POWERGRAMS

9 ENERGIZERS Concern for the Community M C K E N Z I E S ' G O O D L I F E H A S L O N G B E N E F I T E D O T H E R S It was a warm spring night when a chance meeting at a teen dance began the romance for a lifetime. In the 73 years since Tom and Charlotte McKenzie met at the Tuscaloosa Country Club, their life together has unfolded in lovely, unexpected ways, like a story. The first time they talked, McKenzie, then 15, and Charlotte, 13, quickly forged a friendship. Tom said, "I'd ask her out to the picture show, and we went to the swimming pool many times that summer." But McKenzie's family moved to Mobile that fall, and the young couple lost touch. He graduated from McGill High School in 1944, attending Spring Hill College for two years before transferring to the University of Alabama to study mechanical engineering. It must have been the "course of fate" when he, at the start of his senior year, ran into Charlotte, an incoming freshman. "We remembered each other, of course," McKenzie said. "She was out for sorority rush, and we got together." Charlotte laughed, and then offered, "And then we got married and had all those children." LIVING THE 'GOOD LIFE' Evidence of a well-lived life, the couple has been happily married for 66 years. McKenzie attributes much of his happiness not only to Charlotte, their family and the life they've built, but to his career at Alabama Power and membership in the Gadsden Energizers, the company's retiree organization. McKenzie began his career at Alabama Power in 1948, working as a Distribution engineer in Mobile. He and Charlotte married in Tuscaloosa two years later. The McKenzies years in Mobile were busy, as four sons and four daughters came along. Always civic-minded, McKenzie was an active Jaycee, serving as Mobile president in 1959, while Charlotte was a Cub Scouts den mother, a Jayceette and served the Parent Teacher Associations at their children's schools. About 20 years into his career, McKenzie moved to Corporate Headquarters in Birmingham to serve as assistant to then-Distribution Vice President Alan Barton. "We decided to settle here, and bought a nice, two-year-old home in Hoover," McKenzie said. But, in another twist of fate, only two days after closing on the home, Barton called with a new job offer. "I couldn't turn it down," McKenzie said about taking a job as Gadsden District manager. With a big smile and a little chuckle, he added, "I By Donna Cope • Photography by Billy Brown Tom and Charlotte have been married 66 years.

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