Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Debby Cannon did more than 'just a job'

The retiring cook worked at school in Elida.

When word got out this spring that Debby Cannon was going to hang up her apron after more than 40 years as the head cook for the Elida school system, a few of her friends contacted me and suggested she’d be a good subject for a column.

I agreed.

It was talking Cannon into it that was the challenge.

If you ask her about all those years and all those students and all those breakfasts and all those lunches — up to 120 most days — she’ll say she was just doing her job.

Elida school Principal Waverly Criswell is one of many who say it was more than that.

“Debby has meant tradition, dedication, devotion, stability, security,” Criswell said.

Besides those countless hours in the cafeteria, for “20 to 30 years,” Criswell said Cannon also kept the books for the Elida Tiger volleyball and basketball games, both at home and on the road.

“She took pride in her job … really any job she does,” Criswell said, “and almost never took a day off.”

Leslie Creighton, whose daughters are both Elida graduates, said, “Debby was a mainstay encourager and she probably didn’t even know it.”

Creighton said Cannon was keeping score for the Elida Lady Tigers when they won their first state basketball title in the 1980s.

“I have fond memories of her love for our team, and its successes,” Creighton said.

Debby Cannon and her sister, Eileen Husted, live across the street from each other in the town they grew up in. Cannon roots run deep in Elida. Their grandfather, Roscoe Cannon, was the town constable for years; their father, Finis Cannon, was the community’s rural mail carrier for decades.

Clyde and Neva Gower, Cannon’s and Husted’s aunt and uncle, were mainstays at the Elida school when their nieces were students there. Clyde was a custodian, and Neva presided over the same domain Cannon would later occupy: the school cafeteria.

Cannon graduated from Elida High School in 1971, and one of her first jobs was washing trays in that cafeteria for her aunt.

Neva Gower was growing older and memory was becoming an issue for her, so Cannon started cooking alongside her aunt.

“I worked for half a year with Neva as a cook,” Cannon said, “and they (the school administration) said, ‘Just try it.’”

Armed with her aunt’s recipes, “I’ve cooked ever since.”

“She has fed three generations of kids at Elida,” Husted said about her younger sister. “She took care of those kids, and those kids really loved her.”

Cannon isn’t the only school cook who will tell you that school lunch restrictions and regulations have taken some of the fun out of the job in recent years. That, combined with a stroke she suffered in November, facilitated the decision to retire in May.

Besides losing a loyal and reliable school employee, Criswell said she’ll miss “the biscuits and gravy for breakfast, the hamburgers (with homemade buns), the meatloaf, the pot pie, and the side dish of yummy hash brown casserole.”

Although desserts are a no-no for school lunches these days, Jim Daugherty, who retired as Elida superintendent in 2016, still says, “If I could have any cake anywhere, it would be Debby Cannon’s white cake.”

Over and above her good home cooking, Daugherty said it was Cannon’s devotion to her students that made her shine.

“She was always interested in the school and the kids,” Daugherty said. “She always supported the kids and what they were doing. She was devoted to her job and her school and her community.”

Betty Williamson tips her fork to Debby Cannon and all of the folks who nurture our kids. Reach her at: [email protected]