Myrtie D. Smith

Myrtie D. Smith joined the Town Clerk's office in 1966, when Town Clerk Mildred A. Westhaver reported that a departing staff member, F. Lillian Turner, "was replaced by Myrtie D. Smith." She was clerk-typist and then senior clerk for the Board of Registrars, appears in the office photographs printed in the town reports of 1970 to 1972, and was a Town Meeting member from 1969 to 1975.

On March 16, 1973 she was sworn in as Assistant Town Clerk under the new clerk, F. Lillian Turner, who called her "a wonderful assistant" who "has done a marvelous job." She held that post for eight years, standing in for the clerk when needed; at a 1979 town meeting she acted under the new town charter in Turner's absence. When Turner retired at the end of 1980, the selectmen appointed Smith Acting Town Clerk from January 1, 1981, and at the March 1981 election she was elected Town Clerk, defeating William H. Dyer 3,337 votes to 1,199.

On April 16, 1982 she received the designation of Certified Municipal Clerk from the International Institute of Municipal Clerks after completing a three-year course for professional clerks at Salve Regina College in Newport, Rhode Island. Her annual reports record the routine and the changes of the decade: the dog licensing drives and the new late fee, the continuing transfer of births, marriages and deaths to microfilm and microfiche, the first use of an electronic card-reader ballot counting system at the March 1984 presidential primary, her appointment as Director of the 1985 State Census, and an 87 percent turnout at the 1988 presidential election. In the last week of January 1989 her office packed up "years' accumulation of records" at the old quarters and moved into the renovated Town Hall. Her assistant through these years was Shirley E. Schult, who followed her into the office.

She retired as Town Clerk on February 2, 1991. Schult's report for that year described her as "an honorable, conscientious and dedicated official of the Town" who had "served the people of Billerica for over twenty-five years." Myrtie D. Smith died on April 26, 1996, and the 1996 town report listed her among its memorials with her service as senior clerk, Assistant Town Clerk, Town Clerk, Town Meeting member and election precinct officer.

References

1. Report of the Town Clerk, 1966 (Myrtie D. Smith joins the staff)
2. Office of the Town Clerk, 1976 (photograph with Smith as Assistant Town Clerk)
3. Report of the Town Clerk, 1973 (Smith sworn in as Assistant Town Clerk, March 16, 1973)
4. Report of the Town Clerk, 1980 (Smith appointed Acting Town Clerk from January 1, 1981)
5. Elected town officials, 1981 (Town Clerk Myrtie D. Smith, appointed 1/1/81, elected 3/81)
6. Town Clerk's report, 1982 (Certified Municipal Clerk designation; signed by Smith)
7. Town Clerk's report, 1989 (move to the renovated Town Hall)
8. Town Clerk's report, 1991 (Smith retired February 2, 1991)
9. Town report memorials, 1996 (death April 26, 1996, and record of service)