Mayor Arline Hayes Chapman was born in Shanghai, China, as was her mother.  Her family played a significant role in the business community there during the time of the British Colonial Empire’s influence in the Far East.  Her father, an American citizen, went to Shanghai as a representative of the Texas Oil Company and met and married her mother there.  During the Japanese occupation of Shanghai she and her family were evacuated to the United States by the Texas Oil Company.  She spent her childhood in New Jersey and came to Atlanta as a Flight Attendant for Eastern Air Lines.  She is proud to be a Georgian by choice.  She was active in volunteer work during the time that she was raising her sons.  This included P.T.A., Boy Scouts, Little League Athletics, teaching Sunday School and remedial reading to high school students.  When her sons were grown she returned to work doing public relations for Eastern and eventually beginning a career with the State of Georgia.  She was secretary to the House Committees on Natural Resources and Environment and Game Fish and Parks, worked in the Governor’s Floor Leaders’ Office during the administration of Governor Zell Miller and spent the last five years of her career as Executive Assistant to Attorney General Thurbert Baker with the Georgia Department of Law.  In retirement she was able to pursue her interest in art, teaching adults and children as well as selling her paintings that have been displayed at The Southern Heartland Art Gallery in Covington where she is a member of the Board of Directors.  She moved to the Porterdale Mill Lofts when it opened with the intention of painting and enjoying the river and the small community.  “Man proposes and God disposes.”   She was encouraged to run for an unexpired seat on the City Council that she won handily.  After election she was instrumental in making significant changes and opened a free, community library in the empty railroad depot.  Realizing that she was where she wanted to be, she purchased and renovated a mill house in 2010.  In 2011, she was encouraged to run for mayor, took the challenge and won.  Her goal is to work with the city government and the citizens of Porterdale to overcome obstacles and move the city forward.  Mayor Chapman graduated from Jonathan Dayton Regional HS in Springfield NJ, Katherine Gibbs, Montclair NJ and attended the Atlanta College of Art.  She is a member of Epiphany Lutheran Church in Conyers where she has served as Chairman of the Church Council and continues to be active in the Mutual Ministries Committee.   She has two sons and two granddaughters who live and work in Newton County.