Hometown pride: Sheets retires as town clerk

By DAN KEGLEY/Staff

Yesterday was it, Dixie Sheets’ last day on the job at the Town of Marion where she’s worked since finishing school. Today is the first day of the rest of her retirement. And rest is what comes first, about a month of it, she said.
Sheets was tucked into her corner of the office to the right for citizens coming in the town hall’s front doors. Any who knew her would say no corner, indeed no office or building or job could either contain the personality that endeared Sheets to so many.
It starts with that easy smile that several folks renewing business licenses Wednesday morning saw as Sheets warmly received each one, heard their requests, fulfilled them at a computer, and handed them a printout to take across the hall where they could pay their fees.
It continues with her easy way with conversation. Sheets’ speaks to people as though all are special to her, and to hear her immediately mention people as the part of her job she will miss most, it is clear they in fact are special.
Sheets was born in Saltville and came to Marion at three weeks of age. “This is my hometown,” she said from behind a desk situated near a window so she can see Main Street.
She began working for the town part-time in the recreation department when it stood where the post office is now. One day, the town manager, Roy Helms, brother of current mayor David Helms, asked her if she’d like to start a full-time job the next day.
She became a water billing clerk on Nov. 10, 1972, not long out of Virginia Highlands Community College and the Washington County Technical School.
Since then she has worked as deputy treasurer, director of finance, then town clerk. “I let them talk me into that,” she said.
As clerk she continued her training and achieved certification as a Master Municipal Clerk (MMC) the most advanced level of the International Institute of Municipal Clerks.
Sheets worked in the administrations of mayors L.W. Kelly, W.W. Scott Jr., Marshall Guy, and David Helms, who said last week Sheets will take a lot of knowledge with her in retirement.
She worked with five town managers, from Roy Helms through B.J. Hansen, Carl Taylor, Henry Booker, and John Clark.
“Four mayors and five town managers. That will wear anybody out,” Sheets said, laughing.
“We’ve come a long way,” Sheets said. When she started working for the town, Marion was in phase 1 of widening Main Street to four lanes. “I have been here for phases 2 and three,” she said.
“We now have a town pool and a senior [citizens’] center,” she said. “We didn’t have the senior and low- and moderate-income housing. The town got grants for Severt Hills, Millerwood and Orchard Towers.”
Smyth Valley Crossing shopping center opened at about the mid-point of Sheets’ career, several months after Rose’s department store burned down in 1988. About that time, the town and Smyth County were seeing the fruits ripen in their joint project to develop Mountain Empire Industrial Park. An intermunicipal agreement allowed the two governments to build the new sewage treatment plant.
The Lincoln Hotel was residential and falling into disrepair. Now, its rebirth as the General Francis Marion Hotel is a hallmark of downtown’s renaissance.
“I’ll put our downtown up against anybody’s,” Sheets said.
Among the other positive developments she’s seen, Sheets counted the move from pencil and paper to the computer in town administration as highly significant.
“We used a calculator and a manual typewriter for each bill” before the conversion to newer technology, a move the town “had to do a little bit at a time,” she said.
“We’ve had some exciting times,” she said.
One of them happened on Jan. 4, 1999, when Sheets slipped on the icy sidewalk between the town hall and the then-police station next door. Two Blue Ridge Job Corps students rushed to her aid, keeping her warn until rescuers arrived. Her shattered ankle required reconstructive surgery.
The incident and the long recovery following was when, she said, “I learned a lot of people care for me.”
Including Sue Clark, who now steps into Sheets’ clerk job. Sheets said when town manager Booker looked outside after Sheets fell, he said, “’Some lady’s fallen out here.’”
“Sue said, ‘That’s no lady! That’s Dixie!’” Sheets remembered.
Sheets was there for the town hall’s renovation and the fire department’s move out of lower level to a new state-of-the-art station. That renovation brought the town hall a new elevator.
“I love this building,” Sheets said. Before it was built, a miniature golf course operated on the site. “That was before my time.”
She also saw the construction of a new life saving crew building.
She’s led an interesting, enjoyable career. “I enjoy my job, and I always have,” she said, “working for the town and representing the town. I will miss the people most. Not just the people who work here, but those who come in every day.”
In retirement, Sheets plans to keep her part-time job at Hungry Mother State Park where she works at the Discovery Center registering camping guests and “talking to people,” she said. “It’s zero stress.”
She plans to rest for the first month, and then do some traveling.
“It’s the right time for me, I think,” she said. “It’s time to do some things I want to do.”
And she’ll be around if she’s needed to help, for example, with town budget preparation.
“I’ll be available to the town and the citizens if I can be of service,” she said.

dkegley@wythenews.com