Guest speaker Audrey Calhoun, younger sister of Ethel Howell, spoke to Kiwanis on August 13. The sisters are close in age and both graduated from Pinecrest High School then from Grambling. Audrey graduated early because she did not want to stay at Grambling by herself. Ethel was an extrovert and Audrey was an introvert.
Audrey’s bachelor’s degree was in biology and you can’t find a job without a master’s degree in biology. The National Forest Service recruited at Grambling and she signed up for a summer job and went to Yellowstone. While there she learned you did not walk alone at night because of bears. She spent two summers at Yellowstone and knew she wanted to work for the National Park Service. She enrolled in La Tech in forestry.
When she graduated from Tech she was the first woman forester and the first black forester. She really wanted to work for the National Park Service but the jobs were highly competitive. So she was offered a job by the U.S. Forest Service in Alexandria. But she went to Yellowstone one more time and while there she called Washington, D.C., asking about temporary positions. During this time the U.S. Forest Service wanted an answer about the job in Alexandria and people at Yellowstone kept running interference for her. The last day she received an offer for a temporary job with the National Park Service and she took it and went to Washington, D.C.
The National Park Service owns a lot of land in Washington, D.C. Her first jobs were on the canal, at Theodore Roosevelt Island and the Arlington House to name a few. She did nature hikes and curriculum for kids. One of her lessons for kids involved snakes which got their attention. She did that for 4 years. After that she moved to the park in metropolitan Washington, D.C. It is in an old residential area. Then she became the assistant superintendent for the George Washington Parkway and then became the superintendent.
The parks in Washington, D. C., offer every element of the parks in other parts of the country so it is a good training ground. She was in charge of the Clara Barton Historic House, the U.S. Marine Corp Iwo Jima Memorial, and the recreation areas along the river as well as the George Washington Parkway. The National Park Service has its own Law Enforcement. They piloted the red light system on the Parkway which is the camera that takes pictures of your license plate and sends tickets when you are speeding, etc.
The most difficult time for her was 911. Their station was directly across from the Pentagon and they went and got the children out of the Pentagon daycare which was not harmed by the plane. But some of the children lost one or both parents. They were unable to do their job because of traffic jammed on the Parkway and some of the Park Service employees did not want to stay to do their job. Audrey said “when something bad happens, you have to stand in place.”
She retired after 33 years and moved back to Winnfield to be near her sister.