After serving Polk County for a little over a decade, Bobbye Christopher has decided to retire from her position as district clerk.
Christopher transferred her skills to the position after 20 years of experience in the Houston legal field. She began by working with Judge Travis Kitchens.
“Judge (Kitchens) offered me a job, and so I came back to Livingston, and I worked with him for five years,” Christopher said. “And at that time when Kathy Clifton resigned, I was asked to throw my name in the hat. I did, I got selected, and it’s been a whirlwind ever since. I’ve never had being district clerk on my things that I wanted to do when I grew up, but I have loved it more than any job that I’ve ever had.”
The district clerk is the record keeper who maintains all files for the district courts and the county court at law. There are also financial responsibilities for tax sales, and assistance and reporting for judges in court.
Upon deciding to serve with the county, Christopher said she knew there were things in the district clerk’s office that needed attention.
“I felt compelled to do that and to work and train the employees and get the office back in stellar condition,” she said. “We were able to change some things, some business practices, and get the employees cross-trained. It was just an opportunity, an adventure, and a task that I wanted to take on at the time. I just felt like I could do it, and if I had the right people around me, which I did, that we could tackle the office and get everything back to where it needed to be. I think we’ve done that.”
Christopher had already decided she wasn’t going to run for office again in the next election. Her family, including children and grandchildren, live in the Tyler area and there was a desire to be closer.
“That’s where our retirement home is. My husband travels for business, so that’s kind of where everyone is except for me.”
Because of new legislative requirements on clerks and judges for in-depth reporting, new positions were created within the state office of court administration. That will be her new role.
“I was going to finish out my term, but this opportunity to work for the state and to help and assist other clerks and judges around the state kind of fell into my lap,” she said. “I took that opportunity, and I can be housed out of our retirement home there in Tyler.”
Christopher said she will look back fondly on her time at the county because of the reputation the office has built.
“We’re well-trained. They know how to do their jobs. They are interested in learning new things, and we’ve moved our system to a new computerized system. We’ve modernized our jury system, but the most fun thing that I ever did, it didn’t have anything to do with clerking necessarily.
“Anytime there’s been a disaster flow through here, the tornadoes, the floods, whatever – each office kind of helps the community in that regard. My office was the nighttime shelter manager for Dunbar Gym. One of the best memories is during all the hurricanes or the tornadoes, when we’ve had to open the shelter and serve the community (with) boots on the ground, helping out the community. It was a lot of hard work. We took classes and learned how to run a shelter. I loved that. I just loved to be part of what was happening in the community and helping out there.”
Preserving records from some of the earliest minute books is another part of the job that Christopher has enjoyed. In her time, the office has grown from seven or eight people to a dozen.
Some of those will run for district clerk, while another will take over in the interim.
Pam Mittag, currently chief deputy, will hold that interim tag when Christopher officially retires on Dec. 29. Three candidates will run for the office. Monica Goodson, Megan Swander and Adness Fernandez will be on the ballot when voting takes place in the March primary. All three, Christopher said, are familiar with the office.
