Special to The Journal

June Jones, a long-time resident of Brantley, recently retired as a CareerLink Facilitator at the South Alabama Skills Center, working out of the Enterprise CareerLink Office.

Prior to that, her professional career included working as a Human Resources Manager at SCOA Shoe Factory, Vanity Fair and Healthtex over a span of 30 years.

At her retirement party in June, she was presented with a gift of a trip to Paula Deen's cooking classes in Savannah, Ga.

June, who is well known in the county for her excellent culinary skills, was accompanied by a co-worker, Sharon Sessions, of the Enterprise CareerLink.

The trip took place in mid-November.

June is pictured with Paula Deen, left, and Deen's brother, Uncle Bubba, at a book-signing reception.

While there, they toured Savannah, dined at Paula Deen's famous restaurant, The Lady and Sons, and ate lunch at Uncle Bubba's Oyster House.

The highlight of the trip was attending a cooking class.

Paula showed the audience how to prepare different types of edible holiday gifts including pound cake in Mason jars, butterscotch chip cookies and peach, cheddar and lemon butters.

A question/answer session followed the class.

June stated that Paula is very down-to-earth, sweet and humorous, and shows us how ordinary people can become great cooks while having fun.