First Lady of Perry County Elections, Mary Gerrish, retiring after the primary

To talk about the retirement of Perry County election coordinator Mary Gerrish we first have to talk about her late grandmother Mrs. Cora Sams.

Publisher John Sheley, Virginia Marmaduke and Cora Sams were the very best of Pinckneyville.

Cora passed away in January 1986.

Cora was Pinckneyville's original "Golden Girl" who died at the age of 88.

She is the woman for whom the late, great George Burns sang, "I wish I were 80 again."

She was a close friend to my late mother, Virginia Croessman, and later a close friend of mine.

She was a brash and beautiful woman who wasn't afraid of anyone or anything. She was a Republican who grew up in the trenches of Perry County politics by working for her dad in the precincts at the age of 18. She was a close friend of the late Ralph Dunn. She liked "about half" the governors of Illinois and crossed over to befriend then Sen. Paul Simon. She wasn't a Jim Thompson fan.

Cora was sort of an Andy Rooney in knee highs with a pinch of Dr. Ruth. She could talk about anything and you could take what she said to the bank.

She worked very hard through the Pinckneyville Chamber of Commerce to make the Mardi Gras festival the success that it was and still is.

She married Jack Sams who preceded her in death in 1966. I remember that at the death of her daughter-in-law she brought four grandchildren--including Mary Gerrish-- into her home to help raise. Cora actually graduated from Sparta High School and later Brown Business College. She once worked as a mail censor for the Menard prison.

She held several secretarial and community positions and was Perry County Relief administrator. She organized the Perry County Republican Woman's Club. She was a member of the Du Quoin Study Club and was instrumental in turning grounds alongside the IC tracks in Pinckneyville into a park. She was honored in 1985 as the most outstanding member of the chamber.

That is where Mary Gerrish came from and it doesn't get any better than that.

That's why Mary has been the very best at preparing the electorate for a good experience at the polls.

"I got this job because of Cora Sams," she said, "And, I have had three geat bosses--republican clerk Don Hirsch and democrats Kevin Kern and Josh Gross."

Mary, 65, said, "I started for Don Hirsch in 1984. I began doing recording." It's one of the most important functions of the clerk's office, which shoulders the responsibility of being keeper of the county's records--births, deaths, marriages, deeds, elections, and board of commissioner minutes.

Mary and husband Ron reside in Pinckneyville. They have a daughter, Amy and a stepdaughter, Nancy and her husband Brian, who live in Belgium because of his job with NAT0 (North American Treaty Organization).

"I took over the elections in 1989 or 1990," she said. "We used punch cards. That was many moons ago.

"Gosh, now, the touch screens are so much better and make it easier on the election judges," she said.

In the not-to-distant future, punch cards will be the almost-forgotten tool of voting.

You'd think that taking care of 14,200 registered voters in Perry County and being part of an army of more than 80 election judges who get up at 4 a.m. on Election Day to open the polls by six would make blood pressure medicine a top drawer staple.

"I've never had high blood pressure," says the slim and savvy Gerrish.

She said Hirsch, Kern and Gross have served the public well--believing as they do that voting is at the core of the American Way.

She worked with Kern for 10 years. He said, "Though we were of different politics and often different temperaments on issues, we worked well together because I always knew where she stood. We were able to disagree and then laugh about it later."

"At the end of the day, voting is about opening up the process and making people feel comfortable about participating in their democracy. Mary always took care of those who needed a little patience or explanation. She was instrumental in making sure early voting was implemented in an accessible way in Perry County. Our elections in Perry County have come a long way in her time, and our process works well because of her expertise and devotion to the process," Kern said.

"I don't have a date yet on my retirement, but I look forward to baby-sitting my great grandchild Brylee and I have another on the way in July," she said.

She leaves the work of election coordinator in good hands.

Tory Woods, 37, came to the office in May 2013 and she has the same commitment, the same attention to detail and the same belief in how important it is to vote.

"So far, I have a notebook and a half" of what Mary has taught her. "Everything is time-consuming. I find myself coming in early or staying late to get it all done."

Welcome to public service.

"We started on the 6th, went into the grace period on voting, then early voting and now the primary election," she said.

Her work is made better by the touch screen voting machines, but to provide voters with several ways to get their votes cast takes a lot of caring. At the end of the day and at the end of the election, it all has to be perfect.

And, it will be.