ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, July 6, 1996 TAG: 9607080019
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KENNETH SINGLETARY STAFF WRITER
Administrative assistant, assistant town manager, clerk of council - Imogene Brumfield has held all those positions and more in her 31 years working for the Town of Christiansburg.
And now she has a new job: retiree.
Brumfield retired from full-time service for the town in 1991 and has worked as part-time clerk of council since then. Now she has retired again, and this time she means it.
Up next for her, she says, will be a trip to Florida to see her grandkids, and then it's back to Christiansburg to spend time with church activities, her seniors group, and with her husband, Arnold, who is a retired recreational therapist for the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Salem.
Brumfield, 70, began working for the town in November 1964 and has lived in Christiansburg even longer. She moved to the town with her parents in 1937, at 13 years of age, from Buchanan.
In that time, Brumfield has seen Christiansburg change a lot.
The house on Simmons Road in which she and her husband still live after raising two sons was secluded when they moved in. Now, a bustling town is all around them.
In her work for the town, Brumfield played a role in Christiansburg's annexations in 1966, 1975 and 1988, which set the stage for Christiansburg to become the vibrant town that it now is.
It was the need to earn money to send her children to college that prompted Brumfield to hire on with the town, initially as a part-time typist. She was one of about a dozen town employees. Now there are about 12 dozen.
Other positions she has held include clerk, secretary/administrative assistant and executive secretary, along with assistant town manager and clerk of council.
She says she has had the privilege of an insider's view of how a town works.
"It amazes me how it can all work together and really create something beautiful. That's probably what kept me here so long."
Everyone on the town staff seems ready to preach Brumfield's virtues.
"There are some people who you just can't say enough nice things about, and Mrs. B. is one of them," said Town Manager John Lemley, who himself is retiring Sept. 1 after 40 years in that position.
Lemley noted Brumfield's people skills, her efficient work ethic, and her can-do attitude, a quality that is a big hit with Lemley, who is a retired Army reserve full colonel.
"She was familiar with the whole operation of the town, and if it was necessary, she did it," including donning a hardhat to supervise a paving crew, said Mayor Harold Linkous.
Brumfield's last day working for the town was June 25, when she took notes and minutes at a Town Council meeting. It might not have been a teary-eyed affair for her, but she says she will miss governmental work.
"It's great work because, after all, the government belongs to the people. When you do things that you can see that people have benefited from, it's all worthwhile."
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Brumfieldby CNB