When Dot Norman first began working at City Hall as the mayor’s secretary, she was still in high school.“I was so young. I was in the business and office education program and Judy Douthit was my teacher at Jacksonville High School,” said Dot.
Since that time, she has worked through 10 elections and seven different mayors. Dot’s position is one of the few in the city that is not a civil service position; so any one of the seven could have replaced her.
“Elections. I’ve hated elections because they are always so stressful,” said Dot. “I’ve never had the assurance I would even be here the next four years. But I have worked for so many wonderful bosses.”
She has also watched the city grow. In 1971, when Dot took her then part-time job, all of the city offices were located in the police station. Seven years later, City Hall was built.
“When we moved from the police station to here, we felt like we had a cathedral, you know, a palace. We had so much space it was wonderful,” said Dot.
Some of her favorite memories are of those times when the city’s growth was tangible – when the fire station was built and then got the first ladder truck and ambulance, when the hospital was built – things that at the time meant pinched pennies, but in the long run were the right steps for a growing town. A town Dot loves very much.
The town loves her as well. On Aug. 22, the Jacksonville City Council Chambers was filled with friends, family and co-workers who came to sign a guestbook wishing Dot “Best Wishes,” hug her neck and tell her how much she will be missed around City Hall.
Throughout the years, her love of Jacksonville has kept her behind the secretary’s desk and there she has had her finger very firmly on the pulse of the city. Now, after 37 years of service, she is stepping away.
“I like knowing that I’m leaving when I still feel like I’m making a contribution,” she said.
Her family played a big role in Dot’s decision. Dot’s son, Brandon, and his wife Carrie have given her two adorable grandchildren, Grady and Audrey, and she hopes to spend more time with them. And playing with the grandkids is top on her priority list now.
“I want to play with my babies,” said Dot, adding that she also plans to do a little gardening. “I’m looking forward to being able to keep my yard a little better.”
She also wants to travel to visit her sisters and spend more time working in her yard, but Jacksonville will always be a part of her. The city’s employees have become her large extended family and she their mother hen.
“I’ve got such a big family plus my family at City Hall, I have such a lengthy prayer time praying for all the people I love,” said Dot.
She has learned a lot over the years – how to be flexible enough to learn whatever she needed to know to do her job, tolerance of people who don’t have all the facts and are upset by what they don’t understand.
“I did learn something when first came to City Hall at 17. I guess I may have lived a sheltered life. I learned that grown women do use profanity in public,” Dot said with a laugh. “And that occasionally a church member will get angry at something the city does and call the mayor’s office and use profanity also. That was really an eye-opening thing for me at 17 and 18.”
And she has seen how well things can work when the right people are in the city’s top job.
“Every one I’ve worked for, their integrity has been impeccable. Especially Mayor Smith now,” said Dot.
Of course she will miss seeing the familiar faces of City Hall every day and the people she talks to frequently on the phone, many of whom she has never met face-to-face, but she and her husband Mark still plan to call Jacksonville home.
“How do you replace 37 years of experience?” said Mayor Johnny Smith. “It’s going to be difficult for us for a while because she is just so knowledgeable. All of the employees in the city always came to her because they knew she knew a little bit about everything.”
