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- [S106] The Mountain Press, 16 May 2011.
Meet Your Neighbor: Betty Baker is a light of democracy for Forge
By DEREK HODGES
PIGEON FORGE — It’s hard to imagine democracy in Pigeon Forge without Betty Baker.
“I can’t remember Pigeon Forge having an election and me not being here,” she admitted.
She’s been there before the doors opened and until after they closed again every time there’s been a ballot for city voters to consider for so many years she’s forgotten when she actually got started in the elections business. And she says she’ll keep helping the residents have a voice for as long as she has one herself.
Last Tuesday found Baker running the show at City Hall as voters weighed in on alcohol and who they want representing them on the City Commission. She was chief poll officer, something of a minister of democracy, the head of a little congregation that had fellowship, invited in fellow believers in the power of the vote and even enjoyed dinner on the grounds, pot-luck style.
“We eat very well here in Pigeon Forge,” she joked just after cleaning up her own plate of homemade goodies. “The food is delicious. We usually don’t leave any behind.”
Baker was the one in charge of making sure all the machines were in place and ready to go, overseeing the small army of poll workers who helped people vote, and maintaining the integrity of the voting area. She policed for packets of crackers candidate Bill Howell had pasted his face on and jar openers bearing the name of hopeful Dwight Maples.
“I make sure people put those in their pockets when they come in,” she said. “You can’t have any visible advertising like that when you come in to vote.”
The rule Baker was enforcing in calling for the hiding of the propaganda says there should be no campaigning and no political materials within 100 feet of the polling place. It’s a mandate candidates sometimes have a way of pushing at the edges of.
“We keep a close watch on the candidates,” Baker said with a chuckle. “We had to find their boundaries for them. They’re all good people. They just get all caught up in it and they’re not thinking about that little piece of paper taped to the ground. They just want to get to the voters.”
A native of Pigeon Forge, Betty Mayes grew up in the Waldens Creek area until her family moved into town on a plot near the cemetery. She eventually married David Baker, helping him found Five Oaks Tire and Service, and the two worked out a system early on to help them avoid fights as much as possible.
“The deal was I would stay out of the sales office and he would stay out of the business office, and that’s how we’d stay married,” she explained. “I’m terrible with sales. The salesmen hate when I answer the phone because if someone asks, ‘How much is a set of this kind of tire going to cost me?’ I say, ‘Heck if I know.’ We have a system now that if the phone rings three times, the next time it’s mine. That’s their way of keeping me from answering it. They want to get to it before I do.”
Betty lost David suddenly and unexpectedly on July 11, 2009, when he was just 59. It’s something she doesn’t bring up in casual conversation.
While she doesn’t know exactly when it happened, Baker does recall that it was Pam Ogle who asked her to step in as an election worker one year when she couldn’t do the job herself. Ogle ended up getting out of the voting business, but Baker stayed.
“I don’t really call the election people and they don’t call me. I’m just always here and they just always assume I’m going to be,” she admitted.
Apparently it was the promise of a nearly annual reunion that convinced Baker to keep showing up.
“When I come down here for an election, I get to see people I grew up with and went to Sunday School with, people I’ve known all my life but I just don’t see anymore because we’re all so busy. I see them all coming in here,” she said. “All of us who work here at the polls, that’s why we do it — to see all the people.
“This is kind of my day off, even though I spend it working from before sunrise to after sunset. It’s my fun day. I just love the election process and being part of it.”
And that’s why Baker said she’ll likely keep coming back, year after year, referendum after referendum, election after election. She confesses she’s working with some of the younger workers to fill her shoes one day, though anyone who spends any time talking to her about her love of the workings of democracy understands she’ll likely never avail herself of that relief.
“I’m smart, I’m training some. When I die or get old, they can fill in for me,” she says. Though she soon admits, “I don’t have any idea what would make me stop doing this. I love it.”
dhodges@themountainpress.com
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, d. 25 Jan 1985 (Age 72 years)