We featured a profile of Ms. Rosemary Mitchell in our spring 1993 edition of Trend Magazine Online™ while she was a Sales Manager for the Omni Charlotte Hotel. Fast forward 18 years and she is still doing her thing but this time selling groups on visiting Houston, TX. I tracked her down during my interview with Mr. Mike Gunn of the City of Birmingham for our May 2011 edition of Trend Magazine Online™. It was indeed a pleasure to know that she was still in the business and that I was able to get in contact with her for this follow-up article.

It took some patience and stick-to-it-ness to get the go ahead from her marketing department in Houston as she works out of her home in Washington, DC, which she loves with a passion. “It takes a lot of discipline to work from home,” Rosemary stated during our phone interview, “You have to treat it as if you are actually in a traditional working environment. I like looking out the window during my breaks.” As a National Account Executive for the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau, her duties include representing the city to the best degree that she can by booking city-wide conventions. Ms. Mitchell really loves her job of finding new groups and bringing their decision-makers to Houston and watching their eyes light up when they see it live and in person. In addition, she really gets a kick out of showing them what her city has to offer in terms of visitor amenities. Rosemary especially enjoys when her hard work and diligence pays off with a signed contract. On the flip side, she cringes when groups turn her down without even giving her a chance to show them what Houston is all about.

One of the many perks of this Boston native’s job is that she is able to travel all over the United States and overseas on business. “I have been to every State in the U.S. except eight,” she chimes. Some of her most memorable moments include being in Canada accepting a bid for the Shriners International convention when she got a chance to see Queen Elizabeth II, and being in New York accepting a bid for the NAACP convention when she got to hear President Obama speak. After 36 years in the business she still has a thirst for travel and wants to visit all historical areas in the U.S. like Memphis, TN, where Dr. King was assassinated on Thursday April 4, 1968; and Selma, AL, home to many activities during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s.

“People of color should get to know their history,” Rosemary states, “I wonder what it was like back then, I am a history buff; for example, I didn’t know anything about Black cowboys when I got to Houston.” She has since discovered a wealth of information on them and her favorite is Nate Love, a.k.a. Deadwood Dick, who was born a Slave in Tennessee. He earned his nickname by winning a mustang-roping and target shooting contest in the spring of 1876 in Deadwood City in the Dakota Territory.

Ms. Mitchell’s long-term goals include retiring and starting a second life by possibly going into the restaurant business with her son who is an executive chef. She is also recently engaged to a classmate from high school who she met again at their reunion two years ago. “He is a good guy, the salt of the earth and exactly what I need,” as she smiles through the telephone. Like Mr. Gunn of Birmingham, AL, she too agrees that there are not nearly enough African-Americans in management working in the Travel and Tourism industry.

Ms. Mitchell was raised in Suffolk, VA, and attended Virginia Union University, and Virginia Commonwealth University.  She is a Certified Sales Manager and a member of the National Coalition of Black Meeting Planners as well as the United Negro League of Women, and the Religious Conference Management Association . In 1982 she earned her CMP (Certified Meeting Planner) certificate. She is currently pursuing a membership in an organization called Just Because. In closing she would like everyone to know that she is proud of our President and the job that he is doing. In addition, she wants to be just like her mom -- still wearing 3" heels -- who turns 80 later this year .

Her favorite quote is still the same as in 1993, “You ask for nothing and you get nothing. Just because you have been a good and faithful employee, don’t assume that you will be offered the job. You will have to ask for it! Never, never let anyone set you up to fail, you can do that alone.”

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