Aug. 24, 2012 —     It’s the final curtain call for Morehead’s outgoing city clerk and Diana Reeder is poised to take a well-deserved bow after 33 years.

    Reeder exits the city stage on Aug. 31 but for more than three decades and across seven mayoral administrations, she’s helped conduct the essential business of city government.

    While city clerk may have been her starring role, Reeder also is well known for her contributions to the local theater community, and for a faith-filled and enduring spirit that’s outlasted difficult political actors, elaborate stage productions and three bouts with cancer.  

    Her retirement means more time to spend with her parents, Eugene and Imogene Ring, her daughters, Miranda and Megan, her grandson, Louis, and more time with her husband and fellow thespian, J.D. Reeder.

    She’ll now have more time also to pursue her passion through the Morehead Theater Guild.

    Recently, as she packed up for the move to the new City Hall, Reeder looked back on her time in office.

    “I always tried to do what was right,” she said with her signature simplicity.  

    What was right was not always popular, Reeder said, especially when dealing with elected officials and with customers at City Hall who knew her personally.

    Yet, she perfected an empathetic impartiality when listening to competing voices and then opted to follow the rules and regulations anyway. It’s a skill she began to hone during her opening lines with city government.

    In 1976, Reeder was a political science student at Morehead State. She said her mentor, Dr. Jack Bizzel, helped her gain an internship at City Hall. She typed minutes for then City Clerk Corene Castle, assisted city planning aide Martina Davis, and researched the functions and origins for local boards and commissions.

    “I still use that information today,” she said.

    Two years later, in 1978, Reeder was hired as secretary to Phillip Tackett, the city’s finance director, where she would begin to rehearse her role as the point person for the tedious annual budget process. Two years later, in 1980 she was appointed city clerk.

    People would soon come to associate her with the business of the city and didn’t mind approaching her outside of the office to conduct city business.

    “It’s pretty bad when you are taking the offering in church and someone gives you a parking ticket and money to pay it,” she laughed.

    She said that doesn’t happen so much anymore and that the role of city clerk has changed over time.

    There’s more personnel management, greater stresses over allocating fewer resources and technological innovations that are intended to improve city functions.

    Perhaps, three decades of shepherding the annual budget process is enough for Reeder. She’s a little bit tired, she conceded, but mainly she said she just doesn’t like change.  

    She pointed to new technologies that are becoming standard in municipal government and said she simply doesn’t care to learn them.  

    “Learning the new software was becoming burdensome,” she said. “It’s just time to go.”  

    Anyone who’s worked with Reeder, whether in her role as clerk or directing a play, will advise you not to mistake her mild disposition for weakness.

    She can level a gaze that makes you pay attention. Just ask Mayor David Perkins.

    “Initially she may seem milquetoast, but don’t push it,” Perkins said. “I get to rant and rave and go on and she lets me but then she tells me what I have to do.”

    He’s not the only one.

    “Diana keeps me in line,”said City Planner Joe Parson. “She’s a great sounding board and will tell me that I have to do ‘this’ before I can do ‘that’, and she’s always right,” Parson said.

    There is a fee for her listening service, though. A jar on her desk displays a sign which reads ‘Counseling: 5 cents.’ Inside, there’s an I.O.U. from the mayor.

    She’s called ‘mom’ around the office, and personnel know to ‘go ask your mother’ before taking certain actions.

    Perkins said Reeder stayed current on the changing rules and regulations for city governance and that her longevity in the position is an asset to the community.

    “One could get jaded from staying in a position for so long but that does not appear to be the case here,” he said.

    Morehead City Council member Glen Teager is one who saw Reeder in alternating roles. He interacted with her nearly daily on city business, and also is a member of the theater guild. She’s been his director for several theatrical productions.

    “She’s a quiet perfectionist,” Teager said.  

    He described Reeder’s directing style as non-confrontational but effective and said he’s also observed that quality in her work as city clerk.   

    “Diana always worked behind the scenes to get it done,” he said.

