Life and Work in Scottsboro, Alabama

My Mother, Joyce Dean Johnson, held many different jobs in her lifetime. She was one of the original phone operators in Scottsboro (before rotary), a bookkeeper, a sales clerk at Elmore's 5 and 10 on the square in Scottsboro, manager and bookkeeper for Johnson Plumbing and Electrical, a sales clerk and part owner of D.J.’s Unclaimed Baggage, and an admission clerk at the Jackson County Hospital. She worked at the hospital for several years and trained many others to work in the admissions department. After several years she was promoted to patient’s accounts representative. I think of all the jobs she held in her lifetime she loved being hired as one of the original female Police officers in Scottsboro. She didn't carry weapons or ride in patrol cars, but she directed traffic at major school intersections during the morning and then again in the afternoons when school was dismissed! She did this as a second job, just because she liked it! She had to be trained, of course, and she later trained others who were hired within the force. The date on the front of her license shown in the photo is an updated one. She was actually hired in August of 1967. There was always a “story” about her day at work! One of my favorites has to be her story of the diesel trucks. She was working the intersection at the main entrance of what was the Scottsboro High School which is now Collins. This would have had to be after 1968 because I was in the 2nd graduating class of the new school in 1969. She was standing in the middle of the highway with no space to “run” and two diesel trucks going in opposite directions came within inches of her in passing. She said she just stood there in the whipping wind and prayed that she wouldn’t get sucked up under one or both of the trucks! She, of course, was shaken, but when she told the story she just shook her head and laughed! We all thought that would end her love of that job, but it didn’t . She stayed and actually trained other women to follow. If anything she was truly a hard-working woman! My Mother was a character for sure! 
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