KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — As a commitment to the University of Tennessee’s 21st Century Campaign, a $100,000 scholarship fund honoring Evelyn Martin Shafer, a University of Tennessee alumnus, has been created by daughters Lyn Shafer Overholt and Elisabeth Shafer Sansom and their husbands, Dr. Gene Overholt and Bill Sansom.
All three women majored in home economics, now called human ecology, at UT-Knoxville.
“This scholarship will be awarded each year to students in honor of our mother’s lifelong commitment to family and community,” said Elisabeth Sansom. “We want deserving students to be able to benefit from an education in human ecology as we did.”
Evelyn Martin was born in Atlanta. She graduated from Queen’s College in North Carolina with a degree in home economics. After teaching high school, she moved to Knoxville and received a master’s degree in home economics at UT in 1933. In Knoxville, she met and married Alex Shafer.
The Shafer’s four children — Lyn, Elisabeth, Martin and Alex Jr. (Bo) — are Knoxville community leaders.
Lyn Overholt and Elisabeth Sansom serve the university in many capacities. Lyn is on the 21st Century Campaign Steering Committee for Human Ecology. Elisabeth serves on the college’s board of advisers.
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Contact: Dorothy Bryson (423-974-5701)