Brownie Lemons has been working at Sumner Farmers Cooperative since 1964, and this past September, he celebrated his 60th anniversary of service to the organization. Born and raised in Hendersonville, Brownie grew up on a dairy farm and says he enjoys working with the farmers and customers of the Gallatin area.
‘When you think of Co-op …’
Sumner Farmers Cooperative’s Brownie Lemons has been taking care of area farmers since 1964
Story and photos by Page Haynes
This is the eighth in a series of articles highlighting outstanding Co-op employees throughout the system who live the Co-op brand statement “Driven to Serve” in their day-to-day work and portray the Co-op F.A.I.T.H. values (Focused, Accountable, Integrity, Teamwork, and Honest Communications) in their interactions with their fellow employees, customers, and communities.
Times may have changed … but Brownie Lemons hasn’t! His presence at Sumner Farmers Cooperative has been a welcomed sight since he walked through the door on September 14, 1964. After an amazing 60 years of service, Brownie still has the same smile, work etiquette, and desire to serve the farmers in the community as he did when he started.
This year marks Tennessee Farmers Cooperative’s 80th year, and as the Cooperator celebrates with many of our cooperatives, we want to recognize the uniqueness of our business and the hardworking individuals like Brownie who have helped make our organization successful.
Brownie started working at Sumner Farmers Cooperative in Gallatin when he was 24. Now 84, he still hustles back and forth at the register to look through manuals for new seed recommendations and scans computer programs for the best items to recommend for customers.
“When you think of our Co-op, you think of Brownie,” General Manager Andrew Allen says. “People who’ve shopped here 50 years, as well as new customers, come here because of him. They all want him to wait on them. He’s good as well as dependable. He’s usually the first one here every morning.”
“And the last one to leave,” chimes in Assistant Manager Shannon Lancaster, who’s worked with Brownie 24 years. “There could be two or three open checkouts, but they are still going to stand in line for Brownie because they are used to working with him, especially the older customers.”
Brownie says he enjoys assisting his friends at the Co-op, like longtime customer Lewis Douglas, right, who’s purchasing a bag of safflower bird seed for his feeder.
Over his years at the Co-op, Brownie has worked with eight different managers and been through lots of changes in the cooperative system, from policies and various employees to the types of merchandise sold at the store. This will be the store’s 78th year and Brownie has been there for 60 years of that span. As the employee with the most experience, Brownie is the go-to for all things Co-op.
“He taught me everything I know up there,” Andrew says as he nods toward the front counter. “Products, patrons, and services may have changed since the Co-op opened, but Brownie has seen it all.” Brownie says he has fond memories of working with all the small, “mom-and-pop” family-owned farm businesses of the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s that raised hogs, tobacco, dairy cattle, and all types of other commodities just to make a living. While times have changed somewhat and the Co-op now sells home goods in addition to farm supplies, Brownie says working with our state’s farmers over the years has been a pure joy.
“Farmers are a special breed of people,” he says. “After you get to know them and work with them, they seem just like part of your family. The people I’ve worked with at the Co-op and Tennessee Farmers Cooperative have been great as well; I’ve had a good bunch of people on both sides. That’s one reason I like my job and have stayed — I have never woken up and regretted having to come to work.”
If you could track Brownie’s steps throughout the Co-op over the years, he’s performed nearly every job except for manager. He started in the warehouse at the original Co-op store on Red River Road, stacking 100-pound burlap bags of feed and seed and loading them into old farm trucks for waiting producers. He worked at the back counter, figuring how much fertilizer a farmer needed for a field or telling him about the latest seed varieties before placing the order. And he worked at the tire center, rolling out sets of new Co-op tires to place on farmers’ tractors, farm implements, or personal vehicles.
“We used to buy a half a boxcar-load of tires at a time,” he recalls. “We sold tires for pickup trucks, cars, tractors, trucks, and anything else that needed a tire, and we fixed them right here at the Co-op, too. I mean we were in the tire business! And we had our own Co-op brand.”
When asked what he enjoys selling now, Brownie quips “anything.” He’s sold it all, he says, and most of it — as far as feed and seed go — has basically stayed the same. He says he enjoys being proactive and trying to stay on top of what the Co-op’s customers need before they even ask him.
That speaks to the measure of his devotion to his job — just like many other Co-op employees who are Driven to Serve. The Cooperator salutes you, Brownie!
In the beginning, to encourage farmers to invest in the Co-op, stock sales were promoted, like this one bought by J.W. Dyer of Bethpage on May 19, 1949, to help finance the opening of Sumner Farmers Cooperative. This original hangs in the hallway at the store.
By Page Haynes,
Contact phaynes@ourcoop.com