At Nevils Elementary, the building may have changed recently, but most of the faces have stayed the same. Linda Brown, the lunchroom manager, has worked for the Bulloch County public school system for 36 years.
Brown started her career in 1972 as a bus driver. As she tells it, “Superintendent Louis Woodrum came up to me one day and asked if I could drive a bus. I told him that Donald Brown had let me drive his bus down the dirt road where we lived. He hired me on the spot.”
One day, Brown said, “Mr. Godbee (former Principal at Southeast Bulloch High) told me he needed someone who could cook. When I told him that I cooked like an old woman, he said ‘OK, come on, you got the job.’”
Brown said her kitchen back in the early 70s was quite a bit different than the one they have today.
“We did everything on top of a big gas stove, even cooking the fried chicken in big pans full of grease,” she said.
When Juanita Glisson, the lunchroom manager at SEB retired, she took over her position at the school.
She’s been married to Bulloch local Manzy ‘Junior’ Brown for some 45 years, and they have two grown children. According to Brown, “Manzy saw me walking on the road one day, and he just pulled over and asked who I was.
“He finally got up the nerve to ask me if I would go out with him. I told him he’d have to ask my dad, who said ‘OK.’ The afternoon we went out was the day that the Beatles first appeared on American TV.”
Brown contracted meningitis many years ago.
“If it wasn’t for Jesus, I wouldn’t have survived. The doctors said I wasn’t going to live. I was in a coma for over five hours. When I awoke I saw the cross over my bed, and I’ve had him as my savior ever since”.
She admits she’s always been way too busy: she cooked for the Kiwanis Club for 25 years, and was a fixture at SEB’s football and band camps doing most anything. In 1998, Brown moved over to assume the job as lunchroom manager at the old Nevils Elementary.
She is quick to point out that at the new NE, “Here, everybody has one job, but helps with all the serving and cleaning duties. There’s not anything I haven’t seen, so I know how to take care of my ladies.”
Principal Julie Blackmar said of Brown: “She’s a live-wire, and is always on the go every single day … she has a really canny understanding of people and is a wonderful leader … her ladies always want to do their best.”
Her crew consists of herself and four other ladies. They are: assistant lunchroom manager Becky Sanders (17 years), cashier Janet Tillman (11 years), cook Gina Dihrberg (3 years), and cook Connie Simpson (2 years). The staff keeps busy, preparing 175 breakfasts and 315 lunches everyday.
Kathy Szotkiewicz, director of School Nutrition for Bulloch schools, said that Brown is “like a ray of sunshine wherever she goes…(her) Christmas display (in the cafeteria) included a ‘brick’ fireplace with a fully decorated tree, complete with wrapped gifts underneath. It was so lifelike that the teachers used it as a backdrop for their class pictures.”
Brown keeps busy elsewhere as well: she’s involved at her church, Old Friendship Baptist Church; and is a full-time member of the Tar City Hunting Club. Brown was quick to point out that “I like ‘critter’s’. Honestly, I’m not much on shooting them, I really just like to watch ’em.”
Brown started her career in 1972 as a bus driver. As she tells it, “Superintendent Louis Woodrum came up to me one day and asked if I could drive a bus. I told him that Donald Brown had let me drive his bus down the dirt road where we lived. He hired me on the spot.”
One day, Brown said, “Mr. Godbee (former Principal at Southeast Bulloch High) told me he needed someone who could cook. When I told him that I cooked like an old woman, he said ‘OK, come on, you got the job.’”
Brown said her kitchen back in the early 70s was quite a bit different than the one they have today.
“We did everything on top of a big gas stove, even cooking the fried chicken in big pans full of grease,” she said.
When Juanita Glisson, the lunchroom manager at SEB retired, she took over her position at the school.
She’s been married to Bulloch local Manzy ‘Junior’ Brown for some 45 years, and they have two grown children. According to Brown, “Manzy saw me walking on the road one day, and he just pulled over and asked who I was.
“He finally got up the nerve to ask me if I would go out with him. I told him he’d have to ask my dad, who said ‘OK.’ The afternoon we went out was the day that the Beatles first appeared on American TV.”
Brown contracted meningitis many years ago.
“If it wasn’t for Jesus, I wouldn’t have survived. The doctors said I wasn’t going to live. I was in a coma for over five hours. When I awoke I saw the cross over my bed, and I’ve had him as my savior ever since”.
She admits she’s always been way too busy: she cooked for the Kiwanis Club for 25 years, and was a fixture at SEB’s football and band camps doing most anything. In 1998, Brown moved over to assume the job as lunchroom manager at the old Nevils Elementary.
She is quick to point out that at the new NE, “Here, everybody has one job, but helps with all the serving and cleaning duties. There’s not anything I haven’t seen, so I know how to take care of my ladies.”
Principal Julie Blackmar said of Brown: “She’s a live-wire, and is always on the go every single day … she has a really canny understanding of people and is a wonderful leader … her ladies always want to do their best.”
Her crew consists of herself and four other ladies. They are: assistant lunchroom manager Becky Sanders (17 years), cashier Janet Tillman (11 years), cook Gina Dihrberg (3 years), and cook Connie Simpson (2 years). The staff keeps busy, preparing 175 breakfasts and 315 lunches everyday.
Kathy Szotkiewicz, director of School Nutrition for Bulloch schools, said that Brown is “like a ray of sunshine wherever she goes…(her) Christmas display (in the cafeteria) included a ‘brick’ fireplace with a fully decorated tree, complete with wrapped gifts underneath. It was so lifelike that the teachers used it as a backdrop for their class pictures.”
Brown keeps busy elsewhere as well: she’s involved at her church, Old Friendship Baptist Church; and is a full-time member of the Tar City Hunting Club. Brown was quick to point out that “I like ‘critter’s’. Honestly, I’m not much on shooting them, I really just like to watch ’em.”