Hard work brings rewards

If you can name it, Dee Crawford has probably done it.

Farming, boating, riding on motorcycles, traveling overseas to Africa, mother of two physicians and an epidemiologist -- she's not easily intimidated.

Add McDonald's owner-operator to the list. For 21 years, she has led five McDonald's stores in the Augusta-Aiken area.

In many ways, she's a modern-day pioneer.

"She can do just about anything. Or, if she doesn't know how to do something, she makes sure that she learns how to do it," said Jane Martin, her best friend since college. "She tackles things the ordinary person probably wouldn't. That seems to make her happy."

The 65-year-old has turned over day-to-day operations to her daughter, Christine, but remains the mastermind.

In 1985, Dee entered the McDonald's training program. Since then, she's accumulated five restaurants and leads 250 employees -- all while raising three children, being a devoted wife and serving her community.

"She's a super wife. A very caring person," said husband Dr. George Crawford, a dentist. "Whatever she does, she gives it 100 percent."

Despite her success, her friends said that she is humble and giving. Dee attributes her accomplishments to God and the people who have supported her over the years.

Patricia Clayton, who once co-owned an interior design business with Dee, said her longtime friend is "high-energy."

"Dee's an extra-special person. She's a good listener, very focused and a great taskmaster," Ms. Clayton said.

Most of all, she admires Dee's family life.

"They have a very close, tight-knit family. She's always had support from her husband," Ms. Clayton said. "When you have the support of your husband to go out and do different things other than the usual, it's very nice. They're very hardworking people who decide what they want, commit to it and follow through."

On the farm

Dee doesn't shy away from dirt or hard work. When she and her husband moved to Aiken, they took over a farm and raised many types of animals: Santa Gertrudis cattle, peacocks, goats, dogs and ducks.

Dee drove tractors, took hay to the cows and completed "whatever needed to be done," George said.

A few years ago, she and her husband took one of her manager's children to Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia. They stopped by her house on the way home, and the kids were delighted by the animals.

"We didn't have to go the zoo. We could have just come here and played with your animals," one of the children told George.

Dee met her husband in 1966, while she was working at IBM in Washington, D.C. She had majored in math at Fisk University and spent some time pursuing graduate studies at the University of Maryland.

Her husband was working as an oceanographer, putting down listening devices to track submarines and doing underwater photography for the Department of Defense.

He was an impressive fellow -- he had journeyed to Morehouse College at age 15 as a math major. Then, he pursued an engineering degree at the University of Michigan because no schools in Georgia would accept black engineering students, she said.

He decided that engineering was not his calling, however, and enrolled in graduate school at Howard University.

Dee and George married in 1970 and moved to Augusta two years later for George to enter dental school at the Medical College of Georgia.

After his graduation, they moved to their Aiken farm, where they raised their three children, Christine, George Jr. and Marcus.

Dee was a stay-at-home mom, but she also dabbled in rental property management and co-owned an interior design business with two friends.

One day, she and her husband attended a conference about franchising. The seeds of curiosity were planted.

George had a friend who owned a McDonald's franchise in Atlanta. He helped them get an interview, and Dee decided to pursue the business.

First, she had to complete the 2,000-hour training program without pay.

"It was an investment in my future with McDonald's," she said.

She worked 35 to 40 hours a week at McDonald's while still managing the farm, serving as a rental property manager and taking care of her children and home.

Her children were 9, 11 and 13 at the time.

"My background was not in the restaurant business. In fact, I didn't care to cook at home," Dee admitted.

However, she knew it was worth the effort.

"Franchising was very attractive at the time. It appealed to an individual who didn't want to reinvent the wheel but wanted to be a part of something that has some proven success," Dee said.

Her training duties included crew person, cashier, unloading trucks, cleaning rest rooms and managing the restaurant. Her participation in the program was no guarantee of getting her own restaurant, however. She had to impress McDonald's corporate office. In two years, she achieved her goal.

In 1987, she left home to operate a McDonald's franchise in Beaufort, S.C., while her family remained in Aiken.

George became "Mr. Mom" and also assisted his wife with paperwork. Dee lived there for 21/2 years, and her family visited on weekends.

