When Andrew Young served as the United States ambassador to the United Nations, he would often bring one of his four children to formal events in New York City or Washington, D.C.
At a White House state dinner in 1977, hosted by then-President Jimmy Carter, it was Lisa Young’s turn.
In a photo from the evening, she is wearing a dark, cowl neck dress. She and Ambassador Young are smiling at Mexican first lady Carmen Romano de López Portillo as they make their way down the receiving line to an awaiting Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter.
“I had the honor of being Daddy’s date at a White House State Dinner with Pres. & Mrs. Carter in 1977,” Lisa Young Alston posted on Instagram on Jan. 9, 2025.
Andrea Young, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, said the evening was a thrill of a lifetime for her younger sister.
“She was very excited to go to an event at the Carter White House,” Andrea Young said. “President and Mrs. Carter were always warm and gracious to their guests and even more special that he was from Georgia.”
Lisa Young Alston, the second daughter of former U.N. Ambassador and Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, died at the age of 67 after what her family called “a long struggle” with pancreatic cancer.
Her death came on March 14, 2025, just two days after her father’s 93rd birthday.
Alston’s services will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at First Congregational Church of Atlanta, where she had been a lifelong member.
“Lisa lived a life of faith,” said her childhood friend, Cheryl Lowery, the daughter of the late Rev. Joseph E. Lowery. “Lisa made decisions and choices based on what she believed God would want her to do. It came out in her kindness.”
Lisa Dru Young was born to Jean Childs Young and Andrew Young on July 19, 1957.
Credit: Andrew Young Famil
Credit: Andrew Young Famil
That was the same year Young began working in New York City for the National Council of Churches. But by 1961, the family had moved to Atlanta to participate fully in the emerging Civil Rights Movement.
Andrea Young said her sister was the family’s “unifying and guiding force,” embodying her mother’s “passion and morality with her father’s common sense and candidness.”
Similar to the children of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, C.T. Vivian, Hosea Williams and the Lowerys, Lisa Young and her siblings — Andrea, Paula and Bo — would often find themselves in the middle of civil rights marches and social justice causes.
Credit: Cheryl Lowery
Credit: Cheryl Lowery
“We had that in common and we shared having preacher daddies who were not only men of faith, but risked their lives for what they believed in,” said Lowery, who moved to Atlanta in 1968 and met Lisa Young at a party the Abernathys threw for the Lowerys to introduce them to all of the civil rights families.
Alston participated in the Selma to Montgomery march in 1965, as well as the Poor People’s Campaign in Washington, D.C., in 1968.
She and Andrea integrated Trinity School in Atlanta, before she graduated from Southwest High School in 1975. She enrolled at Purdue University to study engineering, before transferring to her father’s alma mater, Howard University.
It was in the D.C. area where Lowery said Alston could be herself and not the daughter of a civil rights legend and politician. Lowery was a student at the University of Maryland at the time, and the two spent a lot of time together.
Credit: Susan Ross
Credit: Susan Ross
“As teenagers it was ‘Think Young,’” said Lowery, referencing Andrew Young’s 1970s campaigns for the United States House of Representatives representing Atlanta. His daughter was one of his biggest youth campaigners. “In Atlanta, everyone knew her as she (was) recruiting her friends to go out and campaign. In Washington, we could be anonymous.”
After graduating from Howard, Lisa Young moved to Palo Alto, California, to develop new technology for IBM. It was in California that she met Douglas Banes Alston, a fellow engineer.
Credit: Casey Wright
Credit: Casey Wright
Having moved back to Atlanta, the two married on July 5, 1987, at First Congregational Church. They had two children, Kemet Louis Douglas Alston and Lena Marion Clarice Alston.
Most recently in Atlanta, Alston used her experience with computer technology to promote digital literacy and create opportunities for young Black people. At InspiredU, she helped provide refurbished computers and the training to use them to young people and their families.
Alston became an active member of the Atlanta Chapter of Jack and Jill and was a charter member of the Camellia Rose Chapter of The Links, where she volunteered to register voters, raise money and empower women and youth.
Credit: Susan Ross
Credit: Susan Ross
She was the superintendent of the Sunday school at First Congregational Church of Atlanta; board chair of the Jean Young Institute for Youth Leadership in Atlanta; served on the board of the historic South-View Cemetery; and as a trustee of Manchester College in Indiana, her mother’s alma mater.
Lisa Young Alston is survived by her husband, Douglas Alston of Atlanta; son, Kemet Alston of Atlanta; daughter, Lena Alston of Washington, D.C.; father, Ambassador Andrew Young of Atlanta; sisters Andrea Idella Young of Atlanta and Paula Jean Young Shelton of Washington, D.C.; and brother Andrew “Bo” Jackson Young III.
Because of space limitations, the services will also be streamed live at 1 p.m. Saturday.
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