A Half-Century of Serving, And Not Just Hot Lunches
School Honors a Cafeteria Lady for the Ages

By Arianne Aryanpur
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 12, 2008

A few months after graduating from high school in 1941, Helen Cook accepted a job as the cafeteria manager at Lincoln Elementary School. For years, she planned the school's lunch menu and arrived at 7 every morning to begin preparing the day's entree from scratch.

Several decades later, a lot has changed at the cafeteria. A county dietitian plans the menu, and students have a choice of four entrees instead of one.

But one thing has been a constant: Cook, 84, is still serving lunch to Lincoln Elementary students. This year marks her 50th year of service at the Purcellville school; she interrupted her career and stayed home for many years raising three children.

To honor that milestone, students and teachers surprised her with a special assembly Monday. In addition to songs, poems and a slide show, students presented her with a wicker rocking chair and a framed photo of the school. A boxwood garden in front of Lincoln also has been dedicated in her honor.

"She's truly remarkable. You don't see people, first of all, who are like her; [and] second of all, who have worked at the same place for 50 years," said Lincoln Principal Albert S. Johnson.

Looking back at her career, Cook said one of the biggest changes is that everything now arrives at the cafeteria packaged.

"The turkeys used to come whole. They had to be thawed and baked and carved," she said. "Now, they come in a brown frozen hunk."

Cook was born in Summit Point, W.Va., and graduated from Loudoun's Lincoln High School -- the same building that now houses Lincoln Elementary. It wasn't until the county opened a high school in Leesburg in 1955 that the elementary school moved to its current location on Lincoln Road. Around the same time, Cook and her husband moved into a house across from the elementary school. Their house was the former home economics department, she said.

Because she lived so close to the school, Cook conducted safety checks of the building on weekends. And when teachers had to stay late, she would lock up after they left.

Early in her career, Cook developed a reputation as a jack-of-all-trades, acting as a substitute teacher, washing children's hair and even helping to potty-train the youngest children.

"She just has a mothering personality toward everyone," Johnson said.

Multiple generations of some families have passed through Lincoln, and Cook has served them all. Hilary Biesecker, 37, of Purcellville, said that Cook served lunch to her father, herself and three of her children.

"I'll see her at the grocery store and she'll still ask about my dad," Biesecker said. "She makes everyone feel special."

In 2004, the school created the Helen Cook Award, which honors a fifth-grade boy and girl every year for such qualities as respectfulness, kindness and dedication.

In her 50 years at Lincoln, Cook has missed only 50 days of work. Three weeks of absence occurred when she broke her arm two years ago, school officials said. While she was recovering, the school's Parent Teacher Organization provided her with meals.

Cook said she may retire at the end of next school year. She said she tries to make the most of her life every day -- and to pass that attitude on to students.

"I always talk to them about honesty and character and to do the best you can in life and to make the most of it," she said.