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The ADVANCE, August 25, 2021/Page 11A
♦ Benny McLendon
By Andrea Towns
Contributing Writer
“I grew up in Lyons,
Georgia, and I’ve been
there my whole life. Same
place, drank water from the
same well,” Benny McLen
don said. “My father fought
in World War II. When he
got out, he used his GI loan
to buy one hundred acres
of land and an old house
just outside of Lyons.
He and my mother lived
there. A few years later,
he built another house on
the same land, and I grew
up there. When I got mar
ried in 1980,1 built a house
just right up the way from
home and still live there.
So, I haven’t made it very
far in life.” Geographi
cally, Benny may not have
moved far from where he
started, but the influence of
his life reaches far beyond
Toombs County.
He was born on June
26, 1956, and is the son of
Ben Roy and Nel McLen
don. He started school
at Lyons city schools but
graduated from Robert
Toombs Christian Acade
my in 1974. “I had no plans
of going to college,” Benny
said. “But one of my class
mates, Lori Hartley [Col
lins Crawley], demanded
I go to Brewton-Parker.
She came out to my house,
picked me up, took me
over to campus and made
me sign up for classes.” He
completed his first two
years of college at Brewton-
Parker. “Jack Mosely was
a friend of mine from el
ementary school. We were
still buddies. He said, ‘You
need to come and go to
the University of Georgia
with me.’ And so I did, and
that was really big for me.”
Benny earned a Bachelor’s
degree in Business at UGA
and graduated in 1978. His
association with his high
school alma mater has been
lasting as he has “been
involved with Robert
Toombs for 50-something
years.” This is also true for
his college alma mater,
as he and his family have
shown up and cheered on
the Georgia Bulldogs from
Athens all the way to the
FORTY YEARS OLD — The McLendon family celebrates McLendon Enterprises' fortieth
anniversary, 1979 to 2019.
DR. SUSAN MCLENDON — Susan McLendon graduated
from Georgia Southwestern as a registered nurse and
earned a Doctoral Degree in Nursing from the University
of Alabama. Pictured here is Dr. Susan McLendon and
her husband at her doctoral graduation ceremony.
2018 Rose Bowl in Pasa
dena, California.
It was during his time
at UGA that he met the
woman who is wife today,
Susan Metzinger McLen
don. When asked about
how they met, he laughed
and said, “It’s kind of a bad
story” in that she was on
a date with someone else.
“She had a date with one of
my buddies, and they were
up in Athens fora [football]
game. They came by our
apartment after the game,
because we were having a
party. And that was when
I met her.” Benny and Su
san dated for 2 1/2 years
and married on November
15, 1980. Susan graduated
from Georgia Southwest
ern as a registered nurse,
and began working at Ev
ans Memorial Hospital
in Claxton. Today, with a
Doctoral Degree in nurs
ing from the University of
Alabama, she is Dr. Susan
McLendon.
When Benny McLen
don graduated from the
University of Georgia, he
says, “I didn’t really decide
to come back here. It was
just understood with my
dad.” When Benny began
his career working with
his dad in 1978, the family
construction work was a
side business that his father
had started in 1945, called
Ben Roy McLendon Com
pany. “We were mostly
farmers and grew tobacco.
My dad did this kind of
work, with bulldozers and
stuff, on the side.” In 1979,
McLendon Enterprises
was incorporated and the
leadership of the business
gradually transferred from
father to son in the years to
come.
“There used to be a lot
of general contractors here
in Vidalia, and I worked as
a subcontractor for them,”
Benny said. “Then in the
80s, we started working for
the DOT, the Department
of Transportation. Now we
build highways, do a lot of
utility work, pipe work, as
phalt work... we do all of
it now. We call ourselves a
‘full service civil contrac
tor.” Though McLendon
Enterprises has over 200
employees today, the busi
ness did not grow quickly.
It grew gradually and “or
ganically,” Benny said.
BENNY AND RICK — Benny McLendon (left) and Rick
Berry (right) not only played football at Robert Toombs
Christian Academy, they coached the school's football
team together for quite some time. "Rick was the bad
cop, and I was the good cop," McLendon said, chuck
ling at their sideline memories.
Benny McLendon’s
sister, Cheryl McLendon
Cason, also worked for the
family business for a time.
Fast forward to present
day, both of Cheryl Cason’s
sons, Mike and Mel Cason,
as well as all three of Ben
ny’s children — Jennifer
Hollis, B.J. McLendon, and
Derek McLendon — work
for McLendon Enterprises.
“They’ve all found their
niche, and they do very
well,” Benny said.
As a team and indi
vidually, Benny and Susan
McLendon have contrib
uted much to the commu
nity. One of their partnered
contributions is the che
motherapy waiting room
at Meadows Regional Hos
pital, The McLendon Fam
ily Waiting Room. Susan
was diagnosed with breast
cancer in 2004, and Benny
was diagnosed with leuke
mia in 2005. Both endured
arduous rounds of che
motherapy. As part of the
Tommy and Shirley Strick
land Cancer Center built in
2017, the McLendon fam
ily funded the construction
of the waiting room. “Be
cause she and I have done
so much chemotherapy, we
told them that we would
[fund] that,” Benny said.
After Susan retired
from the state health de
partment, she worked with
Dr. Nancy Stanley to devel
op Mercy Medical Clinic
— "a Christian nonprofit
healthcare organization
that operates as a safety-net
clinic for uninsured, low-
income adults with chronic
diseases in South Georgia.”
Susan “wrote a lot of grants
to get them money [for
the clinic]. She was on the
ground floor for that proj
ect, working behind the
scenes.” Now, Susan works
full time at Memorial
Health Meadows Hospital,
where she has been pivotal
in local COVID relief as
Director of Community
Wellness and telemedicine.
Despite how demand
ing his work with the fam
ily business has been over
the years, Benny has spent
much of his free time
coaching local football
teams. “I don’t hunt. I don’t
fish. Coaching kids has al
ways been my hobby,” he
said. “I’ve coached at Rob
ert Toombs and anywhere
else they’d let me, like rec
[recreational]
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