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Editor’s Note: This feature originally ran on February 26, 2025 in the 2025 Progress edition (Chambers County Is…). The Progress edition is a publication produced annually by the Valley Times News. If you would like to pick up a copy of the 2025 Progress edition, please visit our office at 4002 20th Ave Suite E in Valley.

Feature by: Jeff Moore

Cancer survivor. Councilwoman. Senior center director. Community volunteer. Miss Senior Georgia. Fundraiser. Sorority member. Mother of three. Inspiration to others.

Each of these describe Sandra Thornton, whose life story is a testament to the power of perseverance and the importance of community service.

From overcoming personal challenges like breast cancer and a difficult divorce to achieving academic milestones and serving her community in numerous roles, she has dedicated her life to uplifting others.

“At 30 years old, I found myself divorced with little boys,” she said. “At that point, someone told me, ‘Stop crying. It’s time to make some decisions and go forward and do some things.’”

This pivotal moment spurred Thornton to pursue her education, eventually earning a master’s degree from Troy State University. Despite facing obstacles like single parenthood and a demanding career at Interstate Valley Telephone Co., now known as WideOpenWest, she persevered, becoming the first Black woman to work in the company’s office.

“I started as a receptionist and then moved my way up from receptionist to customer service, and I moved from customer service to collections,” Thornton explained. “My final job after 37 years, I worked with them, I was the business account manager for Intercom.”

However, her career was unexpectedly cut short by carpal tunnel syndrome, which was followed by a breast cancer diagnosis.

“Unfortunately, I came out with carpal tunnel with my hands and stayed out a few months and was terminated,” Thornton said. “And soon after that was when I got my breast cancer diagnosis.”

This setback, however, proved to be a turning point in her life.

“I don’t know, you’re just so grateful to God, you know, you just can’t really, you just can’t thank him enough,” Thornton said of her 10-year cancer remission. “You, you know, you just look at life a little different, and I think everybody, whether or not it’s cancer or whatever, things just have more meaning after you realize, you know, the possibility of you not being here.” 

It led her to complete her college education at Southern Union.

“I was like, ‘Man, that was pretty good, that felt good.’ And so then I decided to go to Troy,” she said. “I almost finished at Troy, but it was pretty tough with raising two little small boys, a single parent, and so I decided to switch over to Faulkner University.”

This newfound perspective led her to pursue a life of service.

“You chart a new course and you enjoy life and find new ways to do different things or even do different things so that you can enjoy it,” she explained. “You always try. The goal is to help somebody else through and use your life as an example to help somebody else.”

One unexpected avenue for service came in the form of a pageant.

A friend asked her to take part in the pageant, something she has strayed away from through her life.

“I didn’t know anything about it and I actually told her, I said, ‘Well, I’ll think about it,’ but I wasn’t thinking about it. I was not gonna do it,” Thornton recalls.

However, encouraged by a friend battling cancer, deciding to take part only because she wanted to do what she could to help West Point as a member of council.

Thornton entered the Miss Southwest Classic Beauty Pageant and, to her own surprise, won.

“I won,” she recalled, still with that surprised tone in her voice.

Thornton then later learned with the local win that she had to go on to state and compete for the Miss Senior Georgia title.

“I never did dream in a thousand years that I would win,” she added, but she did win the 2020-2021 crown. “That opened up many doors because my platform was breast cancer.”

Thornton said she spoke to seniors at assisted living and nursing home facilities. Additionally, people were inviting her to come and speak at meetings and group events.

This unexpected victory — being just the second Black woman to win the pageant in 32 years — opened doors for Thornton to advocate for breast cancer awareness, particularly among Black women.”

She explained that breast cancer hits Black women differently. It’s more aggressive, later diagnosed and affects a lot of younger women.

Due to a lack of funding for healthcare and how it targets Black women, she noted, a diagnosis can have a very dim outcome.

“This is my 10th year as a breast cancer survivor,” Thornton noted, adding that she is staying in remission.

“Cancer is hard. It’s tough. It’s hard on you. It’s hard on your family,” she said. “But you can get through it, realizing that, OK, I’m right here, but there is an end.”

After getting through the treatments and the cancer is gone, Thornton said life will be different.

“You have to find a new path,” she said. “It’s not gonna be the same as it was before. I think a lot of people think, well, I can pick up and I can go back and I can do everything that I did before. That’s just not gonna happen.”

Cancer survivors will find different things that they like and enjoy their lives.

Thornton’s commitment to community service also led her to public service. 

After a negative experience with the West Point Police Department, she decided to run for city council because she didn’t believe her voice was being heard.

“I thought, ‘Well, if you can’t get someone to do it for you, then you need to get in there and do it for yourself,’” she explained.

Despite initial setbacks, Thornton persevered, eventually winning a seat on the council on her third try and becoming a prominent voice for her community. And since that win on the third run, she has been the top vote-getter in that one and each subsequent election.

Thornton believes she brings a different perspective to council, as a Black single woman and mother of three children.

