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McFamily tradition

Susan Stewart told sister Jane who told daughter Tara: McDonald's is a good place to work.

By JACKIE RIPLEY
Published August 19, 2005

NORTHDALE - Jane Stewart has spent the past quarter-century behind the counter at McDonald's. She's done it all, from fry cook to cashier. Through it all, the single mother raised a daughter and brought her into the company.

"Mom was the manager, but she worked me harder than anyone else," said Tara Stewart, who began working for McDonald's at age 14. "I didn't slack off at all."

Now a senior in marketing at the University of South Florida, Tara still works part-time for the restaurant chain. Jane Stewart, meanwhile, is closing in on her 20-year anniversary as a McDonald's manager.

"People don't realize how hard we work," said Jane Stewart, who manages the Northdale McDonald's. "You're on your feet all day working shoulder to shoulder with the crew."

Still, there were enough company perks for the Stewarts to make McDonald's a family affair. It all started with Jane Stewart's sister, Susan.

"She was working at McDonald's near Fowler and Nebraska and said I should come to work there," Jane Stewart recalled. "I was about 20."

Susan Stewart has long since left the company. But she has a lifelong reminder of her tenure there.

"My sister found her husband at McDonald's" Jane Stewart said.

Meanwhile, Jane Stewart, who gave birth to Tara a few years after starting her job at McDonald's, didn't let motherhood keep her from advancing her career. After spending her first four years performing general duties around the restaurant, she was named assistant manager at the McDonald's on N Dale Mabry Highway and Busch Boulevard.

The pay was good, but it also meant her days typically started around 2 in the morning.

"My sister, mom and I were living together," she explained. "Mom was home at night and we were there during the day" to care for Tara.

By the time Tara started Wharton High School, Jane Stewart had settled into her job as assistant manager at the McDonald's at Lowry Park Zoo. The park's hours of operation allowed her to work a normal 9-to-5 schedule, which meant she had time to transport Tara to and from dance team practices at Wharton and be at home at night.

Tara worked at McDonald's through high school. After graduating, she took advantage of a company perk that pays college tuition for managers and crew workers who open the store in the morning and close it at night.

"If you're there early in the morning or late at night you can work your class schedule around work," Tara Stewart said. "You just have to maintain at least a C average."

The Stewart women, meanwhile, have stayed together. Jane and Tara share a spacious home in New Tampa with Jane's mother, Faye. And until she died last year at 98, family matriarch Mabel Stewart made it four generations of Stewart women living together under one roof.

"My great grandmother was feisty," Tara Stewart said. "She was determined to be around forever."

Jackie Ripley can be reached at 813 269-5308 or ripley@sptimes.com

[Last modified August 18, 2005, 11:46:08]