Ms. Daisy retires after 50 years in the food service industry

“It is time for me to go home,” she added.
Her career began in 1966 in the newly-opened cafeteria located on the campus of Northwestern State University.
“It was a brand new building,” she said. “That was when I was making $1.45 an hour. I still have some of those check stubs. They were feeding thousands of children over there.”
Ms. Daisy worked on the dishwashing line when she was first hired. From there, she went to the line and then to the salad line.
The cafeteria also catered.
“Every time they had a game we would have to go up there and serve,” she said. “We also served children in the cafeteria following the Christmas parade.”
In 2006, Ms. Daisy made the decision to leave NSU and to begin her 10-year career at LSMSA.
At LSMSA, her favorite part of the job is meeting the faculty, staff, and most of all, the students.
“The kids love me,” Ms. Daisy said. “Children who graduated still call me and still send me cards all of the time.
“It has been a pleasure working here. The work I do, I try to make it look nice. I am the salad line lady. You can probably tell the difference in my days I work salad and days somebody else works salad because it doesn’t ever look like mine.”
A memorable time for Ms. Daisy during her tenure at LSMSA was when the lights went out one year and it was dark in the cafeteria.
“Me and Ms. Margaret took my lighter and cooked for the kids,” she said. “The children really gave us praise for that. They made posters and all of them signed it. That made us feel good to know.”
Her plans after retirement include traveling and fishing.
“Trust me, I am going to find something to do,” she said. “When it gets a little cooler, I am going to do a little fishing. Then I am going to do a little cooking. The rest of the story, I am going to sit down, rest, watch television and nod the rest of the day.”
Her final words of wisdom before leaving the LSMSA cafeteria for the last time:
“There ain’t but one Daisy, and there ain’t no more like her.”