2025 40 Over 40 Series: Jamie Ball

“If you want anything in this world, YOU have to work hard for it. For most of the world life is not easy, but hard work will pay off in the end.“

Jamie’s story:

My parents divorced when I was 4 years old. My father re-married within about 9 months. My mom had custody of both my brother and me. She had married young and had no skills other than working at a shopette on the military base. When she moved us back home, she got a job working in a potato factory, peeling out the bad spots in potatoes. She soon got a job as a cashier at Safeway and was eventually able to move us out of our family’s home into our own apartment. She worked hard and kept getting promotions. She eventually bought her own house with no assistance from any agencies. Just her hard work and the child support from my dad. She eventually decided she needed a change and transferred to a store in the city, when she realized it was not the change she needed. When I was 10 years old, my mother joined the Army. It is her hard work and tenacity which instilled in me the work ethic I have to this day.

I was born and raised an Army brat. My father, stepmom, mother, and stepdad were all Army. I moved all over the country. In the 12 years I was in school, I went to 13 different schools. I finally ended up in Alaska when I was 18.

I have not had many jobs in my life. I have worked at McDonalds, Burger King, a commissary, JC Penney, a credit union and then I obtained a job with the Alaska Department of Corrections as a correctional officer. I started in the maximum-security men’s prison at the tender age of 24. Within a couple of years, I transferred to the female facility where I remained for several years. After about 10 1/2 years, I became an Adult Probation/Parole Officer. I worked in institutions, traveled out of state to meet with offenders held in private facilities, worked with community residential centers, and I ended my career working in the field, supervising offenders wearing electronic monitoring equipment. I was finally able to retire after 27 years with the department.

In the 27 years with corrections, I learned that not all offenders are bad people, they just made bad choices and sometimes the only difference between them and me is they got caught and I didn’t. To know that I had helped at least one person in my career to make good choices and start living a non-criminal lifestyle, then my job was worth every second of the day.

After 34 years in Alaska, I could not take the winters anymore, so my husband and I decided to make a change. We sold our house and everything in it, bought a motorhome and moved to Mississippi where I am enjoying the retired life here on the coast.

You are more beautiful than you know!

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Much love,

Brandi

International Award-Winning Portrait Photographer