By Staff
Mitch Freeman Madison County Record
Charlotte Rumore, who has been busy behind the scenes in Madison government for more than 12 years, is about to trade her busy work schedule for a life of leisure.
Rumore will go into retirement after her last day on the job, May 30.
Rumore, who has served as aide to the city council for the last year and a half, said that it is the variety of tasks involved with her job that has kept things interesting.
"It's being a part of creating a better place to live and being here where local history is being created," she said.
Her job hasn't started to slow down, yet.
Rumore and her replacement, Andrea Garrett, recapped their workweek. They had to round up hundreds of addresses for district one constituents and mail out meeting notices for a forthcoming redistricting public discussion.
Garrett, who is in her first week on the job as the new city council aide, said they have addressed "tons" of phone calls during the week.
"I have loved working with Charlotte. She knows everybody and everything," Garrett said.
Rumore has already moved out of her office, which was situated on the southwest corner of the city municipal complex. She's spending her last days sitting in the large room that serves as an office for city council members, using the computer that council members share.
"The computer guy had to move all my stuff off of my old computer and set it up for Andrea," Rumore said.
"I spent 10 to 11 years working as an aide to the mayor. The work is essentially the same," she said.
Rumore explained that her job entails composing letters and news releases, assisting the council members with their individual projects, and setting up meetings. She initiated and has been generating a quarterly newsletter for the public on behalf of the council.
Rumore has excellent credentials for this sort of work.
She started working at the Cullman Times when she was 16 years old. At one point in her career, she wrote copy for radio commercials. She has written for the Birmingham News, Birmingham Post Herald and the Decatur Daily, along the way.
She and her former husband of 24 years, Mark Miller, owned and operated the Cullman Tribune weekly newspaper for about 10 years.
She still has a special place in her heart for newspapers and writing news.
Rumore entered the political arena in 1976 when she was elected as the first woman to sit on the Cullman city council.
"I was the first woman since 1873, when Cullman was founded. They haven't elected another woman to the council until this day," Rumore said.
Rumore has worked as aide to several Madison mayors. Rumore said that she got the job working as aide to Mayor Teague Cuddeback in October 1988 when she replaced mayor's aide Kathy Wells.
She was aide to Anne van Leewen, and Don Spencer, now Madison school board president, who served as interim mayor for 42 days.
From October 1992 until October 2000, she said she and Mayor Chuck Yancura had a good working relationship.
"We accomplished a lot during those eight years," Rumore said.
Rumore said she never got a college degree. She took classes she liked, including creative writing, journalism and political science. She attended Cullman College, Wallace State and The University of Alabama in both Tuscaloosa and Huntsville.
Rumore is now married to Tony Rumore, a pharmacist who works in Meridianville. She has six children, three girls and three boys ranging in age from 33-46, and 13 grandchildren.
"The next thing on my agenda is to rest for a month." Rumore said.
"I've had a good life, whether it's luck or by the grace of God. All of my children are healthy and lead constructive lives," Rumore said with a tear in her eye. "I wouldn't swap places with anybody."
"If I could change something in my life, I would have spent more time with my children when they were young."