“Brenda McLeod is definitely the greatest spiritual blessing and inspiration that I have ever had in my personal life aside from my mother,” stated Ron Austin. “She really is my spiritual mother in Jesus Christ!”
Ron isn’t the only person who has been impacted by Brenda McLeod. For years, she has given wise advice to those around her.
“I like to give good advice and leave it up to the person to take the advice or not,” said Brenda.
For 50 years now, the residents of Clarke County have been able to enjoy her wisdom and contagious smile.
“We moved here in 1970 when my husband finished bible college and started a home mission church here, which he pastored for 43 years,” explained Brenda. “We enjoyed our time at the church.”
Although they do still visit the church they started, they also visit other churches in the area. Usually they attend Abundant Life Tabernacle in Meridian.
Since they arrived in Clarke County, Brenda has always been a hard worker.
“I worked at Quitman Knitting Mill for 28 years in the accounting department until it closed,” stated Brenda. “Then, I went to MCC and worked there the last 16 years. I really enjoyed working at MCC and worked in the nursing department there. I made a lot of friends there. I retired two years ago.”
Although she has always been a hard worker, Brenda does have things she loves to do to relax.
“I love to travel. We have a motor home and travel some in that,” said Brenda. “We’ve been to Hawaii a couple of times. Last year, we went on a 21 day European trip and travelled through several different countries. We’ve travelled on the West Coast and the East Coast. There are only a couple of states we haven’t been to. We had planned on going those places this summer, but with the pandemic, that may not happen now. We do some travelling by ourselves, but we do a lot of it with our children. We love to take cruises.”
Although she loves to travel, Brenda really loves Clarke County and is proud to call it home. In fact, she has some great memories in this county.
“We’ve just always loved it here. When we retired, we didn’t even think about going back to one of our hometowns. Clarke County is just comfortable, has a great city, and is a very enjoyable place to live. There are a lot of nice people, and we have a lot of friends here,” explained Brenda. “I love the parks around here. Even though they’re right here at us, we go to them quite often. We’ll stay and camp there for around four days. When our grandchildren were smaller, we would always go camping with them. Those are very fond memories: camping with our grandkids. We’d go every year and did that for around 15 years.”
Brenda does have some hobbies that she truly loves to do when she’s home.
“I love to cook. I love to bake,” said Brenda. “I used to sell a lot of cakes, but I’ve gotten away from some of that now that I’ve gotten older.”
With her positive outlook, Brenda McLeod will continue to be an inspiration for all the citizens in Clarke County. It’s her love for the county and everyone in it that makes Brenda offer the following advice:
“Continue to be such a great county. Be there for the young people and the old people.”
