For the baby of the McElroy Family…
Tina McElroy Ansa was our daughter, our sister, our aunt, and our heart. Long before the world knew her name, she was a superstar within our family—full of light, laughter, and an unshakable belief in the power of story. She embodied the McElroy skill for storytelling by pursuing a life as a writer. But alongside her commitment to the page was her ability to shape love and belonging wherever people gathered.
Tina had a gift for making people feel seen. Whether on the porch in Pleasant Hill, at a Sea Island Writers Retreat, or in her home on St. Simons, she created spaces that welcomed writers, dreamers, and seekers. She poured her spirit into others and left them believing, as she always did, that their stories mattered.
After Tina passed in 2024, our family felt a deep calling to continue what she began. We created The Tina McElroy Ansa Estate to carry her voice, her work, and her generous spirit into the future. The Estate will serve as a guardian of her creative legacy and a home for initiatives that reflect her life’s mission—storytelling, teaching, and building community.
Through the Estate, The Place, the name her parents gave their many enterprises in Macon, will live again as both symbol and sanctuary. It will honor the roots that shaped her while inspiring new generations of writers and artists to create in the glow of her example.
As we step into this sacred work, we also want to thank the many who colored Tina’s life with joy and dreaming. Your love, friendship, and belief in her work helped her shine even brighter. As we enter this new era of stewarding her legacy, we look forward to co-creating with all who loved her and continue to be moved by her words.
Tina believed that information is power and that love is strength. Through this Estate, both will endure.
With love and gratitude,
The McElroy Family
Tina...in her own words
Tina McElroy Ansa, novelist, journalist, storyteller, writing doula and supporter of the vast number of her “good ‘lil schoolgirls,” was the award-winning author of five novels, including Baby of the Family, Ugly Ways, You Know Better and The Hand I Fan With, all of them set in the fictional town of Mulberry, a Middle Georgia community influenced by Ansa’s years growing up in Macon. She often wrote that she was influenced by stories told by her elders, folks who frequented her family home and in the juke joints and liquor stores that her parents owned.
Tina was born November 18, 1949, the fifth child of Walter J. and Nellie McElroy, making her the baby of the family. She began her career after graduating from Spelman College (1971) in Atlanta and then becoming an editor and writer for the Atlanta Constitution, where she was the first African American woman to work in the newsroom. She later worked at the Charlotte Observer in North Carolina.
Tina founded the Sea Island Writers Retreat in 2004 on Sapelo Island, Georgia, and she was also the publisher of DownSouth Press, which she founded in 2007. Her fifth novel, Taking After Mudear, was the first book published by DownSouth Press. As a freelance writer, her work appeared in magazines, newspapers, short-story collections, non-fiction anthologies and online publications. She contributed essays "Postcards from Georgia" to CBS Sunday Morning and she taught writing workshops at several colleges and universities, including Emory University, Savannah State University, Furman University and Spelman College. Spelman awarded Tina an honorary Doctorate of Arts in 2011.
In 2020, Tina—alongside her freshman year roommate and lifelong friend, Wanda S. Lloyd—edited Meeting at the Table: African American Women Write on Race, Culture and Community, an anthology of essays by notable African American women.
Tina called St. Simons Island, Georgia home surrounded by the love and devotion of her husband of 42 years, Jonee’ Ansa. Together, they built a beautiful life until his death in 2020. Tina McElroy Ansa died on St. Simons Island on September 10, 2024, at age 74, but her legacy lives on.