photography Group.
Lane and her husband, Bill, are the parents of three adult children and one fabulous daughter-in-law.
Don Nix–Treasurer
A native of Clarkesville, Board Member Don Nix grew up on Wildwood Circle playing in the woods and along the river. Those areas are now some of Clarkesville’s newer neighborhoods.
Since the 1940s, Don’s maternal grandparents lived on Washington Street, and his mother’s family is generational to the original Habersham County in the part now White County.
Don graduated from Habersham Central High School and then the University of Georgia with a BBA and MBA in 1981.
During high school and college, he worked for John Carey as a clerk in the downtown Clarkesville office.
Don returned home to Clarkesville in 2020 after living in various cities and having recently retired as a regional network manager from Stellantis US LLC.
Don is married to Sean Nix, and they have two adult sons.
Don is a member and serves as an Elder at First Presbyterian Church, Clarkesville. He also joined the Clarkesville City Council in 2023.
He enjoys gardening, traveling, hiking, and local history in his spare time.
Barbara Strain
Barbara Woods Strain of Clarkesville joined the board in 2025 and has long been a cheerleader for the cemetery’s mission.
Barbara grew up in Clarkesville and, at an early age, recognized the significance of the Old Clarkesville Cemetery.
Barbara, a retired social worker and real estate broker, is involved in many community projects and organizations. She spent many years in Cornelia but is happy to be back in her hometown of Clarkesville. She recently restored a historic folk Victorian home with cottage gardens. She enjoys gardening, swimming, history, theatre, music, and spending time with friends and family, especially her two grandsons.
Kathy Walker-Secretary
Kathy Walker moved to Clarkesville from Stuart, FL, in 1990.
Kathy married Habersham County native Tommy Walker and spent the next 25 years owning and operating Cody Road Workshops, a boutique furniture factory.
She and her late husband raised two sons.
Barrie Aycock – Board Member Emeritus
Barrie Aycock and her husband Bobby moved to Habersham County from Decatur, Georgia, in 1987 to renovate and open the 150-year-old Glen-Ella Springs Inn they owned and operated until 2008.
Barrie’s primary focus at the inn was managing the restaurant, which quickly became known as the premier fine-dining destination in Northeast Georgia. During that time, she was involved in many local and statewide tourism organizations and was active in national culinary and inn-keeping associations.
After the sale of Glen-Ella Springs in 2008, the couple moved to Clarkesville. She became a member of the Clarkesville City Council in 2013. She has been mayor of Clarkesville since 2015. In the fall of 2017, when she learned of the opportunity for the City of Clarkesville to assume ownership of the Old Clarkesville Cemetery, she led the efforts to acquire the property from the former non-profit that had been inactive for several years.
Old Clarkesville Cemetery 