Having one successful career is hard enough. Dublin graduate Sandra (Johnson) Cogburn has had two of them. From working on Corps of Engineers lakes as a government contractor to rising through the ranks of the USPS to be the Hico Postmaster, Cogburn’s perseverance has taken her far.
Cogburn graduated from Dublin High School in 1994, and after graduation took a job working at a jail in Lometa. After a year there, she met her now-husband Brandon and moved back to Dublin, where she started working for her father’s company, Johnson Sheet Metal.
She learned how to build infrastructure and coordinate projects, and soon Cogburn and her husband decided to start their own business, Sandra & Associates Contracting. She became 8(a) certified through a program that helps groups facing discrimination get jobs as government contractors.
Cogburn’s company would build infrastructure, clean and keep up Corps of Engineers lakes around Texas. “We’ve worked at Hords Creek Lake in Coleman, Waco Lake, Lake Whitney, Lake Proctor, just all around,” she said. “We’ve done everything from building picnic shelters to painting to cleaning, just anything they need done.”
Cogburn enjoyed the work, which was always different depending on the job. At one point she was in charge of checking the motors on dams, and at another she ran a construction crew to build new infrastructure.
Although she loved the work, Cogburn and her husband wanted a career that could offer them more stability in the long run. “It was a good job, but it’s contract work,sothere’snoretirement,” she said.
After nearly 20 years as a contractor, Cogburn began looking for another job, and found one at the Stephenville post office as a rural relief carrier.
She spent the next seven years working her way up. She was a rural carrier for a year, then a postal support employee in the office.
“The postmaster over there was really good about training and teaching me stuff,” she said. “And then my best friend is the supervisor of the Eastland [post office], and so she taught me a lot; any questions I had, she would answer. And I just basically sat down and learned it. That’s the only way you can do it. I wanted to learn as much as I could. I wanted to learn it all.”
Cogburn’s work paid off and she transferred to Blanket and Morgan Mill for different promotions. When she came back to Stephenville a few years later, she took a position as a clerk, then became a supervisor.
Last week, Cogburn received another promotion and now serves as the postmaster at the Hico post office.
Two of her family members also work for the postal service. “My husband is a rural carrier in Dublin and my son is a city carrier in Stephenville,” she said.
In an average day, Cogburn logs surveys of the condition of the mail, what time it arrived and what time each carrier left and came back. She also makes schedules for the employees and helps the clerks at the window. “I like dealing with the customers,” she said. “And I like being over the carriers and just watching everything they do.”
Cogburn has no plans on leaving the Hico post office. “I’ve been in Hico since September, and I love that little post office,” she said. “I will retire in Hico, Texas. I think I’ve got 10 years left.”
When Cogburn isn’t working, she enjoys quilting, as well as spending time outdoors with her family. “We like to camp, we like to boat, we like to snow ski,” she said.
Cogburn and her husband Brandon Cogburn live outside Dublin. They have two sons, Bret, 26, and Reid, 18. Bret and his wife Sidney live in Dublin, and Reid is currently a senior at Lingleville ISD and will attend Texas State next year. Her mother Deanna Johnson and her father and step-mother Johnny and Benna Johnson still live in Dublin.
“My family inspires me to be the best person that I can be,” she said. “I want to be the best for them. I want to give them the best.”
Cogburn offers the following advice to Dublin graduates: “Your path can always change,” she said. “Just stay at it and do what’s going to make you happy.”
Editor’s Note: This column chronicles what Dublin graduates have done since high school. If you have any suggestions for other grads, email publisher@dublincitizen. com.