Linda Frost Retires After 55 Years of Service to PCCA

by Aubry Heinrich

Linda Frost

In 1966, The Beatles played their last concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. The final Studebaker automobile rolled off the assembly line in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Martin Luther King Jr. led a civil rights march in Chicago. The groundbreaking ceremony took place for the World Trade Center in New York City, and Linda Frost started her first day of work at PCCA in Lubbock, Texas. Fifty-five years later, she remained committed to the cooperative. After many years of hard work and dedication, Linda Frost retired from PCCA on October 29, 2021. 

First described to her as “just seasonal work,” Frost had no idea what the future held. That season turned into over half a century of dedication and commitment to the cooperative and cotton industry. She came to work every day with the eagerness to help anyone that needed it and aspiration to provide high-quality work, continually growing in her role. When asked what kept her devoted, she simply stated, “I think this is a great place to work. It’s all about the producers.” 

Frost held several different titles within the Sales Department while working for PCCA. She started out working on the High-Volume Instrument testing line. Jimmy Bass, the Domestic Sales Manager at the time, realized the potential Frost had and created a new title and position for her. She was deemed Head of Shipping shortly after starting to work for PCCA and retired with the official title of Inventory Clerk – though Frost described her final role as a “jack of all trades.” 

During Frost’s great 55 years of service to PCCA, she saw five different CEOs and had two direct supervisors, Jimmy Bass and the current Domestic Sales Manager, Chris Ford. 

“I have worked with Linda almost every day of my 34 years here. She is great to work with, and she will let you know if you are right or wrong, always with the attitude of helping you learn the cotton business and much more,” Ford said. “Her dedication to PCCA is beyond reproach. In the early years, she would always be out in the take-out room with customers looking at samples for their approval. She would help schedule shipments for domestic textile mills and make sure the trucks always arrived on time. All the textile buyers knew who she was, and every time they came out to take up cotton, they knew she would be there to help them.” 

Frost said her favorite part of her job was interacting with FOBs and textile mills. She enjoyed working directly with the growers and customers and helped them to the best of her ability. As her impressive and dedicated career came to an end, Frost reflected upon her time at PCCA. She said the reason she stayed committed to PCCA for so long is because “it is all about the growers. We couldn’t live without them.” 

Linda is pictured with PCCA employees who had the opportunity to work with her daily.

She did not leave without giving her co-workers a piece of advice: “Trust in Jesus and hug your loved ones. We are not promised tomorrow.” She credits these two simple tasks with her success.

Frost was married for 47 years, has two children and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She is looking forward to spending more time with her sister and grandkids during retirement. She enjoys reading and going to estate sales with her sister, and will undoubtedly make the most of her retirement. 

While PCCA has changed and evolved over the years, Linda Frost’s attitude and commitment toward the cotton industry have remained the same. Even though change is a constant in life, one thing that did not change is her love for the PCCA grower-owners. Linda Frost’s hard work and commitment have stood the test of time. 

Change is a constant we can all count on. Linda Frost has been a witness to the positive growth of PCCA and the cotton industry. Here is a timeline of events Frost has been able to help PCCA navigate during her 55 years of service. 

• 1966: Linda Frost begins working for PCCA as a seasonal worker on the HVI line. 
• 1967: PCCA begins offering marketing services to South Texas cotton farmers and opens offices in Corpus Christi and Harlingen, Texas. 
• 1972: PCCA negotiates the first sale of U.S. cotton to China in 20 years. 400,000 bales of cotton were sold for $60 million. 
• 1975: PCCA develops and introduces TELCOT®, the first electronic marketing system of its kind. 
• 1989: An electronic title system is introduced by PCCA. This leads to the creation of EWR, Inc. 
• 1996: PCCA opens a field office in Taylor, Texas, and offers marketing services to Central Texas cotton farmers. 
• 2004: PCCA opens a field office in Kansas to provide production, ginning, warehousing, and marketing assistance. 
• 2005: PCCA builds a warehouse facility at Liberal, Kansas, to store Kansas members’ cotton. 
• 2010: PCCA’s storage capacity reaches one million bales with the addition of a warehouse facility in Rule, Texas. 
• 2013: Module Tracking is launched. This new mobile technology allows producers and gins to pick up and deliver modules to the gin. 
• 2021: Altus, Oklahoma, rail facility opens. The source-loaded container train loading project is designed for high efficiency and will reduce the time and resources to move bales from the warehouses to the port. 
• 2021: Clearwater, Kansas, warehouse facility opens. Providing southern Kansas growers and gins with benefits such as shipping and storing efficiency, bringing PCCA’s total warehouse capacity to 1.6 million bales. 
• 2021: Linda frost retires from PCCA after 55 years of dedication and service.