ATLANTA — Faye Yager, the founder of the underground network Children of the Underground, passed away on Aug. 3 at her Sandy Springs home, surrounded by her family. She was 75 and had been battling metastatic colon cancer, her son Joshua Yager said.

Yager, who was a fixture on television talk shows during the late 1980s and early 1990s, created Children of the Underground to shelter and save children from sexual abuse. The clandestine network had safe houses around the nation and world, offering refuge to those in dire need.

Born in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Yager was one of twelve children and grew up in Mabscott, West Virginia, where her father supervised a coal mine.

Yager initially garnered attention when she accused her first husband of molesting their young daughter. Despite being dismissed and her ex-husband receiving custody of the child, he was later sentenced for molesting several children in Florida. This vindication propelled Yager to establish Children of the Underground, aiming to prevent other mothers from experiencing similar anguish.

After divorcing her first husband, Yager married Dr. Howard Yager and began a new chapter as an interior decorator and mother. In the late 1980s, she started her underground network, counseling families on how to protect their children. She candidly warned them that violating court orders would make them criminals and might force them to create new identities and move to different places, sometimes even other countries.

Yager faced legal challenges, including a 1992 Cobb County trial where she was acquitted of charges related to kidnapping and cruelty to children. She was also sued by several men whose children and spouses had disappeared into her network.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Yager was caught up in the “satanic Panic” sweeping the nation, with many of her cases involving claims of satanic abuse of children.

By 1998, Yager stepped back from her network work and, along with her husband, purchased a historic inn in Brevard, North Carolina. Built in 1885, the Inn at Brevard is on the National Register of Historic Places. Yager enjoyed cooking for and engaging with the inn’s many guests.

Faye Yager is survived by her husband Howard, her son Joshua, her siblings Judith Ray, Bonnie McPeake, Mary Simpson, Florence Lively, Gaston Wisen, Fred Wisen, and Don Wisen; her children Zachary, Heather, Janelle, and Michelle; 12 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

The funeral will be held at H.M. Patterson and Sons-Arlington in Sandy Springs at 2 p.m. on Thursday, August 8, with burial at Arlington Cemetery in Sandy Springs. The public is invited, with a reception to follow at the funeral home.