In 1990, she was able to sell the Beaufort store and become owner-operator of two McDonald's restaurants -- one in North Augusta and, where she did her initial training, and one in Augusta on Walton Way.

She added several stores over the next few years: Clearwater/Midland Valley, Medical College of Georgia Children's Medical Center and Deans Bridge Road/Gordon Highway.

She previously owned a store in Edgefield, S.C., but sold it back to the corporation in 1993 because it wasn't a good investment, she said.

Balancing act

Business runs in her blood. Dee's father owned a plastering company in North Carolina, where she was raised.

"He included me in the running of that business. The interest was always there," she said.

Her mother was a teacher. Her father only had a third-grade education, she said.

Business hasn't been easy, Dee said. There are many responsibilities involved in operating a restaurant.

She has the benefit of corporate resources, but she's still responsible for maintenance and repairs, insurance, taxes and restaurant upgrades.

"About 25 percent of the restaurants are owned by the corporation. That's for research and development purposes," Dee said. "The other 70 to 75 percent are owned by individuals in the communities where the stores are located."

She has faced many challenges over the years.

"The first challenge was financing," Dee said. "I could only find one bank that agreed to provide the financing."

This was only two or three weeks before she was supposed to close the deal in Beaufort. She had to find an out-of-town bank instead, she said.

"That was because of being female and being black and not having any restaurant experience," she said.

Also, customers and suppliers don't expect the owner to be female.

"If there is a man at all in the back, then people think he is the owner and not you," she said.

Through the years, Dee's sons worked alongside her at the stores. Today, George Jr. is a general surgeon and Marcus is a plastic surgeon. Even her daughters-in-law, Monica and Kristina, are physicians.

"How many people do you know where all of their children ended up doing something wonderful with their lives? Three out of three," Ms. Martin said. "That's pretty good odds."

Harvard bound

Christine, the oldest of Dee's children, wasn't surprised when her parents began discussing franchises.

"My parents had always been entrepreneurs in some way, so it didn't strike us as different from other things they had done," she said.

Her family also had a legacy of entrepreneurship -- both sets of her grandparents owned rental property, she explained. Her paternal grandmother, Ruth B. Crawford, founded the Shiloh Comprehensive Community Center in Augusta.

Growing up, Christine always loved science. When she was selected as a student at the South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Mathematics in Hartsville, S.C., she happily packed her bags.

She was off to boarding school for her freshman year in high school. This was the same year her mother moved to Beaufort to run her first McDonald's store.

"That was a blessing for our family because it kept her from becoming a mother figure," Dee said.

After high school, Christine attended Spelman College. She wanted to become a physician and landed an interview at Harvard Medical School. During her visit, she walked past the Harvard School of Public Health and her fate was sealed. Her interest in public health stems from one of her Spelman professors.

After graduation, she took a job at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta as an Epidemic Intelligence Services officer. From 2001 to 2003, she worked on widely publicized disasters.

"It was a great two years. We did some 9-11 bioterrorism surveillance in New York. I worked on the West Nile and anthrax outbreaks and a surgical site infection," Christine said.

She also worked with the Department of Health in Puerto Rico and held faculty positions at Morehouse College and St. George's University's medical school in Grenada, where she was a visiting professor.

Her mother kept hinting at retirement, however, and she didn't want to lose the opportunity to learn about the family business.

"If I were going to do it, now was the time," Christine told herself. "I could always go back to public health."

She came home and entered the McDonald's training program. She worked full time in McDonald's restaurants for two years and became approved as an owner-operator in 2005.

Today, she owns the Deans Bridge Road restaurant where she had her fifth birthday party.

She said the restaurant business is "challenging, rewarding and busy." Mistakes can be expensive, she said.

And she feels lucky to have her mother's guidance.

"There aren't many jobs where you have a built-in mentor who loves you," Christine said.

She said that she benefits from her mother's "sweat equity" in the business and the contacts she's made over the years.

McDonald's has selected Christine as a spokeswoman on panels for the Urban League and at high schools for the National Black MBA Association.

"She's doing a good job in operations," George said. "She's really good with young kids -- that's probably the hardest job of running a franchise. She handles that group really well."

