Marilyn Norfleet has had an interesting, busy career, and she perhaps capped it off this year with a run for Chairperson of the Jones County Board of Education.
Though she came up short in her bid against four-term incumbent Ginger Bailey, Norfleet declared there are no hard feelings.
“When we got ready to do the (candidates) forum, Miss Bailey and I hugged each other, and she said, ‘No matter who wins, we’re still going to work together.’ And she and I never had any animosity. It was not about us. It was about policy.”
Norfleet, who moved to Jones County in 1985, is no stranger to competition. She was the youngest of 11 children, with a range of 28 years between her and her oldest brother. That has proved interesting to say the least. A sister that’s 85 years old had five daughters, and the oldest is 67, just behind Norfleet, who will turn 70 in November.
However, even more interesting is that another sister had a daughter who is one year older than her aunt.
“When we went to high school together, she would call me Aunt Marilyn, and that would infuriate me because she was a year older,” Norfleet shared. “It didn’t set well.”
Marilyn Marie Miller grew up in Greenville, Mississippi, a small town in the Delta.
“During those times, some of my sisters were having children when they were in high school,” Norfleet recalled. “So we were all in the family house sometimes together.
“Mom would have to keep the kids sometimes, and she was an aunt and a grandmother. And my sister with the five girls, she ended up getting a house next to Mama. So, we did not separate until I went off to school.”
Norfleet graduated from Xavier University but took summer classes at Mississippi Valley State University to ensure she earned her degree in four years. That was where she met her future husband, John Norfleet.
“He was a policeman in Greenville,” she said, “and then he started going to college later. He knew my brothers, and he knew my brother-in-law. They thought he was a pretty good fella, and we hit it off pretty good.”
They dated for close to three years, and she graduated from Xavier in 1978. The couple married in 1979, and they have two sons, John and Matthew, both of whom served in the Marines. John will be 43 this year and Matthew 40.
The elder John Norfleet, who served in the Marines for four years, has been a minister for 29 years, though he is now semi-retired and does not pastor for a specific church. He also worked with the Department of Corrections in the prison system and in the 1980s was transferred to Macon, where he was a probation officer.
The Norfleets lived in Macon before moving to Joycliff Circle, and they live in the same house today.
Marilyn Norfleet worked with the Coliseum Park Hospital for almost six years as a registered technologist before leaving for another job.
“I went to Brown and Williamson,” she said. “I worked in the chemistry lab for a while, and then I got promoted to international operations. I worked there until I closed the plant down — the international operations part of the plant — and retired from that.”
While she was at Brown and Williamson, the company paid for her courses at Georgia College and State University as she worked toward a Master of Public Administration with a concentration in policy management.
“By the time I retired, I only had one class left to take, and I paid for that one,” she pointed out.
Norfleet retired from B&W in 2006 after 20 years and enjoyed a break.
“I took off a year off I think, and we did a little traveling,” she recalled. “We love to travel.”
Norfleet shared that she and her husband have visited at least six countries since 2021, including Japan, France, Spain, England, Egypt, and Ghana. Since their marriage, they have traveled to numerous other countries and “most of the states.”
In 2007 the ‘retiree’ decided she needed to be doing something again.
“I started volunteering as a Vista volunteer with Evelyn Hill (at Central Georgia Tech College),” Norfleet said. “She needed someone to teach math. So I volunteered to teach, then took a part-time job there teaching math.”
That changed later, though. “When Miss Evelyn decided she wanted to retire, I became a fulltime instructor there,” Norfleet noted.“I built on what she had, and then they acknowledged the work that was done. They moved me to Bibb County. While I was in Bibb County, they kept pouring it on, and I ended up with four counties that I was a site manager over.”
While she was with CGTC, working in Jones County, Norfleet had a somewhat unusual opportunity.
In 2009 she was the instructor for CDL classes for prospective drivers, and she actually obtained her license.
“I had on a silk blouse driving the truck, learning how to park and back up and everything, because I wanted to be able to do what they did.”
Norfleet, who served on the steering committee for the Jones County College and Career Academy in 2017, was also a substitute teacher for Jones and Bibb counties. She served as Interim Family Connection Director for the county at one point, and she currently serves on the Jones County Library Board. She retired from CGTC in 2023.
Norfleet said she was somewhat surprised when she made a list of her activities.
“I didn’t realize that I was doing those things,” she commented. “When I started writing it down, I was like ‘Who is this person? And how did she have time to do this stuff?’ I was working with my husband as a help-meet. I was working with my children, doing whatever was needed to get them to where they needed to be.’’
The recent Board of Education candidate said lack of communication was the primary reason she ran for chairperson. She pointed out that votes at the board meetings would be taken with little discussion and no opportunity for the public to speak.
“It didn’t matter whether I was a Republican or a Democrat,” she declared. ”Something needed to change. The people needed to know what the procedures were. You need to be able to say, ‘You do this, this, and this, and this happens.’ They (should) let you know it’s in writing somewhere that this is the procedure.
“And,” she added, “we don’t just sweep stuff under the table and two or three people know. People need to know.
“So I was really adamant about transparency,” Norfleet stressed. “About loving each other. About trust. And that’s what compelled me. I did not really want to run. But I knew that something was needed to be done, and when I looked back over and saw that I had what was needed to run, I wasn’t afraid.
“I told the Lord if He wanted me to run, that I would run. Win, lose or draw, I still win because I did what I believe God wanted me to do.”
Norfleet indicated that she was going to speak at the Board of Education meeting this past Tuesday night.
“I have a problem with police coming into your homes doing bed checks. I wrote the superintendent a letter asking her if they would review the policy, and she wrote me back. I wasn’t well with it, and I asked her If she would let me get on the agenda to speak.”
Norfleet is happy she ran for office and has no qualms.
“I loved it. I was tickled pink. I got a group of people, about 20-25, who really believed in what we were doing, who were excited about doing it. We met every Monday, and they were just tickled pink. God just covered me,” she smiled. “I wasn’t worried. I wasn’t nervous. I just felt good about it.
“The only concern I had was that I didn’t let them down. I wanted to be the candidate that they wanted me to be, that they could be proud of. I think I did that, and with no concerns, with no fear. I think I did that, and I am pleased with it.”
Norfleet, set to travel in the near future with her family, said she has no plans for the future. However, she is willing to listen.
“I don’t have any plans for running for any type of office. I don’t have any plans for getting a job. But,” she cautioned, “if the Lord sends something my way, I am going to pray over it.”
