Carl Pennamon–Destined To Be A Leader

Almost every week for the past 33 years, we have seen Carl Pennamon’s name and/or his picture in this paper, but do you really know who he is?

Carl was the first black Jasper County Commissioner elected since Jasper County was founded 177 years ago. His early years were no indication that Carl was destined to be a manager of a county government, but he was raised to be a hard worker.

Born to sharecroppers, Willie and Daisy Pennamon, on March 25, 1951, he was the youngest of 12 children. His oldest sibling is now 86 years old. His earliest memory is begging his mother to go with her to pick cotton in Mansfield. During the cotton harvest, cotton farmers needed help and would send trucks to Monticello to get pickers for the day.

“I cried to go pick cotton with my mother and she let me go,” Carl remembers and indicates it was a memory still with him. This experience along with his parents work ethic taught him at an early age that he was going to have to hustle and work hard. To earn money for school clothes and shoes that he ordered from a Sears catalog, he would dig lily bulbs out of the dirt, pick up pecans, rake leaves, and cut grass for neighbors.

He attended the segregated Jasper County Training School providing training for grades 1-12. If education was his way to a better life, then he found the mentors he needed within the school system and in the Monticello community. Some of the people who gave Carl his early encouragement were Andrew Thompson, his high school principal, who also let him earn money on his farm, Bertha Johnson, a neighbor who was his high school adviser, and the Smith family, Fred Smith, Frances and Howard Smith.After high school graduation, he found work at Hercules Corporation, now Fiber Vision, and retired with 31 years of service in 2001.

In 1984 the Citizen Improvement League sought out Mr. Pennamon to run for county commissioner. Marvin Gude, a friend for many years and on the Jasper County Board of Education encouraged him to run for office.

Carl says he always wanted to help people get out of poverty, and give them opportunities as the reasons he wanted to be a county commissioner. The legacy that he wants to leave by being a commissioner is to try and create jobs in our county so that Jasper County cannot only be a bedroom community for people who work in other counties, but a place where people live and work.

When not attending meetings for the county or for the Four County Authority Board which recently announced the Facebook addition to Stanton Springs that was developed over the past 20 years, he enjoys his family life with wife, Valerie, and children, Dwan, Derrick, Fernandez, Kenny, Dieone and grandchildren.

He attends St. James A.M.E. church. With his busy life during down time he says, “I really enjoy peace and quiet and find that reading the Bible helps me meditate on life”.