It has been said that there is a time and place for everything, and Jones County native Sandra McKinney is sure of that when it comes to her home.
McKinney, retired from both Central Georgia Technical College and the Jones County Chamber of Commerce, said in an interview last week that she and her husband, Tim, lived in Macon for three years, Jones County for 30 years, and Lake Sinclair for 20 years before moving back to the county four years ago.
“I started my life in Jones County and plan to end it in Jones County,” she said emphatically.
McKinney, 80, is the daughter of the late Joe Ben Jackson Jr. and Evelyn Jackson. She has one brother, Joe Ben III, and she and Tim have one son, Alex, 50.
Growing up, McKinney’s family lived on Gray Highway in an area residents there referred to Park Haven. She recalled seeing the ‘goat man’, who traveled around Middle Georgia with his little wagon pulled by goats. However, he didn’t have them all.
“I had a goat that I truly loved who followed me around all the time,” she shared. “I guess you could say that I smelled like a goat most of the time.”
There came a time, however, when the animal had to go.
”I had to give my goat to a farmer,” McKinney recalled, “because daddy found him on the top of his car, along with the goat not liking the lady who looked after us while our parents worked. He kept butting her, and she threatened to quit.”
As she got older, McKinney became proficient as a typist while still in school and worked for the Jones County Ordinary (now known as Probate Judge) J. Harris Morton.
“He was a character,” she said, “and I never got the best of him. He always got the best of me.”
There was one occasion, however, that she recalls. McKinney explained that she used an old-style typewriter with the big lever that had to be pulled and that he would dictate letters to her, requiring her total concentration.
“One day, he got a letter back, and it had a quarter in it,” she said, “and it was with the letter that we had sent. It said, ‘we would be glad to send her the copy that she requested, but it would be $1.25.’
“Well,” McKinney noted, “somehow the dollar got left off. And he looked at me and says, ‘Now, whose fault is this?’ I said, ‘Well, it’s my fault for making the mistake, but it’s your fault for signing it without reading.’ I got him; the only time I ever did that.”
McKinney was also an athlete. She was a reserve on the 1958 and 1960 state champion basketball teams but starred later in her own right.
The JCHS graduate attended Georgia College and obtained her Bachelor of Science degree before going to the University of Georgia, where she earned her Master’s in Education Supervision. She enjoyed a highly successful career in the secondary education field.
McKinney was a typing teacher for one year before joining a new technical college program.
“They put a layer of education between high school and college, where people could go to get a trade, an occupation, which is what is big now,” she explained.
“I found out about that, and I interviewed for it, and I got it. It was Macon Technical Institute, but it was later renamed Central Georgia Technical College.”
From 1966-78, McKinney was chair of the Business Education Department before being promoted to assistant coordinator of postsecondary instruction. In 1989, she was named director of curriculum and staff development, and the following year she assumed the duties of vice president for instructional services.
During that tenure, McKinney supervised more than 200 fulltime employees and managed and directed all instructional services, including credit programs, continuing education classes, staff development, Milledgeville satellite programs, Law Enforcement Training Center, evening programs, and the Micro-computer Center.
The former executive explained that she often had to work with the teachers to prepare them.
“I helped them get ready for accreditation programs. I had school with a welding instructor,” she recalled. “He didn’t get it. So, after school we sat down, and we did welding. I know what arc welding is. And, like nursing, data processing, drafting; helping them with instructional skills to meet standards.”
McKinney was hesitant to acknowledge it, but she was something of a pioneer in her field.
“There were very few women leaders in technical training,” she pointed out.“Before 1980, there were only three women in the state in upper level leadership. I was one of them.”
Early in her professional career, McKinney met her future husband through a new social group in Macon.
“Macon’s Young Movers was formed as a social organization for singles,” McKinney said.“Tim was one of the leaders. But I did not attend many functions because I was teaching day and night classes while I was also working on my master’s degree. I didn’t have much energy left.”
She did have a good bit of energy one night, however, while enjoying one of the bus trips the social group took. Folks were sitting outside, admiring the ocean and chatting until she and Tim were the only ones left.
“I never drank beer, but I drank beer that night,” she confessed. “He said I deceived him because I never drank beer after that. But, I drank it that night, and we sat out there talking for four hours.
“We didn’t know each other, but we talked about everything in the world, and we got to know each other. We became friends, and it just went from there.”
The couple will celebrate their 56th anniversary April 19.
McKinney got started with the Jones County- Gray Chamber of Commerce in 1995 — sorta.
“I kept trying to retire from Macon Tech, and they kept coming up with some reason I couldn’t retire. And of course,” she declared, “they had a workhorse, you know, and so, finally, I just said I was gonna do it.”
McKinney said she saw an ad for a parttime director for the Jones County Chamber of Commerce and filled out an application. She believes Thad Childs, Dottie Walker and Lucille White were among those at an interview.
“I’ll never forget, I got my portfolio together. And, I was being so professional and having every ‘i’ dotted and ‘t’ crossed. I even had my evaluations from my teachers included.”
While McKinney said she doesn’t remember exactly what was said during the interview regarding her paperwork, Tim joined the conversation.
“The way I understood it, Thad tossed your application on the table and said, ‘you’re hired.’” McKinney recalled that the technical college still wouldn’t accept her retirement for a while, and she started out working for the school during the day and the Chamber at night.
“I couldn’t be there during the day,” she related, “and so I got my mama to answer the phone and just make notes. And I would do the shorthand and the computer work at night.”
McKinney said her mother was a big help, and the Chamber later recognized her.
“One year, we gave her a certificate of appreciation for 8,000 hours of volunteer help.”
Once the new director was able to get on board, her efforts produced results.
“We did do well that first year; we increased our chamber membership 70 percent then.”
Soon thereafter, the county acquired the old high school building (now named the W.E. Knox Center), and the Chamber acquired new space. It took a lot of work, McKinney said.
“But, it was worth it to have a real office. And, I worked in the same building I graduated from high school.”
McKinney served as executive director of the Chamber of Commerce for 10 years and the Jones County Development Authority for five before retiring in 2005. She mentioned two particular achievements of which she was proud. Frank Duke was chairman of the Development Authority, and she said the two of them wanted to recognize some special Jones Countians.
“We thought we needed a Veterans Appreciation Day. And this was before 9/11,” she pointed out. “This was the summer before 9/11, and we started plans for one then.”
McKinney said she had a problem finding handheld flags.
“I finally did find some from China, and I had to go take all the China labels out. We had it planned before 9/11, and so we had a wonderful ceremony, and it’s all in scrapbooks.”
Another accomplishment the former director cited was an organization that led to community planning. She pointed out she didn’t have a job description or plan of action when she was hired, so she sent out surveys asking various local residents what issues they saw facing the county.
“And, based on those survey results, we came up with PLAN (People Looking Ahead Now).
“So that’s how we got started with PLAN and getting community involvement; then we worked on having a PLAN retreat, and it just went from there,” McKinney said.
The hardworking director’s efforts did not go unnoticed, as she was named Citizen of the Year by the Chamber on one occasion and served as Grand Marshal of the annual Christmas parade in 2005 following her retirement that year. She credits the people of Jones County, however, for their efforts, from the time she took the job.
“We were in our infancy; that’s for sure,” she reflected. “But it’s fun to grow with an organization when you can see where we started and where we ended up. I mean, that’s great. And it was a community effort.
We got everybody pulling together, and I think that was important.”
