By Shirley Shuman
Kay Holcomb, the Braxton County Service Person of the Year for 2023, has spent 16 years working for Braxton County Schools. Currently she works as a cook at Davis Elementary, and she enjoys what she does.
Looking at her present job, Holcomb cited two major factors in her attitude toward her current position. The first is Brenda Long, the manager of the Davis Elementary food program. Holcomb referred to a statement by Morna Greene, the retired county food director. “When Morna was county head of the cooks,” Holcomb said, “she told me Brenda and I would make a good team, and she was right. I enjoy working with her, and we work well together. One of us might start a job and the other be able to just jump in and take over. I couldn’t have been the Service Personnel of the Year without Brenda.”
The other factor in her enjoyment of her current position is the relationship she has built with the students. She explained that she likes talking briefly to the students as they come through the line and maintains that she realizes when one is absent. “They often tell me things about what’s happening with them,” she said, “so I get to know them a little.”
For the local school system, she worked as a custodian at Braxton County High for two years and was in the same position at Davis for seven years. She has been a cook at Davis for ten. Holcomb explained why she switched from custodian {at the high school] to cooking. “When I worked at the high school, I worked all year except for three weeks’ vacation,” she said. “In that position, in the summer, I had to mow and weed-eat as well as do work inside the building. I decided to switch to cooking so I could have the summers off.”
Looking at Holcomb’s work history, many might consider her a “workaholic,” and they would likely be close to the truth. This hard-working woman gets up at 1:15 a.m. so she can be at the Appalachian Timber tie yard before 2:00 a.m. There she cleans the offices and more before going home to shower and make it to work at Davis Elementary by 5:30 a.m. She explained that work “is nothing new” for her since she has worked since she was 15,
Whenever she is not working, Holcomb enjoys time with friends and family, and she loves horseback riding. She and her husband Jim own horses and often ride together. She also enjoys being with her two-year-old grandson, whom she currently picks up from day care after she leaves work at Davis at 1:30 p.m.
Kay Holcomb’s may well deserve an honor for the sheer amount of work she does daily. To her, however, that is “just the way it is.”
Many would class this woman a “workaholic,” and they might be right. She began working early and has worked at various jobs for 43 years.