     He continued:  

    “She wants things done right and when she commits to something she’s very passionate about it. She will allow you to develop the character and at the same time lead you in the direction she wants you to go because she always has a clear definition and vision.”

    Reeder frequently directs another man on and off stage, but this one gives as good as he gets. Her husband, J.D. Reeder, is a playwright, director and member of the theater guild in his own right. Their love affair could hardly have been scripted any better, as Diana narrates the story.

    “It’s great having a friend for so many years and then falling in love with your best friend,” she said.

    The Reeders became friends as they worked together on various theater productions.  

    In 2006, the two worked together on an elaborate production of “The King and I,” a colorful and intricate musical that required an abundance of costumes, characters and coordination.

    They also worked together on the vast ‘1776’musical, and the tie that binds them together is a deep love and appreciation for theater.

    As the two became closer, they found other common interests.

    “We both love watching movies and enjoy old television shows,” she said. “I think we’ve watched every episode of ‘Frasier’ and sometimes we will get on a kick and watch all episodes of a series from beginning to end.”

     Indeed, the couple said Netflix is their very good friend and their conversations are filled with ‘in jokes’ and movie lines.

    For his part, J.D. Reeder said he soon realized that he was in love with his best friend.  

    “I just knew I loved this woman so much that I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life without her and when I told her so I heard the words I wanted to hear,” he said.

    That was in 2007 and the next year, on July 26, the Reeders were married at First Baptist Church where Diana coordinates the popular children’s theater.

    Each holiday season, she works with children at the church to bring the scriptures to life, saying it’s most rewarding to work with children to illustrate timeless lessons.

    “That’s what I really get into,” she said. “It’s a way for them to learn how God works in our lives, and I am continually amazed at how perceptive they are.”

    But it’s not just the kids who enjoy “A Charlie Brown Christmas” or the “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever”, said Don Mantooth, pastor of First Baptist Church.

    “Diana has always been amazing to me,” the pastor said.  “I’ve been here for 30 years and I don’t remember the church without her.”

    Mantooth recalled her years of service as a deacon and the empathy and support that she offers to congregants who have suffered from cancer.

    “I think her personal faith is the basis for everything in her life and she’s been very supportive of those who have had cancer,” he said.

    Reeder seems to have a practical faith and one that recognizes that life happens to everyone.

    In 2004, she survived the stage 1 breast cancer which runs in her family and continued her duties as city clerk while undergoing treatment. In 2008, she was diagnosed with endometrial cancer, and then was treated for squamous cell carcinoma on her lip.

    “I’m so blessed,” Diana Reeder said. “I’ve had cancer three times and each time it was stage one and treatable.”

    This is the point at which Reeder insists that she’s not special.

    “It was big and it was scary,” she said of the afflictions, “when you know you have to have chemotherapy, but everyone has problems.”

    She said her bouts with cancer produced beautiful relationships with fellow cancer survivors and said she grieves the loss of friends who died from the disease.

    Reeder said one of her husband’s greatest performances has been his supporting role as she went through treatment.

    “What a rock,” she said. “I can’t say enough good about him. He was there for me in every way.”

    Reeder’s swan song as clerk was to stay around a while longer, after her official July 1 retirement date, to help new City Clerk Joni Mraz make a smooth transition to the position.

    Of her legacy as city clerk, the mayor says Reeder tried to do what was right legally and morally for the citizens and employees of this community.

    With productions like ‘The Dixie Swim Club’ and ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ already in her repertoire of theatrical accomplishments, Reeder now has time for more productions, including supporting J.D. in producing his original play, ‘Bloody Rowan!’, which is currently in production.

    She shied away from the question of what she leaves behind and prefers instead to look forward.

    “Get out there and do what you can, while you can,” she said.

    J.D. said that’s just like his wife to respond in that fashion.

    He said Diana’s outlook on life, love and service could be likened to the words of a well-known evangelist.

    “I imagine it’s something like what Billy Graham said. 'I’ll do my work and let God keep the books.'"