If the term “cinebabies” is one that you recognize, you’ve had contact with Cookie Clayton, who retired in Spring 2022. As the Payroll Personnel Coordinator at SCA for more than fifteen years, Cookie (which everyone called her) was responsible for onboarding the School’s student workers and making sure they got paid. In the process, she became their caretaker, and they became her “cinebabies.”

Cookie, a part-time singer (in Stevie Wonder’s choir no less) and actor, also frequently found herself in films for students and faculty. “I loved being in their films, which was one of my favorite things to do,” she says. “One of my most memorable moments was being in (Professor) Nancy Forner’s ‘Me Too’ project and film.”

If there was a mayor of SCA, Cookie would have won the position by a landslide. She couldn’t go to the Coffee Bean or walk through the courtyard without hearing her name or giving out hugs. “That was always such a thrill. My business office staff couldn’t understand how I knew all the Cinema staff members,” she says. “I guess I made I my business to be acquainted with them.”

Or maybe Queen of SCA would have been a better title. When Cookie’s 60th birthday rolled around, SCA staff threw her a birthday party and, fittingly, made her wear a crown and purple robe and enter to the theme song from the musical Dreamgirls. It’s moments like these she will miss the most: “There are so many things I loved about Cinema. But the thing that I miss the most are my colleagues and partners in crime, as well as getting a chance to meet the students.”

Now a new generation of cinebabies will have to find their way to graduation without Cookie as their guide. And the School will need a new mayor.