AgCenter secretaries carry on long tradition

The four ladies gathered at the LSU Extension Service Office can trace an unbroken timeline back to 1951 when Earline Brown Baker started working as a secretary at the office.

Brown was with the AgCenter from 1951 to 1955. During that time, she served the community alongside county agent Basil Doles, assistant agent Sidney Reech and associate agent Austin Johnson, home demonstration agent, Hazel Fusilier and assistant agents Barbara Gwin, Margie Truly and Joanne Dewitt.

Melda Silk came on board as the extension service secretary in 1955, working with the same people.

She remembers the first person to come into the office was a Holly Ridge farmer who was there to “pay the rainmaker.”

“At that time, farmers were in need of rain and this was a procedure where the clouds were seeded with some kind of material to cause rain and apparently it worked,” she said.

Doles was the head of the junior division of the Northeast Louisiana Livestock Show at the time, which meant plenty of work for secretaries in typing results of all of the winners in the stock show events.

“It was on a portable manual typewriter and we had to make several copies for the newspaper representatives waiting and looking over your shoulder,” she said. “It was okay because the 4-H’ers had their name in the paper the next day and that was important to all of us.”

Sue Vinson joined the AgCenter in 1977, working with parish chairs Doles, Billy J. Watkins, Kay Parnell and Keith Collins. She also remembers the challenges of getting stock show results typed up on time.

“We began with manual typewriters sitting in the ring with the animals,” she said.

It would be 23 years before the results were computerized in 2000. In all that time, she said, the weather almost never cooperated, although, in the 72 years the show has been held, it’s only been closed once and postponed once due to weather.

Vinson retired in 2007 but has volunteered to help with the show since retiring.

Hassie Kirschenbaum joined the AgCenter in 2003. She was hired by Parnell and mentored by Vinson. She was promoted to Administrative Coordinator 3 when Vinson retired.

This will be her sixth year to work the livestock show with Vinson and show manager Keith Collins.

The Northeast Louisiana Livestock Show will be held Feb. 1-4 in Delhi.

The Miss Northeast Louisiana Livestock Show Pageant will be held at 6 p.m. Jan. 28 at the Delhi High School auditorium. The Northeast Louisiana Livestock Show parade will kick off at 10 a.m. Feb. 3 in downtown Delhi. 

And, carrying out a tradition that’s as old as the Stock Show itself, Kirschenbaum will make sure the name of each and every winner will be in the newspaper right after the show ends.