First Lady of Pinckneyville Chamber to Retire Wednesday
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Joan Smith may actually get to see her favorite part of Mardi Gras Parade in 2010- the marching bands. For the past 11 years she has ridden in the back of a van or other vehicle, counting the proceeds from the 50/50 ticket sales.
"You need a light on in the van to count the money," Smith said. "But, you can't see anything outside the van."
The 50/50 sales during the parade, coupled with a long, busy day at the flea market have prevented Smith from seeing the bands go by or watching the field show competition.
Smith, the Executive Director of the Pinckneyville Chamber of Commerce, will spend her last day in the office on Wednesday. On Thursday, she and three friends are leaving for Egypt.
They'll spend two weeks visiting Cairo, Luxor, the Valley of the Kings and other areas and cruising the Nile before returning to Pinckneyville.
Smith said that she doesn't know whether she'll be called upon to help train her replacement once she returns. She isn't opposed to the idea.
Jeannie Bathon will fill the Executive Director position until a permanent replacement is hired.
Smith may also help with the 50/50 ticket sales during the 2010 Mardi Gras parade. "They asked if I'd help next year, but things may change. That's a long way off," she says. "We'll see."
The Executive Director position requires about four hours a day, except in October. Prior to Mardi Gras, it's more like six hours a day.
The day of the flea market and parade is a long one, as well. Smith said she started at 6 a.m. on Saturday and finished sometime after 9:30 p.m. She did take a couple of breaks throughout the day.
Her last act on Saturday was to put the winning 50/50 ticket number on the answering machine in the Chamber office. No winner has come forward yet.
Smith started sometime around July 20, 1999 as the Chamber Secretary, replacing Karen Manitto. This was her 11th Mardi Gras celebration.
"When I started I had no idea what I was doing," Smith said. "Peggy Sims and Kent Epplin were my saviors."
She quickly caught on and took charge. One of the things Smith began during her tenure at the Chamber was to create a parade packet. She prints up about 50 packets each year.
The marshals in each of the 11 staging areas use the packets to organize the entrants. Smith said that the packets have been popular, but there aren't enough parade marshals.
"In some of those areas, there is only one marshal," Smith said. "There needs to be at least two per area."
This year's parade had about 90 entrants, Smith said. The number of entrants varies depending upon the economy and the weather. October was a wet month, preventing some from building floats. The cost of float-building materials and generators may have deterred some from entering this year.
She and her family moved from Canton to Pinckneyville in 1973 and now call the Friendly Little City home. Over the past decade, Smith's face and voice have provided a first impression of Pinckneyville to new businesses and residents.
"I'll miss just meeting people," she said. "I like answering questions about Pyramid Park and the jail museum. People would stop and ask me, 'Where do you get your glasses fixed?' and I'd tell them about our eye doctors. It wasn't earth-shattering, but it was important to them."
It hasn't been all roses. "I won't miss the questions about how people should go about applying for food stamps," Smith said with a smile. "How should I know?"
This isn't the first time Smith has retired. She was the secretary at 204 School for 21 years. After leaving that position, she remained Secretary/Treasurer for the 204 Board of Education.
Smith said she has no plans to leave that position, but plans to do "nothing, absolutely nothing" for a while.
Nothing will include travel, playing cards and a little romance. Smith, who was widowed after 40 years of marriage, said she recently met a new gentleman friend online. Smith has three daughters, two sons and eight grandchildren. One grandson lives with her.