Retirement just around the corner for Jeanne Turner
By Bobbi Mlynar (Contact)
Originally published 09:27 a.m., April 26, 2008
Updated 09:27 a.m., April 26, 2008
If the Guinness Book of World Records had a category for the number of retirement announcements by one person in one day, Jeanne Turner would be a contender.
Turner, who has been clerk of the district court for 27 years, made the notification circuit Friday morning, beginning in Topeka in the Office of Judicial Administration. Although her office is in Emporia and she supervises and works with court personnel here, Turner is employed by the state of Kansas.
“So I resigned there, and then I came back and resigned to each of my four judges and then I told my staff and then I told my Chase County staff, and then I also told my court services officer,” Turner said.
Oh yes, she remembered, she also notified the personnel director in Topeka and told Patricia Henshall of the Kansas Association of District Court Clerks and Court Administrators that she would resign as chairman of the organization’s legislative committee.
“There were eight of them up there I had to tell,” she said, chuckling. “...Their responses to me were ‘I never thought you’d do it.’ ... I’ve been here longer than the judges and someone told me I was older than most of the attorneys.”
Turner has handled her job and the courts’ smooth operation so well that soon the state began giving her extra assignments, auditing other district courts and handling responsibilities beyond her job description. She became deeply involved with the court clerks and court administrators’ association and Chief Judge Merlin Wheeler was proud of Turner’s accomplishments as he talked this week about trying to replace her.
“Jeanne was the first clerk of the district court to hold the legislative chair position for the Association of Court Clerks and Managers,” Wheeler said. “I can’t tell you how many state-level committees she sat on for years.”
He added that she also had been instrumental in designing and implementing the case-management software now used in courts statewide. She has done management evaluations, training, and more.
“I think state-wide, she’s going to be missed,” Wheeler said. “It’s going to be a loss not only for us, but also a loss to the judiciary at the state level.”
Turner had not gone into adulthood with the goal of becoming chief clerk of a district court. When she graduated from Emporia State University at 21, she had taken a teaching job at Canton-Galva high School. As the only business teacher at the school, she taught everything from typing to accounting and business law, and everything else in-between.
“I was the only business teacher,” she said.
Five years later, she and her husband, Willie, reached a turning point; it was time to either buy a house in that area, or do something else. Willie had a good job there, but law enforcement was his true interest.
“It was a point in our lives where we were going to settle down ... or we needed to make career changes,” she said.
Opportunities appeared that settled the question. He was hired by KG&E to work in security at the Wolf Creek nuclear plant and Jeanne was hired as clerk of the Lyon County District Court. They returned to Emporia, where their families lived, and went to work at their new jobs on June 1, 1981. A few months later, Willie Turner went to work as an officer for the Emporia Police Department.
Turner, who said she has been blessed consistently by working for the best judges in the state, had been hired by then-District Judges Gary Rulon and William Dick and Magistrate Judge Francis Towle.
“I often think back to that time, and think ‘What did those three judges see in this 26-year-old kid?’” she said.
Beyond the intelligence and efficiency, Towle may have seen a victim for his pranks — Turner recalled his penchant for rigging her desk drawers with rubber bands so they’d snap back shut when she opened them.
“I’ve worked with some wonderful people,” she said.
She heard interesting stories, too, from would-be jurors who did not want to be called for duty. Some thoughtfully called on Friday to say they would be sick on Monday. Others were more bizarre.
“I can’t even repeat some of them,” Turner said.
One of her favorites involved a citizen who called to say that he couldn’t make it to court because his grandfather had died. She asked the name of the deceased, and he told her.
“What he didn’t know is I kept notes,” she said, speaking of records of previous calls from prospective jurors. “I know you have two grandpas, but they had the same name.”
The occasional amusing diversions were welcome breaks from the day-to-day heavy responsibilities of the job. Turner said she always was aware that everything that happened within her office and the courts had significant effects on people’s lives.
But she doesn’t doubt that she and her husband made a good choice when they returned to Emporia to take new jobs. It’s been a good place for them and for rearing their children, Stephanie and Todd.
Now Stephanie is married and working as an attorney in Wyoming; Todd is moving back to town to finish college after a four-year tour of duty in the Air Force, and Todd’s wife, Lori, has been hired as a math teacher and assistant volleyball coach at Northern Heights High School.
It seemed time for another change and Turner, because she began working for the state at the age of 21, technically was eligible to retire last year.
“Willie and I have been going over and over and over this for a year,” Turner said. “He’s okay with the decision; I’m okay with the decision.”
Retiring will give her the freedom to devote more time to hobbies and organizations. She is secretary of Cottonwood Friends Church and treasurer of the cemetery association, a member of Kiwanis Club and the Cottonwood community organization; she cross-stitches and raises flowers.
“I can do what I want, when I want, if I want,” Turner said, smiling.
Retirement for Turner begins on June 13, and Wheeler already has begun advertising for a court administrator. People qualified for the job “are few and far between,” he said.
Turner will sit on an interview panel that will include Henchall and Eighth District Judge Michael Powers, who will screen the initial round of interviews. Wheeler expects to involve this district’s other judges to gain consensus, though ultimately the decision is his.
“Jeanne would be the ideal employee,” he said. “She knows what to do, when to do it, and you never have to worry about the accuracy of her work. ... It’s a big pair of shoes to fill for us. That’s the hard part of somebody coming in — the comparison to her.”
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