Perfect Timing

Jerilyn “Cookie” Clayton Goes From Pay Sheets To Musical Beats

There's more to Jerilyn "Cookie" Clayton than being crowned the Queen of OTIS.

Dealing with the time sheets and personnel issues of over 400 bi-weekly schedules that comprise the student workers and staff of the School of Cinematic Arts, payroll coordinator Jerilyn “Cookie” Clayton could very well be dubbed the queen of everything OTIS.

But it’s clear from meeting this pastor’s wife and former LAPD civilian officer that her mastery of the university’s notoriously clunky online computer timekeeping system pales in comparison to the soulful vocals of the semi-professional singer.

“I tell everyone that Fox should have a Geritol Generation Idol,” laughed Clayton, as she alluded to the hit reality program American Idol. “If I was young enough, I would be standing in line to face those judges with the rest of the contestants,” added the 56-year-old mother of three, who has been working at USC since 2005 and singing since elementary school.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, her ever-present smile is augmented by a distinct southern drawl inherited from her family’s Arkansas, Texas and Virginia roots. Clayton’s musical history runs a broad and eclectic range, from being an original member of the Praise Ensemble, created by renowned recording artist and pastor of Frontline Ministries, Dr. Norman Hutchins, to appearing on the Idol set as part of a background choir for Grammy-winner and platinum artist Kirk Frankline.

Clayton (left) helps lead her congregation in praise.

“I’ve always been a little different and danced to a different beat,” said Clayton, who credits her junior high school music teacher for opening up a world beyond the genres of the blues, jazz, and gospel sounds of her youth. “I could sing soprano when I was a girl, but could sing low enough to be a tenor, so I was able to sing with the boys. And, of course, I wanted to sing with the boys.”

Clayton was so popular with the tenor section that she was asked to join an all-male group, which was renamed “Cookie and the Gents.”

“We sang at local clubs, which was a lot of fun,” Clayton recalled, noting that since the group was underage, her mother and aunt would accompany them to venues across the city. “I’ve never been one to be out front. They would push me out there, but I’ve always felt more creative in the background.”

Watching Los Angeles change as she grew up surrounded by “surfers and Black Panthers,” the self-titled “child of the ’50s and ’60s” kept her love for singing close and found room for a new one—a doll named “Barbie.”

Clayton takes to the stage in 1991 during Ronnie Taylor presents Praise Ensemble and Friends.

“When my first grandchild was born in 1993, she was the perfect excuse to go hog wild with everything Barbie,” she laughed. “I started collecting for her, but it was really mine.”

Before her landing at USC, where she “was trying to get hired for years,” Clayton was an HR manager at Price Waterhouse—a far cry from her work with the LAPD as a female jailer, where she patted prisoners down for guns and drugs. Not one to shirk from a new challenge, Clayton then took on the stressful hours of answering 9-1-1.

“Once you answer your first pursuit call, without the use of a computer mind you, then OTIS isn’t so scary,” she said. “Over the years, I’ve seen and done a lot, but I know there’s so much more in store for me.”

And the answer to the question everyone is dying to know—where did her appetizing appellation come from?

“When I was born, my grandmother said I looked like a sweet gingerbread cookie,” Clayton laughed. “And that’s what I’ve been called ever since.”

Associated Person:

Jerilyn Clayton