May All the Years Ahead Bring you Great Joy and Relaxation. Happy Retirement!
The MTA office got a surprise, bittersweet announcement last week. Jenny Markow, a MTA staff member for the last twenty years, is retiring at the end of July. After teaching school for seven years, she became a stay-at-home mom for her two boys. When faced with an empty nest, Jenny started looking for a good job to fill her days. When she heard about the MTA job, she threw her name in the hat. She was hired to be in charge of Community Tennis and Kids Team Tennis. After training with the Southern staff, she was off and running. After a few months, the staff was reorganized, and Jenny took over as Director of Junior Team Tennis and Schools, and Sandra Irby took over the Community Tennis program. As hard as it is for us to imagine now, there were no computers back then. It was not until 2000 that a webmaster was hired to install computers and train the staff to use them. The computers were dial-up with one telephone line designated for online use, and no one on the staff was computer literate! With proper training, that quickly changed.
Around 2000, Ann Brady, Executive Director, hired Wendell Cox to be the Director of Marketing. Wendell, Sandra, and Jenny made a good team, traveling around the state putting on school assemblies and organizing community tennis programs. When Wendell retired in 2005, Jenny became Director of Marketing, and Russell Dendy was hired as Director for Junior Team Tennis.
Change is always good, and that is something we all have to remember as Jenny retires. Jenny says, “It’s been a fabulous job. I have met so many wonderful people, and the MTA staff is amazing.” For those of us who remain at MTA, we will miss Jenny’s infectious laugh, her advice on all things social, and her knowledge of Mississippi tennis garnered from twenty years on the job. Thank you, Jenny, for a job well done.
