CONWAY — Monday might have been like most paydays for Brenda Hawkins, administrative-support supervisor at the Faulkner County Cooperative Extension Service, University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture.
“I came in and took care of payroll first thing,” she said, noting that was one of the responsibilities of her job.
But this particular Monday, Dec. 15 to be exact, was different — it was the last day of her 41-year career with the agency.
“I just felt it was time for me to retire,” she said. “I turned 66 in November.
“All of a sudden, I woke up one morning and thought, ‘Oh my gosh, have I really been here that long?’
“About two years back, I began to think about retiring. I started to get excited about it.”
Hawkins grew up in Greenbrier, the daughter of the late Earl T and Rena Kirby. Hawkins has one sister, Earlene Newton, who lives in Conway.
Hawkins graduated from Greenbrier High School in 1966.
“I finished Central Baptist College with an associate degree in business and attended the University of Central Arkansas for one year, where I studied business. Then I went to work in the business world.”
Hawkins said that at first she wanted to major in psychology in college.
“But you had to go out of state to get a degree,” she said. “I didn’t want to do that, so I stayed with business.”
She said her first “real job” was with KVEE radio station in Conway.
“It was on Washington Avenue and owned by Robin Brown, who was a son of Paul Brown, coach of the Cincinnati Browns, later the Cincinnati Bengals,” she said. “Robin was married to the former Marjorie Wasson, whose family owned the old Wasson Dairy in Conway.
“Robin was a mentor to me,” Hawkins said. “He helped me through college. He has since passed away.”
Hawkins said her next job was as a secretary for a firm in Little Rock.
“I loved my job, but I hated the drive,” she said. “It was at 12th [Street] and University [Avenue] in Little Rock. There was no [Interstate] 430 or 630 when I got that job. I had never driven in Little Rock, so I had to learn. It was a 9-to-5 job. The 9 wasn’t so bad, but the 5 coming home was.
“I got a phone call from Robin Brown telling me about a job at the extension service,” Hawkins said as she recalled how she got to the Faulkner County Cooperative Extension Service 41 years ago. “Then I got a call from Joe Bradley, who was chairman of the extension service at that time. He told me he was looking for a secretary for the extension service. I came in, took the test, and the rest is history.”
Hawkins said she has lived in Faulkner County all her life, “except for a short time in Barling, Arkansas, which is at the back gate of Fort Chaffee.”
“I hated every minute of being away from home. I love Faulkner County.”
Hawkins married Joel Hawkins in 1984. He has a CPA practice in Conway.
“He says he is never going to retire,” Hawkins said with a laugh. “I told him just to be real quiet when he gets up in the mornings.
“For a while, this [retirement] is going to be a time for me. It is going to be a time for me to do some things I’ve wanted to do.”
Hawkins has one daughter, Krissie Talley, who lives with her husband, Eley, and their five children, Grace, 15; Garrett, 13; Wyatt, 11; and 3-year-old twins, Keith and Kendal, in Nashville, Arkansas [in Howard County].
“I want to spend time with them,” she said. “It’s a 2 1/2-hour trip, and my car knows the way.
“We always vacation with them,” she said. “When I was working, I’d have to plan my vacations around my job. I won’t have to do that anymore.”
Hawkins said she wants to sign up for a Joy of Living Bible study that will begin in January at Second Baptist Church in Conway, where she is a member.
“I’ve told everybody that this first year will be a time for me,” she said. “I’m just going to relax. I’ve done that alarm clock for a long time.”
Hawkins has several hobbies she hopes to develop during her retirement.
“I love to read,” she said. “I like to listen to light jazz. I like going to cooking schools. But most of all, I enjoy spending time with my grandchildren.
“They will come here for Christmas Eve, but we will go back there afterward. My daughter always wants to be at her home with her children in Nashville for Christmas morning. When they built their new house, they built us an apartment above their garage. The children always enjoy coming up to the apartment and sleeping there Christmas Eve night. It’s like a big bunking party. Then we will all go downstairs for Christmas morning.”
Hawkins was honored Dec. 12 with a reception.
“I told them that the thing I will miss the most is the people.
“They are a family to me,” she said of her co-workers at the extension service and those she has met and worked with during the past 41 years. “It’s not just the staff that I will miss, but the people I’ve worked for. I will miss all the 4-H’ers who have grown up and now have children in 4-H, and some of them even have children. I will miss the producers I’ve met and the Master Gardeners I’ve come to know. That’s what I am going to miss.”
Hawkins said a lot has changed since she began her career with the extension service.
“When I started, I had a Selectric typewriter, a mimeograph and a ditto machine,” she said, laughing. “There was no computer or fax, no copy machine.
“When I first went to work in 1973, [the extension service was] located upstairs in the post office building downtown. Then the GSA (General Services Administration) started charging rent. We had no money.”
Hawkins said the county judge remodeled the basement of the courthouse on Locust Street, and the extension service was there until 2005, when it moved to the Faulkner County Natural Resource Center on Amity Road. The service moved to its present location at the former Faulkner County Courts Building on Faulkner Street in August when Antioch Baptist Church bought the building on Amity Road.
“When I first started,” Hawkins said, “my job was pretty much straight secretarial work — letters, newsletters, helping with clients. … As it went along, I took over the bookkeeping, kept books for the 4-H Foundation and kept records for anything we received money for, such as collecting soil samples. I also kept books for the Master Gardeners.”
Like her work, Hawkins said the work of the extension service has changed over the years.
“We do so much more than we used to,” she said. “We are so much more in the public eye. We do so much more to educate people. People can come here for all kinds of educational information, and it’s all free.”
“I’ve had a good career.
“I’ve worked for three fine staff chairmen — Joe Bradley, Bill Dodgen and Hank Chaney,” she said. “I’ve been fortunate to work with a fine Christian staff, and that makes a difference. It makes you feel at ease. You’re like a family.”
Hawkins said her retirement will be “a new chapter” in her life.
“It’s yet to be written,” she said. “I told my daughter [who attended the retirement party] it was a bittersweet day.
“This has been my office, my extension service, and I am proud to have been a part of it.”
Chaney said of Hawkins’ service, “Brenda’s been an awesome secretary.
“She pretty much set the tone when you walked into our office,” he said. “She was very professional and cared about the people of Faulkner County.
“For me, as the staff chair, it was very reassuring to know when she worked with our clients, she had a professional demeanor. Forty-one years is going to be hard to replace.
“She’s a dandy.”