SUSAN PELHAM
Artist
Susan Pelham grew up in Cairo, Georgia, and never dreamed she’d marry her high school English teacher, Glenn Pelham, three years after her high school graduation, but she did. She majored in painting and minored in Art History at Florida State University. Glen became a State Senator and took the position of Director of Forensics at Emory University, so the newly-married couple moved to Atlanta and had a son. Having both been raised in the small town of Cairo, they sought a similar environment to raise their son. Glen drew a circle around Atlanta to define an acceptable commute distance to his teaching job at Emory and they chose Social Circle with ambitions to renovate historic homes. They renovated three together and moved to Monroe in 1983 after they fell in love with a home built in 1857 on Broad Street. It needed renovations and they were creatively inspired to take it on. Glen grew tired of his commute to Emory and took a judgeship position in Small Claims Court in Monroe, while promoting and helping to establish Susan’s position as a local artist. She attended a Sotheby’s Institute of Art and the couple bought and sold art from England in Monroe and other small towns in Georgia. Susan helped co-found the Monroe Art Guild with Betty Hearn after the downburst in 1993. Glen died in 1987 and Susan began teaching art more frequently and continuing her commission work and artistic pursuits exhibiting her work in Athens, Atlanta and towns surrounding Monroe.