Forty-three years ago, Rosa Gibson arrived for work at Bishop, Thomas, Leitner, Mann & Milburn for the first time. She knew nothing of legal work, and the office manager who hired her didn’t even know how quickly she could type. When Gibson retired Tuesday after serving as a legal secretary for one-third of the firm’s 131-year existence, Leitner, Williams, Dooley & Napolitan changed with her leaving.
The week before, with her departure looming but work still filling her inbox, her retirement weighed heavily on her mind.
“I’m tired,” she said. “I’m tired of emails.”
When Gibson started at what is now Leitner, there were no fax machines, scanners, computers, or postal meters in the office, only small typewriters and rolls of stamps in the desks of the secretaries. A younger Charles “Buz” Dooley roamed the halls, and Tom Williams was still gaining steam an attorney.
Although Gibson knew little of legal work, she was a practiced secretary and quickly learned her way around a deposition summary. As she worked in a secretarial pool, she also became intimately familiar with workers compensation documents, wills, removal notices, trial briefs, appeals briefs, and anything else of considerable length.
“I liked just sitting and typing,” she said, tapping the fingers of her right hand on the wooden table in the conference room in which she was sitting.
In 1999, Gibson was assigned to work for Scott Bennett. She stayed with him until she left the Pioneer Building Tuesday.
As hard as leaving was, she said it was time.
“I stayed and stayed. Leaving became difficult. I’ve been very upset about it. I’ve been with these people all of my life,” she said. Tears welled in her eyes, and she brought her hand to her mouth to quell the sobs. “They’re my family.”
After crossing the room to grab tissues and then returning to her seat, Gibson talked more about her second family.
“They have always been there for me. Whenever I lost a brother or a sister, they would tell me to take off for as long as I needed, and then they would come to the funeral home,” she said. “And the attorneys here have always worked hard to make sure we had a payday.”
Gibson grew up in Soddy Daisy the youngest of 13 siblings. Her father worked hard to support the family, her mother loved and took care of everyone, and Gibson decided at a young age she wouldn’t have as many kids as her parents. “I got mad when the grandkids came over because they wanted to get in my toys. I didn’t like that,” she said, laughing.
Gibson married at 19 and had one daughter: Jacqueline. She then went to work. “I wanted to be independent and have my own money. Plus, we were brought up to work.”
When Gibson was 27, she was going to take time off from working for Crawford Company in the Pioneer Building when she heard Bishop Thomas was hiring. Almost as an afterthought, she applied for the job. She’s been working for the firm ever since. “They tolerated me and I learned,” she said.
Gibson has no grand plans for retirement. She and her husband, Jack, might leave their home in Hixson to travel a little, and she hopes to spend time with her three grandchildren, especially her seven-year-old granddaughter, but beyond that, she’s going to take things “day by day.”
Her boss is going to miss her every one of those days.
“While I cannot say enough about Rosa’s skill as a legal secretary, she has been so much more to me and our firm. She has been a dear friend to me over the years and has literally helped me grow into the lawyer I have become. Her devotion has been humbling.
“Months ago, I learned from others on our staff that Rosa had been giving serious thought to retiring so she could spend time with her husband, Jack. Rosa was staying on, however, because she didn’t know if anyone else would be able to take care of me the way she thought I deserved. Above all, she didn’t want me to know of her dilemma.
“One of the hardest conversations I have ever had was when I [gave] Rosa ... permission to think of herself and Jack, and assured her she had the right to retire if she really wanted to do. After a long weekend of prayer, she decided it was time.
“I will miss my dear friend, but I am so very happy she is starting this new and exciting chapter in her life,” Bennett wrote in an email to the Hamilton County Herald.
“He says he loves me to my face, but I don’t know what he says behind my back,” Gibson says before laughing again.
Few people can change a place simply by leaving it. But on Tuesday, Leitner started a new chapter in its life: One, sadly, without Gibson.