By Kristin Vorce
On the first day of class students file into the Kent dining hall, less than enthused about the menu choices of “roasted red bliss potatoes” and “vegan zesty organic soy chik filet.” One by one, they shuffle in and hand the front-desk worker their student ID cards.
“Welcome home,” she says.
It’s Granny: 4’11”, with gray hair, bright blue eyes and a big smile. She looks like the type of grandma who whips up a batch of chocolate chip cookies just to see delighted looks on her grandchildren’s faces.
Students can’t help but smile back.
Doretta Lou Mayle is 70 years old and has worked in the dining halls since 1964. She has worked in every dining hall on campus, swiping ID cards from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays.
“I love it,” she says. “This is my whole life other than my children and grandchildren.”
She has three children, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. “This is my youngest one,” she says, beaming as she points to a small picture of a 7-year-old boy taped to her name tag.
Her great-grandchildren were born within a few months of each other. She says every time one was born, her boss would hang a “Congratulations, Granny!” sign in the entrance hall. The name stuck – students started calling her Granny.
Junior Hilary Sophrin is a regular at Kent dining hall. Sophrin says one day she looked at Granny’s name tag and thought the name was very appropriate.
“It’s fitting that she’s the one who greets us up front,” she says, “It’s almost like she’s a mother figure saying, ‘Enjoy your meal.’ ”
Granny says she thrives off human interaction and doesn’t plan on retiring soon. She says she was so depressed during the summer vacation that even her neighbors noticed. When she does retire she hopes to volunteer someplace.
Granny says one time when she was at the grocery store she bumped into a former student, who said, “I went to Delaware 20 years ago. I remember you from Rodney dining hall. Let me introduce you to my husband.”
She says she loves university students and has never had trouble with anyone being disrespectful.
“Maybe they feel I really do love people,” Granny says, “I do. It would be hard to do this job if you really didn’t have your heart in it. You can’t fake it for years and years.”
She was born in rural West Virginia in 1935. When her younger sister was born, her mother remained in the hospital for three months afterward. Her dad, struggling to make ends meet, was in Michigan, where he had a job.
She was 10 years old and for those few months was fully responsible for watching her baby sister. At a time when most girls were playing hopscotch and giggling about boys, Granny was changing dirty diapers.
Granny, who can strike up a conversation with strangers, says she was not always outgoing. She says she first met her husband Ronald when she was in grade school, at a time when she was a bit more timid.
“I couldn’t stand him,” Granny says, and then adds, as if she’s telling a secret, “He was a show-off.”
When Ronald was 14, she says, he left school and started construction work. At age 17 he left West Virginia and ventured to Michigan to find a job. He was not old enough to work legally, but he had a friend doctor his birth certificate. His employers either didn’t recognize the fake birth date, or they didn’t care.
“Then he came back and looked me up,” Granny says. “He had money, which no one else had at that time.”
Granny says she doesn’t remember much of their courtship. It’s all a bit hazy at this point, she says, plus dating wasn’t a big deal back then. She married Ronald in 1952 at age 16. She had her first child at 17 and her second at 18.
“I would not recommend that for everybody,” she says. “For me, it was the natural thing to do.”
Granny has lived with her family in Newark since 1957. She says she’s excited about going to Disney World with the whole clan for six days this Christmas.
“We’ve been so busy raising kids, we’ve never gotten to do anything,” she says.
