Opelika's Freedom Festival Sticks the Landing

BY LIVI WELCH FOR THE OBSERVER

LEE COUNTY —

When an important figure in the community retires, it is a typical bittersweet goodbye. But few will be missed as much as Jan Burke, the now-former director of human resources of DHR in Lee County. Burke was born and raised in Tallapoosa County, where she attended Tallapoosa Academy in Dadeville. In 1982, she earned her master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Alabama — “the other school,” as she called it. Marrying her husband and Opelika local, Randy, convinced her to make this neck of the woods her home, she said.

“I came to Opelika