Flipping burgers

Working at McDonald's isn't as easy as some people might think.

"It's a hard job. You have to do 20 million things at one time," Dee said.

Employees must count money, answer questions and take orders correctly -- in only 15 to 20 seconds.

"In general, people don't appreciate the intelligence, hard work and skill of our employees," Christine said. "The general perception is this is the last place that you would work."

"But the skills that you are exposed to and the training process has given many people their first job," Dee said.

And the benefits aren't bad, either. McDonald's employees receive health insurance, 401(k), bonuses, college credit for training programs and college scholarships.

Many of Dee's employees have been with her for decades. Carolyn Westbrook has worked at the McDonald's on Walton Way for 32 years.

Sareatha Kimble, a supervisor at the Walton Way location, has worked there since 1993. She has worked for McDonald's since 1981.

"It's been a wonderful experience working with Ms. Crawford. I would like to follow in her footsteps one day," she said.

When Ms. Kimble came to the Walton Way store, she was only a first assistant.

"She came in and promoted me to store manager," Ms. Kimble said. "She steered the way for me. She let me know what road to take."

Now, Ms. Kimble is a supervisor -- she got the promotion in 2000. She hopes to one day become an owner-operator.

Dee "makes you believe that you can accomplish anything you put your mind to. All you've got to do is claim it and go for it," Ms. Kimble said.

Teresa McKie, the office manager at the corporate headquarters in North Augusta, also has worked for Dee since 1993. Dee is like a second mother to her, she said.

"She's a super person. She taught me everything I know," Ms. McKie said.

Dee makes an effort to give back to employees, she added. She frequently holds dinners and outings for store managers and office staff at all five McDonald's stores. She also throws an annual Christmas party for crew members.

Ms. McKie said her boss is concerned about employees' health and holds a monthly diabetic support group for workers, and makes sure an employee with cancer gets to her medical appointments.

Dee also considers other people's needs more than her own, Ms. McKie said. She often calls elderly friends to check on them.

Christine has the same qualities, Ms. McKie said.

"I couldn't ask for better. I thank God for them everyday," Ms. McKie said.

The Crawfords are also passionate about education. They're willing to reward employees for earning their GED.

"If they get their GED, we'll pay them for the hours they spend and then we give them a bonus," Dee said.

Quality time

Because Dee and her husband lead such hectic lives, she has learned to embrace his interests.

"Most of my hobbies are his hobbies because that's the only way we can spend time together," Dee said. "I've learned to accept them and enjoy them."

George likes to ride in style -- on motorcycles, custom cars and boats. She's beside him.

She took a motorcycle course years ago but never got her license.

"She says that she's going to go back and try it again," George said.

They also enjoy sailing, and George has a commercial captain's license.

Ms. Martin said Dee has an adventurous side.

"She's a lot of fun. A lot of things I've done for the first time, I did with her and because of her," Ms. Martin said.

For instance, Dee gave her the chance to ride on a yacht and conquer her fear of driving in Atlanta.

"I think she pretended to be asleep. When I awakened her to take over, she said, 'You can do it. Go ahead.' "

Dee also enjoys collecting art and performing mission work. She traveled to Zambia last July and plans to go back in 2009. She is part of a group sponsoring the construction of a high school for The Good Samaritan Children's Home, an orphanage in Senkoba, Zambia.

"That was a life-changing experience. They live back in the bush," Dee said.

She spent two weeks visiting Zambian villages.

At home, Dee has partnered with other McDonald's operators to build a new Ronald McDonald House on the Medical College of Georgia campus in Augusta.

She is actively involved in increasing a family endowment for the Ruth B. Crawford Endowed Faculty Chair in Education at Paine College, which is designed to supplement the salary of a faculty member.

She is also coordinating the placement of a historical marker at the Augusta home of Amanda America Dickson Toomer, the first black female millionaire in Georgia.

Retirement isn't in the cards for now, Dee said. There's still work to be done.

"It's been a rewarding experience in many ways. The personal growth that it has afforded us has been unbelievable," she said.

"Would I do it again? Yes.

"Is ketchup in my veins? Yes."

Reach LaTina Emerson at (706) 823-3227 or latina.emerson@augustachronicle.com.