BROOKHAVEN — She is the face of the Lincoln County Civic Center and offers a friendly smile when you walk through the doors and step into the administrative office. Annie Pearl Johnson is a lifelong resident of Lincoln County and was hard at work when The Dart landed nearby Thursday. 

She grew up in western Lincoln County and moved to Brookhaven when she was 7. Her mom was a single mom so when she graduated from Alexander High School in 1965 she had to find a job to help raise her four siblings. 

Johnson’s passion for the black and gold New Orleans Saints may have started with Alexander. She was a member of their proud band and recalled the cold nights when she performed as a majorette.

“It was a great school. We were the greatest band in town,” Johnson said. “We had a good director. Mrs. Mae Robinson Brown could stand and tell who below the wrong note and was at the wrong spot. She was a great lady. When we marched we didn’t march flat footed. You used your toes. The stripes all rippled. Under her, I learned whatever you go out to do you do your best. She always told us to do our best.” 

Johnson wore an Alcorn State sweatshirt. While she did not go to Alcorn, her daughter was an Alcornite and three of her nieces earned their masters degrees there. 

She worked for 30 years at the Potter Company in Wesson before moving to a job at Delphi for a few years as a security guard. A senior aid program at Co-Lin Community College brought her to work at Lincoln County Civic Center. 

Johnson handles the contracts and other paperwork for events but when she started she did a little bit more than that. She would clean up around the center and do other tasks catching the eye of then Civic Center director Quinn Jordan. He hired her 16 years ago and she has been the face of the Civic Center ever since. 

Chaston Bullock, director of Lincoln County Civic Center, said Johnson is a wealth of knowledge and he tries to learn as much as he can from her. Johnson said she enjoys working at the civic center and has seen it grow up over the years. 

“I look forward to working with our new boss. He is nice and sometimes you are burdened down and he lifts those burdens with his energy,” Johnson said. “I don’t know how many more years God has planned for me but I hope to work here as long as I have a sound mind and body. God has blessed me and he has been good to me and will still be good.” 

Johnson said she really enjoys coming to work. Most of Brookhaven knows her, Bullock said. She explained she loves people and tries to talk with them when she sees them anywhere.

She said God has blessed her in numerous ways. He provided for her daughter to go to college, go to Kansas State to work towards a doctorate degree. It is in Manhattan, Kansas where Johnson’s grandchild was born. Her daughter is now a history teacher in Kentwood, Louisiana. 

She said she became a member of St. Mark Missionary Church where she married her husband in 1968. Johnson now attends Grace Community Church pastored by Phillip Sterling. Her grandson convinced her to go there about five years ago. He liked Sterling’s preaching and one day took the microphone. 

“He said he wanted to be a member and said the Lord told him to make a move. The next week he was baptized,” Johnsons said. “When you have children trying to go the right way you need to go with them.”