As head server and bartender at the Fairview Inn's restaurant, Sophia's, Cathy Baker is responsible for more than just food and drink. She is an unofficial ambassador for the city.
Yesterday, the Jackson Convention & Visitors Bureau recognized Baker's work in welcoming visitors and gave her a "Hometown Hero" award for helping promote Jackson's image to tourists.
"When you say 'Hometown Hero,' the first thing that comes to my mind is getting a cat out of tree or saving a child from a burning house, but it feels really good," she says. "I consider it a very high honor."
Baker relishes the diplomatic responsibilities that come with serving visitors to the Fairview Inn. When she first joined the restaurant in 2006, she had to instruct new owner Peter Sharp, who is British, in the necessity of saying "y'all," even with an accent.
One night, she had to defuse tension between two opposing tables of Louisiana State University and University of Alabama football fans.
"They both had on their attire, and they were glaring across the restaurant at each other," Baker says. "But they ended up going out by the fireplace, meeting each other and having drinks."
A Jackson native, Baker graduated from Callaway High School in 1976. She studied art for a year at Delta State University before returning to Jackson to work, choosing the restaurant business. She has worked at several area watering holes, including an eight-year stint at Martin's Restaurant and Lounge in the 1990s. After Martin's, Baker spent three years managing the bar at the Sun-n-Sand Motel. Baker says she saw a lot of state legislators there but is sworn to secrecy on almost all she witnessed.
Baker now lives in Raymond, spending time with her yellow Labrador retriever, Bud, and her cat, Diva. She draws and paints for fun, she says, now and then.
She proudly describes serving a woman from Ohio who had never visited the South before. After a mint julep and a day spent around Jackson, the woman declared, "I just love this little town."
It's a sentiment Baker can agree with.
"I've lived here all my life, and I can't imagine living anywhere else," she says. "I'd like to go visit other places, but I'll always come back here."
Go here for a list of other award winners from the Hometown Hero and SUMITT Awards program on July 29.
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