Meet Brenda Johnston! Brenda was born and raised in Brunswick and grew up with five brothers and a sister. She is a mother and grandmother and for several decades has been one of the beautiful, smiling faces of the Atlanta Falcons. Brenda loved Brunswick and the ocean and used to say when she was younger that she would be happy to never leave the Glynn County limits. She is a self-described happy, vanilla and content person.
Does she love sports?
“Socializing at Glynn Academy football games was the extent of my love of sports until I met a former quarterback of the University of Miami: JB Johnston,” she said “JB and Larry Morris were friends from college.  Larry was a retired NFL athlete and real estate investor from Marietta. JB had been sent down to Jekyll Island to set up the weight room in the Sand Dollar for Larry.  He stayed on and became the general manager there.  “The Sand Dollar was a townhouse apartment complex that was rented like a motel.” Brenda added that a good friend introduced her to JB and they were soon married and running the Sand Dollar together.
“I’ll never forget that on a Sunday in April of 1978, Larry called JB and said ‘I want you to fly up here to Atlanta because I found a property in Suwanee for Rankin Smith Sr. to build the Falcons training facility, and I want you to see it.’
“This was a Sunday and our son Donnie was three years old. JB grabbed a toothbrush and that was just about all because he was going to fly there and then come right back. He never came back.”
When JB walked into Larry’s office, Larry was on the phone with Rankin Smith Sr., the owner of the Atlanta Falcons, who had bought the existing motel. He wanted JB to stay and become the first manager of the new Falcon Inn and Conference Center.
“I’m on Jekyll with a three year old, and JB is calling every night ‘When can you come? When can you come? When can you come?,'” Brenda said. “I am renting rooms and keeping the money under the mattress, and I need your help!’”  It took Brenda until the end of April of 1978 to move to Suwanee with 3 year old Donnie in tow. That April she began working for the Atlanta Falcons and now will begin her 39th season with the organization.
“Back then there was no turnover in NFL administrative offices. Once you got a job, you were there for life. And that’s what I wanted,” she said. “I went from assistant to the manager at the Falcon Inn and Conference Center to working directly for the head coaches. I had all kinds of titles. I was the secretary to the head coach, assistant to the head coach, executive assistant to the head coach. The first head coach that I worked for was Dan Henning. I have worked for 11 of them in my career.”
We want to thank Brenda for spending time with us and telling us more about her life and love of Hall County.
 
Question: Who are some of your favorite Falcon Alumni that you still get to see?
Answer: “Steve Bartkowski, Gerald Riggs, William Andrews, Michael Haynes, Keith Brooking, Dewey McClain, Edgar Fields, Warren Bryant, Michael Vick. I have tons of favorites! And I will always remember the terrific manners of Deion Sanders.”
Q: What is your favorite restaurant in Hall County and what do you love to eat there?
A: “Luna’s! It is. I love Luna’s. And I love the owner! I love their shrimp and I love their steak.”
Q: What’s your favorite thing about Hall County?
A: “Lake Lanier.”
Q: What is something on your bucket list that you still want to do?
A: “When I do officially retire completely, I would like to go to Hawaii.”
Q: Even for friends or family what is something interesting that most people don’t know about you?
A: “I am not a traveler.”
Q: Choosing anyone alive and a non-relative, with whom would you love to have lunch?
A: “I spent my 40th birthday with Paul Newman. Paul stayed at the Falcon Inn some. We ended up naming his suite the Paul Newman Suite. I know he is now deceased, but if he were still alive I would take him to Luna’s!”
Q: What advice would you give to a crowd of people?
A: “You can achieve anything you want to do. It takes hard work and long hours…And I think the main thing is caring. If you care about something, you can do it. And, I truly believe that.”
Q: Who’s the most famous person that you’ve ever met in Hall County because of the Falcons?
A: “In Hall County, that’s Phil Neikro.”
 
http://www.atlantafalcons.com/schedules/schedule.html
 
The Faces of Hall County is a project to showcase the amazing people that live or work in our community. If you would like to nominate an interesting person to be featured please email babernathy@gonorton.com.