As her thirteenth year as school secretary comes to a close, Linda Glenn reflects on the life experiences that led her to become Clarke Central High School’s gatekeeper to the world. Photo by Chad Rhym.
Story by GRACE WALKER – Staff Writer
Video by NICHOLAS BYRNE – Broadcast Managing Editor
Upon walking into the main entrance of Clarke Central High School, visitors see a sliding glass window with a laminated sign that reads ‘FRONT OFFICE.’ Tucked away behind those windows sits Linda Glenn at her desk, a CCHS graduate and current secretary of 12 years.
A mother, a woman of song and a true believer in the importance of respect, she is the gatekeeper of CCHS.
Glenn was born and raised in Athens alongside her three sisters. When she was 12 years old, her mother unexpectedly died, a moment that defined her childhood and has always influenced the way she carries out her life.
“Everything I’ve tried to do in life, I used to always say, I’m doing it for my mama, I’m doing it for my mama,” Glenn said.
“Everything I’ve tried to do in life, I used to always say, I’m doing it for my mama, I’m doing it for my mama.”
— Linda Glenn, main office secretary
In her adolescence, Glenn attended CCHS and then completed her senior year at Athens Technical College as a part of a senior plan. There, she earned her business education degree and high school diploma.
“It was easy for me to go over to Athens Tech, because it wasn’t like I was going to miss my friends (at CCHS) because I never really hung out with a lot of people,” Glenn said.
Before Glenn even finished the business course, Athens Tech offered her a job as a production secretary, which she accepted. After graduation, she worked as a secretary at Athens Regional Hospital.
“I got a job at Athens Regional Hospital as a secretary in the emergency room. (That was) about the most exciting job I’ve ever had in my life, never a dull moment,” Glenn said.
This was one of many office jobs during Glenn’s time living in Athens, along with working for the Board of Education and as secretary of University Of Georgia’s Student Activity Department, where she met celebrities such as Beyoncé, Bill Cosby and Erykah Badu.
“I’ve always done office work, I’ve never done nothing but office work all of my life,” Glenn said.
But Glenn’s heart is also tied to her musical roots, from singing in her church choir, to opening for The Manhattans at the Georgia Theater in 1978. However, she was not able to pursue her dream.
“I wanted to be a singer more than anything, but I really didn’t have any support. I was raised in church, and I basically just sung in the church choir,” Glenn said.
However, 37 years later, singing remains one of Glenn’s dreams.
“I wish that somehow or another I could do that at a dinner club just sitting there with people eating dinner with a piano playing some music, just singing. I would love to do that, maybe one day I will,” Glenn said.
While Glenn has yet to become a professional singer, she practices her talent every week at her church.
“I sing in church, I even sing with the choir sometimes here,” Glenn said, “I sing every chance I get. If somebody asks me, I’m just always singing. I just love to sing, that’s my gift from God.”
Eventually Glenn’s string of office jobs led her to CCHS in 2002 but she was initially a bit apprehensive about applying because of the value of respect in her life.
“(My) biggest concern, (was) a child being disrespectful and me not being able to take it. I didn’t grow up being disrespectful and (with) children today, it’s a whole different ball game with disrespect and discipline,” Glenn said. “That was my biggest fear, of getting fired because of not being able to separate myself from a student and me being an adult, but I’ve been able to do it,”
A NEW PATH: Front office secretary Linda Glenn sits as a subject for a photographer at Athens Technical College in 1977. “That’s why when the senior plan came about, it was easy for me to go over to Athens Tech because it wasn’t like I was going to miss my friends (at Clarke Central) because I never really hung out with a lot of people,” Glenn said. Photos by Chad Rhym.
Despite this concern, Glenn has spent the last 12 years as the first face CCHS visitors see. She has made connections with students and staff ever since. This is no exception for senior Tiara Wilson, Glenn’s office aide since Wilson’s freshman year of high school.
“I am (the) office aide for Ms. Glenn, I answer the phone, I am there to do any errands or any duties that that she asks for me to do, and I fill in her spot whenever she is absent,” Wilson said.
Wilson sees Glenn as an exceptional model of someone handling anything from mundane office tasks to some of the more stressful job occurrences in a professional manner. Wilson can recall witnessing Glenn demonstrating this professionalism while dealing with an outraged parent.
“She mostly kept calm, she didn’t let all of the anger and all of the profanity effect her from saying what she needed to get out to him. The main thing (was) that she wasn’t being mean back to him like he was to us,” Wilson said.
In addition to working together in the front office, Glenn and Wilson attend church together and both share an affection for singing.
“(We) share a favorite artist, Erykah Badu and sometimes we sing to each other when we’re bored, (and) there’s no one in the front and we’re just handling our business on the computer,” Wilson said “(We) sing together, in harmony, in unison,”
During their time working together, Glenn has positively impacted Wilson’s life, just like so many other students.
“She has become a very important person and a factor in my life because I have changed a lot thinking of the things that she has told me for these past four years,” Wilson said.
“I’ve always put other people before me. I don’t know when I’ve ever put myself first.”
— Linda Glenn, main office secretary
In reflecting on her actions, Glenn says she was rarely motivated by self-interest.
“It seems to me like I’ve always put up with other people before me. I’ve always put other people before me. I don’t know when I’ve ever put myself first, I just can’t never recall doing that, putting me first,” Glenn said.
As a result of her dedication, Glenn thinks she has made personal connections with students.
“I think I have a good relationship with a lot of the students. I came here with this attitude, I knew I was going to treat these children the same way I treat mine. Some of them are going to accept it and some of them won’t,” Glenn said. “I’m all about discipline because you have to learn in life, there’s rules and regulations all during your life, even if you’re on your own coming, there’s somebody you’re going to have to answer to.”
Glenn’s co-worker and friend, counselor Toawondia Underwood, says that the Counseling Office gets a lot of referrals from Glenn when a student’s issue extends further than the advice she is able to offer.
“She’s so compassionate. She is so loving, so genuine. She has a really good spirit, a really good heart,” Underwood said “She’s more like a mom, she’s very nurturing and just an amazing person.”
Front office secretary Linda Glenn’s son, Ben Edwards, posing with his mother and father in his 1999 senior football picture. “(I’m proud of) the man that my son has become. I’m very proud of my baby, I’ve always been proud of my baby,” Glenn said. Photos courtesy of Linda Glenn.
Outside of the workplace, Glenn is a mother to 32 year old Ben Edwards who also attended CCHS in the years 1996-2000.
He speaks fondly of the way that his mother raised him and the role that she continues to play in his life.
“She taught me a lot of love. She was a single parent so she taught me how to be a man as well, and that’s hard, for a single woman to teach a young boy how to be a man but she did it,” Edwards said. “She is a wonderful lady, she raised me well. (She’s) an all around just wonderful person. I wish everyone could have a mama like mine.”
Ms. Glenn is indeed the gatekeeper of CCHS, but she is also much more than that to the people she has encountered in her life and those she’s met at CCHS.
“I’ve met people, and I’ve touched lives of people I didn’t know I’d touched,” Glenn said.
