Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 11, 1993 TAG: 9303110287
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PEARISBURG LENGTH: Long
MAYOR: 47 YEARS WILL DO
HE'S LISTED IN Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not as the country's longest-serving mayor; his philosophy of government is simply, "Be honest."\ Clarence J. Taylor, who brought renown to himself and his hometown as America's longest-serving mayor, resigned Wednesday, saying it's time to move on.
Taylor, 83, relinquished his gavel after 47 years as mayor of this mountain-rimmed community of 2,064.
Voters first chose Taylor as mayor in 1946, then re-elected him 18 times, usually without opposition.
"I figured I'd been in it long enough. Forty-seven years is a long time," Taylor said.
"It's the end of an era for this community," said Kenneth Vittum, the 13th town manager to work with Taylor. "It's a bittersweet day."
Pearisburg grew during Taylor's tenure, but retained a small-town identity. Its annual budget has increased from $46,000 in 1946 to the present $1.5 million, but the number of traffic lights has only doubled - to two.
"He's seen Pearisburg grow, develop, change, prosper and not prosper," Vittum said.
Asked how he retained the job for so long, Taylor shrugged. "I guess people were satisfied with the way things were going," he said.
"You don't have the political pressures here like you have in some communities," said Vittum.
Taylor is an ingratiating, courtly man who enjoyed both the business and ceremonial duties of being mayor, Vittum said.
"I wasn't in it for the money," Taylor said.
His mid-term resignation, announced at Tuesday's council meeting, took many by surprise, although Taylor said when last re-elected in 1990 that he wouldn't run again.
Town employees threw a hastily arranged yet heartfelt surprise luncheon for Taylor and his wife of nearly 60 years, Mary Kate, Wednesday at the Town Hall.
For her, a vase of pink roses, and thanks from Vittum "for getting the mayor to the meetings on time." For the mayor, a commemorative platter inscribed on short notice that morning by a town jeweler.
Taylor thanked those in attendance, and said, "I hope you stay a long time here."
His record longevity, subject of many magazine and newspaper articles and televised interviews, was more of a bench mark for others than Taylor. "I never thought much about it," he said.
Yet the Virginia Senate took notice with a resolution honoring Taylor, and Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not did, too, by listing him in a recent edition.
And Taylor admitted some disappointment in 1987 when The Star, a national supermarket tabloid, ran a story citing Harrison, N.J., Mayor Frank E. Rodgers as America's longest-serving mayor.
Taylor took office a year before Rodgers. The Town of Pearisburg issued a corrective news release but The Star never responded.
Taylor also wrote Rodgers a congratulatory letter, pointing out that Rodgers was a year shy of No. 1, but also received no direct acknowledgement.
Now, presumably, Rodgers assumes the title of longest-serving mayor without dispute.
Long public service is a tradition on Pearisburg Town Council, whose members might also be called the village elders.
With Taylor gone, the job of acting mayor falls to Frank Winston, who's been on council 43 years.
Council will decide March 25 on a method to fill Taylor's unexpired term, either by appointment or special election, Vittum said.
Taylor's lived in the same brick house for 43 years. He retired as manager of the Leas & McVitty tannery in Pearisburg after working there for 35 years.
Yet his flexible temperament accepted modernization and progress, Vittum said. Taylor supported switching to a manager/council form of government in 1948, and says he's seen more changes over nearly a half-century than he can recall.
In 1990, Pearisburg won the Virginia Municipal League's annual award for effective government.
One of the early town managers hired by Taylor was Julian F. Hirst, who served Pearisburg from 1949 to 1952. Hirst later served as town or city manager in Pulaski, Martinsville and Roanoke before retiring in 1987 after 12 years as Norfolk's city manager.
"He was one of the reasons I stayed in the city-management profession," Hirst said Wednesday of Taylor.
Hirst said he measured other elected public officers against Taylor's example throughout his career.
"I could not have picked a better mayor and community to start [in]. He was distinctly a gentleman, always low-key. He had such a good understanding of what his town needed."
That deft, soft touch never varied, town employees said. "I've worked with Mayor Taylor a long time," said Town Clerk Judy Harrell. "He's been real good to me. I hate to see him go."
Although Taylor won't be making his regular rounds at Town Hall anymore, he told employees he would visit from time to time.
Now that he's retired, Vittum told Taylor, he's entitled to complain about Town Council like any other citizen.
But mostly, Taylor said, he'll be swatting a golf ball, another longtime passion.
Asked about his philosophy of government, Taylor said, succinctly, "Be honest."
"He was part of another day and another time," Hirst said.