“I feel like I’ve actually made a difference, not that I can actually change everything,” she said. “But I always tell people, I will come back to you with an answer, and it might not be the answer that you want, and it might not even be the answer that I want. But I’ll get you an answer either way, whether or not it’s good or bad or whatever. I’ll get you an answer.”

Thornton points to several accomplishments during her tenure on the council, including organizing the first back-to-school event in West Point, securing funding for bus stops, and revitalizing the city’s downtown area.

“Our central business district is diverse. We have restaurants, services and even downtown housing,” she said. “With the auto industry and the suppliers close to West Point, our job market right now is really good. I tell people when we go to different conferences and they’ll say, ‘Oh, you’re from West Point and you all have all the jobs.’ I say, ‘yeah, it’s about four jobs for each person that’s in West Point.’”

Thornton said West Point has plenty, pointing to the affordable housing that’s available. But she said more is needed to handle growth. 

“We hope to maximize development along the two exits on I-85,” she noted. “Fast food has come, the truck stop and hopefully a hotel in our near future.”

The most valuable asset in West Point is its people, Thornton said.

“As a council member, my role is to listen to them, understand, respect their needs, bring them to the attention of my colleagues and advocate for their priorities, not my priorities,” she explained.

Thornton recalls a time when everyone was leaving town because there were no jobs.

“The fear of knowing that we were about to turn into a ghost town, but it didn’t happen,” she said. “I’m just gonna say God saved us.”

Currently, Thornton serves as the director of the West Point Senior Center, a role she embraces with enthusiasm.

“Working with the elderly, although I’m an elderly too, I am a senior citizen and I know that today,” she said. “It’s a way for me to give back to a community group that deserves and needs a little attention.”

Thornton said she enjoys everyday at the senior center. She enjoys visiting with those who attend center functions as they share their interesting life stories.

Under her leadership, the senior center has seen significant improvements, including new amenities, increased programming and a growing waiting list.

“I think I’ve been able to take this senior center to another level,” she said.

She has invited speakers to the senior center including a dentist and an ophthalmologist. The seniors go on trips, play games and puzzles and go out to eat together.

Southern Union came to the center and offered a computer class. 

“For 20 seniors here, we actually had a full graduation at City Hall,” she said, adding that was awesome for those who had never graduated before.

Thornton wrote her first grant application with the help of Trudy Johnson and received funds for three new heat and air units at the senior center.

The most recent improvement there is hand blowers, dryers for the bathrooms that were installed to help them save money.

The hard work and dedication that Thornton has shown to her community hasn’t gone unrecognized. 

She was honored as the City of Lanett’s Employee of the Year, while she received the NAACP’s Community Award. The LaGrange NAACP also honored her a couple of years back, as did the Bethlehem Baptist Church and Kenny Memorial in West Point for her Black history programs. 

She said they have residents, especially seniors, with income insecurity. “Some are hungry and without a regular meal,” she said. “There is a transportation problem because the region has minimal public transportation to doctors and shopping facilities for the poor. I just try to make the right connections for them when I get the call based on their needs at the moment. I think one of my blessings is being able to ask for the things people need and what I found is a generous giving spirit across the valley.”

It is clear that she lives up to her name Sandra, which she said means, “helper of mankind.”

Thornton’s dedication to service extends beyond her professional roles. As a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., she continues to uplift her community through various initiatives.

“ I have been with my sorority for actually 25 years,” she said. Her chapter is the Lambda Zeta Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, which just celebrated its 117th year.

The organization formed for educated Black females.

Most of the women in her family also are a part of AKA.

Thornton said her oldest sister Deborah, who is the city clerk treasurer for Lanett, her youngest sister Cheryl, who works for Babies Can’t Wait Early Intervention, three nieces and her daughter all are AKA with her.

 “So it’s like I have my family with a strong history of pink and green,” she noted.

Thornton said she is really proud of the organization. 

“I remember my mom saying how proud she was that I was a part of that and to just hang in there,” she recalled. “She felt like she did not have the opportunity of a lot of things, but she stressed education, especially for her girls.”

Thornton grew up in Lanett, the fifth child of eight that included four girls and four boys.

Her father was a Baptist minister and her mother was a homemaker. After her paternal grandfather’s death, her grandmother moved in with them.

“My mother always said she just thought she was gonna stay till after the funeral, but she stayed with us for 17 years,” Thornton said. “It’s kind of like having two moms in the house.”

She was married at age 18 and the couple had two sons. But they divorced after 12 years, leaving her with the children Michael and Jason. She later had a daughter Kenisha.

Micheal is following in his grandfather’s footsteps serving as the pastor at Greenwood Baptist Church.

Micheal and wife Courtney live in LaGrange and have two children.

Her son Jason has pursued a political career as a member of Atlanta City Council.

Jason and wife Sheila have two daughters.

Her youngest, daughter Naomi Thornton, is a teacher at Barack and Michelle Obama Academy in Atlanta.