Senior Center director Cockrell leaving

Published 12:00 am Friday, March 23, 2001

The Vicksburg Senior Center director Anna Lisa Cockrell can not keep the tears from flowing as she reads her farewell speech to the senior citizens gathered at the center Thursday. (The Vicksburg Post/MELANIE DUNCAN)

[03/23/01] Tears flowed at the Vicksburg Senior Center Thursday as its director announced her resignation and proclaimed her love for the city and residents who have made the center buzz with activity.

The center opened in a building adjacent to City Hall in April 1999, and Anna Lisa Cockrell has acted as its director since June of that year.

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“This is a special, special place with very special people,” Cockrell said.

More than 50 seniors showed up at the center to play bingo and hear the news of Cockrell’s departure.

Her farewell was interrupted as some cried along with her and others yelled out appreciation.

“We’ve been blessed to have you,” one woman in the crowded room said.

Cockrell’s husband works for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and was offered a position in Washington, D.C. The family plans to move to nearby Arlington, Va.

Cockrell, who also has a 7-year-old daughter, said the center and the city have acted as an extended family for her and invited the seniors to visit her in Arlington.

Although seniors at the center support her decision, they said they are saddened to see her go.

“We’re so sorry she’s leaving,” Margaret Pearce said. “She’s done so much for us.”

Cockrell has been employed in the past by Vicksburg’s recreation department, but it was after the purchase of the former Neill Building at Walnut and South streets that events for the city’s seniors took off. The schedule included everything from book reviews and interracial discussions of history and events to dance, computer and cooking courses. The center was a lot of things, but rarely empty and always bright.

Mildred Sumrall said she could write a book about all the things Cockrell has done for the center.

Cockrell had worked at a volunteer-only senior center that operated at various locations before 1999. She said there was little for seniors to do, and they would have about 50 people a week sign in to the center. Since the new center opened, more than 17,000 have signed in, she said.

“She’s done worlds with this place,” Matilda Moyer said. “She’s brought so many people together. She’s so interested in senior citizens. We always know we can come here. It’s like a home away from home.”

Cockrell said Mayor Robert Walker called her about becoming involved in the new center. He asked her to work for the center for a few weeks during the summer.

“I talked to my husband and he was supportive and I thought about my mother and wished she could have had a place like this,” Cockrell said.

She began going out into the city and trying to get support for the center. Sack and Save, SuperValu, the Kiwanis Club, the Lions Club, Ameristar Casino and numerous other businesses have donated time and products to the center.

Col. Robert Crear of the Vicksburg District Army Corps of Engineers helped the center get computers and provided a boat trip for the seniors, many who have lived in Vicksburg their whole lives but had never been out on the Mississippi River.

Cockrell said she’s comfortable with the senior center’s future because of Walker’s support and project director Marcia Weaver’s hard work and ability to secure grants for programs at the senior center.

“This wouldn’t be here without him (Walker),” she said. “Mayor Walker has been wonderful. He has supported the center since day one.”

No replacement has been named for Cockrell, but she said Walker and Aldermen Sam Habeeb and Gertrude Young assured her they would be very selective about choosing someone to lead the center.

Walker said the center will continue to expand as planned and everything that needs to be done to make the center progress will be done but Cockrell’s contribution to the center is appreciated.

“She has been a special blessing from God,” he said. “We support Anna Lisa in everything that she does. This center will continue to move forward and benefit from her ideas and her work.”

Cockrell has planned the calendar at the center through December to give her replacement time to get to know the seniors first, but some said it would be hard to bond with someone else the way they did with Cockrell.

“She loves us and we love her,” Pearce said.