Paynewhite, Brenda Phillips
(born: 1964)Brenda Phillips Paynewhite served in Operation Desert Storm and Operation Enduring Freedom. Known then as Brenda Phillips, she was the first African American female Warrant Officer with the Kentucky Army National Guard. She completed the Officers Candidate School (OCS) in 2004 and was the only female that started and graduated with the Traditional Officer Candidate School class. There were two other females in the Accelerated Class who also graduated with the Traditional Class. Brenda Phillips took her Commission on September 1, 2005. Her highest rank was CW2 (Chief Warrant Officer II).
In 2011, Brenda P. Paynewhite was a veteran and a volunteer with a nonprofit organization in Lexington, KY called Veterans Outreach. The charitable organization provided assistance to veterans by covering some of their social services gaps. From 2008-2009, she was a fundraiser and the volunteer coordinator and assistant program director through VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) for the King Center in Frankfort, KY.
Brenda Paynewhite was born in Georgia and resides in Frankfort, where she is a notary signing agent for Kentucky through her business, Bluegrass Signing Agent and Consulting LLC. The Chamber of Commerce in Frankfort did the ribbon cutting when the business opened in 2009 at 624 Shelby Street. The business is listed in OpenCorporates: The Open Database of the Corporate World.
Paynewhite, also a Kentucky Colonel, is the author of the 2012 published poem “Please Don’t Utter a Word.”
For more, see “WO1 Brenda J. Phillips KYARNG” in GX [Guard Experience], vol. 2, issue 6, p. 36; Merlene Davis, “Agency closes gaps in veteran’s social services – Success leads to second office in Kentucky” Lexington Herald-Leader, 07/10/2011, pp.B1 & B3; and B. J. S. Paynewhite, "Please Don't Utter a Word," Journal of Military Experience, vol. 2, issue 2, Article 51 [online].