It was shortly before 11 a.m. at Memphis International Airport on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Passengers at Gate 12, headed to Atlanta on Delta, were quietly working their phones or looking off into space when Beverly Becton started in on her gig.

“Good morning, everyone to my left,” she said from the podium in a call-and-response cadence that within minutes had turned into a chorus of “Happy Birthday” — the crowd singing along — for a passenger’s child not even present.

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If that seems curious, two beats later, the passenger — a beaming father ultimately headed to Charlotte — was getting a long-stemmed rose to take to his birthday girl from a vase of them Becton keeps for occasions like this.

Fifteen minutes later, he boarded, lingering like an old friend with her at the top of the jetway, and then, with the pink rose as proof of the encounter, off on a day much different than it had begun.

All this happened in the confines of the gate, a sterile and rather anonymous public space where people don’t expect to raise a rousing cheer or even speak to the person in the adjoining chair.

Becton, 62, doesn’t roll that way. At 38 years with Delta, she is one of its most senior employees and managers in Memphis. She’s also one of six Red Coats here, staff Delta chooses specifically for their finesse in managing the customer experience.