Remembering Nancy Agnew Yates

From Sandra Sherman-McCandless, Director of Decatur Public Library:

Nancy Agnew Yates died on July 5 at the age of 92. She became director of the Decatur Public Library in 1960. She merged the Decatur Public Library with the Wheeler Basin Regional Library. Many libraries in North Alabama became full fledged public libraries under her tutelage: Russellville, Fort Payne, Falkville, Lawrence County, Courtland, Athens, Eva, and Hartselle. The last six made up the Wheeler Basin Regional Library in her day.

She wanted to be a librarian since she was a little girl. She believed passionately in the value of reading and the worth of libraries to their communities. She was a steel magnolia, a red-haired, petite woman of determination, high standards, energy, and good taste.

There was a private library in Athens, but the mayor wanted a modern, public library, and Nancy wanted a library where blacks would be admitted. So the Athens/Limestone Public Library was built. She was intent on equal access and set up outreach programs as good as any in the state serving the handicapped, blind, mentally ill, the elderly at nutrition sites, homebound, nursing home residents, and those in jails. She was always on the cutting edge of library service.

Nancy presided over the construction and later expansion of the Decatur Public Library that is only now, 32 years later, bursting at the seams. She wanted the best library possible so she set the hours from the beginning at 9:00 am to 9:00 pm four days a week and 9:00 am to 5:00 pm on Friday and Saturday. She hired the best young people she could find for the big new library.

Six members of the present staff at the Decatur Public Library came to work for Nancy in the 1970s. Nancy encouraged creativity and any program or project the staff came up with that could be paid for and was good for the library she supported. She insisted on great customer service and high quality materials for the community to use. She taught us what made a library great.

Working at the library back then was one of the greatest learning experiences of my life. She was getting me ready for my present job. We did have disagreements. She frowned on my purple polka dotted jumpsuit and sent me home to change, and she refused to let me go barefoot at work. We stood toe to toe on some issues, but she was a confident woman and only thought the better of you for standing up for what you thought was best for the library.

Now I am the director of the Decatur Public Library and the Wheeler Basin Library. I try to dress well, have the best library possible, and serve the community well because that is what she taught me to do. My first year in the job, I went to her to talk over the problems, opportunities, and changes. I needed her experience. Then she fell and was never really well again. I wrote her just before her death and told her the only difference between now and then was the technology. Getting money to fund the library was every bit as frustrating today as it had been for her.

Nancy Agnew Yates was a miracle worker with libraries and library service. I wish she was still here to talk to.