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Just like 'Big Mama'

Aj Jemison's grandmother inspired her to succeed in life, in business - and on a motorcycle.

By TIM GRANT
Published February 4, 2005

TOWN 'N COUNTRY - Aj Jemison rides with the wind.

The general manager of International Plaza and Bay Street is on a trailblazing journey that's taken her from the muddy back roads of her hometown in Oklahoma to become one of the first African-American women to manage a shopping mall.

Behind her straight corporate image, though, is a free-spirited soul who inspires others to live outside the box.

Jemison's most recent vehicle for seeking thrills and adventure is a Honda Shadow 750, a cruiser she bought in April and named "Suga Baby."

"I'm a workaholic, and the motorcycle gave me a release," says Jemison, a member of the Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle Club of Florida. "I love my bike."

She never dreamed a motorcycle would help her feel so close to her long-deceased grandmother, who she believes is alive inside her navigating as she manages the mall, gives motivational speeches and volunteers her time.

"My grandmother is my spirit, my essence," Jemison says. "I still sing Happy Birthday for her Stevie Wonder-style every year on her birthday out loud. She was probably the only person who truly knew me."

Jemison, 47, dedicated her 2004 self-published book, Just Aj! simply stated, to her grandmother, Angie Lee Lawson Henderson. It's a collection of inspirational stories from her childhood in Tulsa and lessons she learned from the school of hard knocks.

"The person who said that you should forget the past obviously did not have a grandmother," she wrote of the woman they called "Big Mama" whose hands could "rub my head in such a way to relieve a headache that I never had to take an aspirin."

Jemison's grandmother, who died 17 years ago at age 79, was a big-bosomed woman who wore wire-rimmed glasses and had a gap between her two front teeth. She carried a Bible, quoted Scripture and went to church as much to worship as she did to socialize.

Jemison never forgot the time her grandmother stunned the whole family 20 years ago and showed up for Thanksgiving dinner on the back of a motorcycle driven by Jemison's younger brother.

"It surprised the tar out of me," she said.

Jemison never got on a motorcycle until she moved to Tampa in 2000 and started dating a man who owned a bike. Remembering her grandmother's famous ride, she found the courage to hop on.

In the summer of 2003, Jemison and her partner rode his motorcycle from here to Tulsa.

During that trip, while looking through an old shoe box, Jemison's heart leaped when she stumbled upon a photograph of her dusty, gray-haired grandmother sitting on the motorcycle years ago.

Jemison brought the photograph back to Tampa, where it sits in a frame at her townhouse off Waters Avenue in Town 'N Country.

"If there's one thing I learned from my grandmother, it's integrity," Jemison says. "I can't handle the idea of someone doubting me. My reputation is all I have."

Her road to mall management was a rocky one.

She got married at 18, became a mother at 19. She gave birth to her first child five days before taking final exams at the end of her freshman year at Tulsa Junior College. Nearly seven years later, she walked across the graduation stage seven months pregnant with her second child to receive her associate's degree in marketing.

Her daughter Franchiel, 28, is a clothing designer. Her son, Houston, 21, is in the U.S. Army training to be a medic.

Although it took seven years to earn the two-year degree, Jemison is most proud of raising her two children after two divorces without government aid. Despite the obstacles facing the 25-year-old single mother, she dreamed of one day managing a million-square-foot mall.

By her 34th birthday, Jemison was promoted to manage a 1.5-million-square-foot mall in Michigan. Five years ago, she transferred to Tampa to oversee the opening of the International Plaza.

"I love what I do," Jemison says. "We have approximately 14-million people come through here a year. They want a nice place to shop. My staff and I are here to provide it."

Outside of work, she gives motivational speeches and volunteers for causes that include education, adoption of minority children, helping teenagers and the advancement of women in the workplace.

"I'm not who people assume when they think of me in this office," she says. "They think I'm all business, involved in the community and all about getting the job done. I am who I need to be. But I'm not that all the time."

Tim Grant can be reached at 269-5311 or at grant@sptimes.com

AGE: 47

JOB: General manager of International Plaza and Bay Street

PROUDEST MOMENT: My son's graduation from Army boot camp in December

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT: Not being at my grandmother's bedside when she passed away.

IN YOUR CD PLAYER NOW: Fantasia Barrino, 2004 American Idol winner.

LAST BOOK READ: The Power of Nice by Ronald Shapiro and Mark Jankowski

PEOPLE ASSUME: That I'm a city girl.

FAVORITE QUOTE: "My opinion is only worth two cents, but I've got a pocket full of pennies."

[Last modified February 3, 2005, 10:01:08]