Staff Writer

JONESVILLE - Natalee Spencer says she hopes that when people look back on her years with the Town of Jonesville they remember her as someone who went the extra mile to help people.

Mrs. Spencer is retiring Friday after 33 years as an employee of the town, the last 28 as clerk/treasurer. She began working for the town in 1975 when she was hired to administer the CETA (Comprehensive Employment Training Act) program. Though the job was full time, Mrs. Spencer said performing her duties did not take all day so she began assisting in the clerk/treasurer's office, eventually moving over there full-time. When Maude Rochester retired in 1980, Mrs. Spencer succeeded her.

Looking back over her career, Mrs. Spencer said she hopes people will remember “that I always went the second mile to help” the public, particularly the elderly. Over the years Mrs. Spencer, on her own time, has assisted elderly Jonesville residents going to their homes to collect their utility payments, even driving some of them around on their errands.

“Miss Emmie Sams, she used to call me and I would go by her house at lunch time and get her bills and she'd always want a receipt and I'd take it back,” she said. “Then there was Elwillie Gaffney who lived on Church Street, I did the same for her, I'd get her power, gas and water bills and take her a receipt back because she always wanted a receipt.

“Then there used to be a lady over here in the housing project that walked with a walker,” she said. “When she came down here (to the town hall) walking on a walker, I told her ‘I'll come and pick them up for you' and I did that for a good many years until she died.”

There was also an elderly lady on C Street who Mrs. Spencer said had no family to assist her. She said that on the third of every month, she'd use her lunch hour take the woman to the bank so she could cash her check and then to the drug store where she'd pay her medicine bill. Next was the grocery store, where Mrs. Spencer would sit in her car, eating her lunch while the woman went in and got her groceries.

Mrs. Spencer also prevented an elderly woman from getting her gas turned off during the winter. She said the woman - who she believed was in the first stages of Alzheimer's - had not paid her gas bill. Worried that the woman might get her gas turned off and not be able to heat her home, Mrs. Spencer went to her house and got her to pay her bill.

In another instance, Mrs. Spencer assisted an illiterate woman correspond with her daughter. She said that when the woman received a letter from her daughter, she would go and read it to her and then write a responding letter for her.

There was also an elderly man who couldn't understand his bank statements. He would bring them to Mrs. Spencer's office at the town hall where she would explain them to him.

For a number of years also assisted elderly residents in securing heating assistance from the City of Union. She would help them fill out the necessary forms and then she would mail them, using her own stamps. If she had to use the town's stamps, Mrs. Spencer would note the expense and compensate the town.

Though the assistance she provided to others went beyond the specific duties of her office, and even though she had to sacrifice much of her personal time and even money to help them, Mrs. Spencer said she was happy to do it and wishes she could have done more.

“I have enjoyed helping people and I've endeavored to truly serve the people,” she said. “I love Jonesville and I love the people.”

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A drop-in will be held to celebrate Mrs. Spencer's retirement on Friday from 2-4 p.m. at the Jonesville Town Hall. The public is invited.