Murfreesboro will never see anyone like Liz Rhea again. And it's our loss.

Liz Rhea (she's most often referred to by her full name) has impacted Murfreesboro more than anyone ever has or ever will.

She was generous of her time and her money. Doling out donations, and whipping others to donate, to causes all over town.

Liz Rhea exemplified how you should live and give back to your community in a way to make it a better place.

“When I retired years ago, I told Creighton (her husband) it was time to give back. … and I have received far more than I have given,” Rhea said when I interviewed her in 2008.

And Liz Rhea gave a lot. The 85-year-old retired physician served on no fewer than 24 boards of nonprofit organizations – from the Center for Domestic Violence and American Cancer Society to the St. Rose School and the Blue Raider Athletic Association since she moved back to Murfreesboro in 1992.

She donated to Read To Succeed, United Way, and others but, by far, her favorite causes are MTSU and the Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital Foundation.

Liz Rhea is the reason why we have a new science building at MTSU and a new hospital on Medical Center Parkway.

There's nary a nonprofit in Rutherford County that hasn't seen a check from Liz Rhea.

“Liz has helped many people who don’t even know her name. …,” her friend Betty Childress said in 2008 when Liz Rhea was honored by the Noon Rotary Club. “She’s had a big part of making this community better.”

That meeting was the first time I was introduced to Liz Rhea. At the time, little did I know she was a three-time cancer survivor, who would eventually battle the disease for 17 years.

It was at that meeting that I learned the most impressive fact about Liz Rhea.

When Liz Rhea first came to town from her hometown of Eagleville, she made a promise to her five brothers and sisters. If she went to college at MTSU and became a doctor, she would make sure they all went to college.

She came through on that promise.

Her giving nature didn't end with her family.

After graduating from MTSU in 1958, she went on to the University of Tennessee Medical School in Memphis, where she met her husband Creighton Rhea in radiology class. Liz and Creighton married in 1961 and in 1962 they moved to Murfreesboro.

From their home base, they traveled the highways and byways of the Volunteer State, visiting places where no radiologists were available at the time, and volunteered her spare time to the communities in need.

The couple then worked for the Veteran’s Administration for 20 years starting in the 1970s. She returned home in 1992 but the radiation exposure over the years had taken its toll.

She was a fighter and fought a good fight for a long time but now it's time for her to rest.

Murfreesboro will miss you, Liz Rhea.