Guide to the Janie W. McGaughey Papers

Janie Wood McGaughey (1891-1981) was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the daughter of George Burkhart and Mamie Wood McGaughey. She graduated from Central High School in Washington, D.C. in 1909, and from Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, in 1913. From 1913 to 1919, McGaughey taught at the North Avenue Presbyterian School in Atlanta. She served as an Associate Professor of Bible at the Assembly’s Training School, Richmond, Virginia, from 1921 to 1922. In 1922 she became the Director of Religious Education at the First Presbyterian Church of Knoxville, Tennessee, a position she held until 1926. From 1926 to 1927 McGaughey was a Professor of Bible at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia.

In 1927 McGaughey joined the staff of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. (PCUS) Board of Women’s Work. She served as Assistant Secretary of the Board in 1928 and became Executive Secretary in 1929, remaining in this post until her retirement in 1956. During her career McGaughey wrote numerous articles and Bible study guides for the PCUS Women of the Church as well as a history of the Board of Women’s Work, “On the Crest of the Present.” After her retirement, she earned a Master’s degree in Religious Education from the Biblical Seminary in New York (1957), and she received an honorary Doctor of Religious Education degree from Southwestern University.

A member of Druid Hills Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, McGaughey was the first woman elder elected in the PCUS Synod of Georgia in 1964. In 1967, she became the first woman moderator of a PCUS presbytery when she was elected by Atlanta Presbytery. She continued to teach bible classes and Sunday School classes at church and at the Presbyterian Home in Summerville, South Carolina, where she resided from 1971 until her death on February 28, 1981.