Longtime county clerk ready for a rest

Rodney Miller has seen a lot of changes in Cape Girardeau County.

Since taking office as county clerk in 1979, property values in the county have risen from $182 million to almost $1 billion. The population has grown from 48,000 to 70,000. Elections once conducted with paper ballots counted by hand are now computerized. And the Democrats' domination of local offices has shifted to the Republicans.

Now, for Miller, 66, it is time for the biggest change of all -- he'll step down Friday, retiring from a post he's held 28 years, longer than any other sitting county clerk in Missouri. And, he said, he's ready for a rest.

"For the first couple of months, I'm not doing anything," Miller said. "I'll live out on the farm, and if I feel I need to find some other arena, I'll hit the streets."

Miller hasn't been coasting to retirement. During the past few weeks, he's advised the Cape Girardeau County Commission on a major change in the county's employee health insurance to control costs and helped craft an agreement with the Cape Special Road District for distribution of a new sales tax to replace property taxes for county roads.

"I have leaned on Rodney Miller and used him for extreme amounts of help and guidance," said Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones, who Miller will swear into office for the fourth time Friday. Jones and Miller are lifelong friends who, during Miller's time in office, worked together as officials at high school football games.

"We were good buddies before we ever knew what a Democrat or a Republican was," Jones said.

The new insurance plan, which includes a provision setting aside $1,000 of county money for each employee's deductible expenses, is an example of Miller's expertise, Jones said. "Not a one of us understood all that," he said. "I would challenge anyone else to look at the separate bids and find out what is the best deal."

Miller didn't always have that kind of expertise. His chief deputy, Judy Beussink, has been working in the clerk's office for 42 years and said she's sure Miller's replacement, Republican Kara Clark, will prove her ability. "Basically they have to be trained just like a new employee," she said.

As for Miller, "he caught on quickly. It wasn't that long until he was in charge."

A resident of Millersville, Miller attended Southeast Missouri State University, where he played football, and received a master's degree from the University of Missouri. He coached high school football in Malden, Mo., and college football at Central Methodist College in Fayette, Mo.

Those who knew him before and during the coaching years said the same quiet intensity of effort he's displayed in his final weeks in office were a hallmark on the football field.

"When somebody couldn't get it right, you saw him put on a helmet and show them," said former governor Roger Wilson, a player on Miller's teams at Central Methodist College.

Another player from those days, Joe Forrest of Charleston, Mo., tells a story that he believes shows a different side of Miller. Forrest was part of a poor Dunklin County family, working in a gas station a year out of high school when Miller called. Miller had been Forrest's football coach at Malden High School and wanted to know if the young man wanted to play college ball.

"I said I guess so, I'd like to play football," Forrest said.

Told he would need $25 to apply for admission, Forrest said he told Miller he didn't want to go to college but he wanted to play football. Miller replied that the two couldn't be separated. Miller housed the young Forrest in the basement of his Fayette home until he graduated in 1972.

Now, almost 35 years later, Forrest is retired from an education career that was capped with two years as the superintendent of Charleston School District. Without the call from Miller, Forrest said, "My guess is I would be somewhere in prison, a jail or a slum."

When Miller took office, nine of the 16 county offices were held by Democrats, and Cape Girardeau County was represented by Democrats in the Missouri House, the state Senate and in Congress. Today, only four Democrats remain and all legislative representatives are GOP members.

Jones said that kind of helping hand is the other side of Miller's drive as a public official. A county employee with a terminal illness was forced to leave their job, Jones said, and Miller urged the county to continue health insurance to cover the bills.

That grew into a county policy allowing employees to donate unused sick time to fellow workers so they can continue receiving a paycheck and stay on the payroll with health insurance, Jones said.

"He will go to untold lengths to help somebody," Jones said.

When told that Miller plans to take life slow after retirement, Wilson said he doesn't believe it. "If Rodney Miller said he's just going to relax and take it easy, it is a brand new skill he either bought or mysteriously acquired," Wilson said. "Rodney Miller is built for action and loves action."

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126