(This week The Columbian-Progress spotlights Marion General Hospital Environmental Services Supervisor Santrice Franklin.)
Q: When and where were you born?
A: I was born in Columbia, Aug. 22, 1970.
Q: Where did you attend school?
A: I attended Columbia High School. I attended Drone’s Business College in Jackson for a year, but they closed down.
Q: Where do you work? Tell us about your job/company.
A: I am the environmental services supervisor for Marion General Hospital. On a day-to-day basis, I make sure my staff has all the chemicals they need to clean with throughout the day. I have to make schedules for them, make linen and supply orders and I help out cleaning when we’re shorthanded.
Q: What led you to your profession?
A: I was working at Pioneer and got laid off there. I applied different places, and a job here came available. I started as a housekeeper, had another position offered to me as a group leader and had another position offered where I moved up to supervisor. November will be two years I’ve been with the hospital.
Q: What do you enjoy most about your job?
A: I like working with others. I like cleaning because I like to clean at home. It’s something I enjoy doing.
Q: What is the most challenging aspect of your job?
A: Right now during the COVID-19 outbreak, I’m always on call. I’m the person who has to come in after hours to make sure everything is clean for the next patient and for the staff. That’s the challenging thing because it may be 2 or 3 in the morning.
Q: What is the most important lesson you have learned in your career?
A: The most important lesson I’ve learned is that it takes a team to make this work. Sometimes I’m thinking I can do it all by myself, but when you have other people that can come in and help you, you have to learn to delegate.
Q: When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A: I really wanted to come into the medical field. But at that time I was hardheaded and young, and I regret it now. I wanted to get into nursing.
Q: What was your first job?
A: I started working at Pioneer at 20 years old.
Q: Who is the person who has been most influential in your life?
A: I had a supervisor, Margie Stewart, and she was the best that I could ever have. She taught me to not give up and to go for my goal.
Q: Do you have children?
A: I have two children. Shaquera Franklin is 28, and Ralpheal Luter is 19.
Q: If you could have anything for your last meal on earth, what would it be?
A: Seafood. I really love crab legs from Island View Casino.
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
A: I would want to go to Tampa, Fla., all day long. That’s where my daughter lives. I would shop, go to the beach, spend time with her and see different things.
Q: What hobbies do you like to do in your spare time?
A: I’m a homebody. I like to be at home cleaning and watching Netflix.
Q: What do you enjoy about Columbia and Marion County?
A: I like it because it’s quiet, and it’s not so busy like Hattiesburg. I have some good neighbors. I like living here.
Q: If you could have lunch with anyone from your life or history, who would it be and why?
A: My mother, Mary Jackson, because she is the backbone of my family. I’d want to talk to her about what it was like before she had us; she was a single parent with six kids. She worked all her life.
Q: If you didn’t have to worry about money, what would you do all day?
A: Stay at home, drive to Florida and just relax.
Q: What moment in your life has had the biggest impact on who you are today?
A: When I lost my job at Pioneer after 20-something years. It taught me that you can’t take for granted what you have in life. It took a toll on me because it was very unexpected. But it was a blessing that I ended up at the hospital.
Q: What is one thing you want to do that you’ve never tried?
A: I want to go on a cruise to the Bahamas.
Q: Using one word for each, what are your top three morals?
A: Patience, responsibility and encouragement.
Q: How would you like to be remembered?
A: I would like to be remembered as a person who went above and beyond to help anybody. I’d want to be remembered by my kids as a mom who would do anything to provide for her kids.
— Joshua Campbell
