Butler Retires after 31+ Years with NMHS
Linda Butler recently retired as executive assistant to North Mississippi Health Services Chief Executive Officer Shane Spees.
Linda Butler, executive assistant to the North Mississippi Health Services chief executive officer, has retired with more than 31 years of service. Coworkers honored her with a reception Dec. 1.
Born the sixth of eight children in her farming family, Butler graduated from Anguilla High School in Sharkey County in 1969 and earned an associate degree in business with a minor in English from Mississippi Delta Junior College in 1971. She worked for the Mississippi State Department of Human Services (then called the “Welfare Department”) in Rolling Fork before marrying Jerry Butler and moving to Winona in 1979.
For a few years, she stayed home with her children and then ran the office for a small cabinet business in Carrollton. Her family moved to Amory in 1985 when her late husband, who worked for the Mississippi Highway Patrol, was transferred to north Mississippi as a criminal investigator. She worked for E.R. Carpenter Co. for a few years before joining the hospital staff in April 1989 as an accounts payable clerk. Her family moved to Sherman several years later.
In 1995 she was named administrative assistant to the NMHS chief financial officer. She was promoted to her current role in 2012 and continued to work for both the CFO and CEO until earlier this year.
While her job duties are many, some of her most enjoyable have been coordinating activities for the NMHS Board of Directors, Finance Committee, Audit Committee and Corporate Compliance and Risk Committee. Not having so many others depend on her will be a change in retirement. “I will miss the people I’ve worked with,” Butler said, “and in the beginning I will miss the responsibility.”
But Butler has no plans to take it easy. She lives on a 10-acre tract, which calls for a lot of mowing, fence mending and light gardening, and she owns two quarter horses. She also has big plans for traveling—both to see her family and to explore new places with a group of friends.
Her son, Chip, and his wife, Deanna, live in Brandon. They have five children—Anna, Katie, Melissa, Abby and Drew—ranging in age from 27 to 10. Her daughter, Shari, married George Williamson in June and is a traveling occupational therapist based in Oregon.
Butler volunteers with Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4057, which she currently serves as president. She also serves as secretary/treasurer for VFW District 9 and served as state president from 2006-2007. From 2011-2014, she served on the National Council of Administration for the VFW Auxiliary.
She is also part of a group that helps launch the POW/MIA hot air balloon each year in the Great Mississippi River Balloon Race and hasn’t missed an event since 2005.
Butler’s patriotism is fueled by her family’s military service. Her husband and two brothers were veterans of the Vietnam War, her son served in Iraq, and her son and daughter-in-law both served in Afghanistan. Over the years, she has packed many care packages to send to soldiers—both hers and others—overseas. “It gives me a lot of satisfaction to do things for the people who have done so much for us and continue to do so much,” she said.
Butler’s other passion is showing horses. She currently serves as treasurer for the Heart of Dixie Palomino Exhibitors (HOPE). She is a past president of the local chapter of Altrusa International and she served a two-year term as secretary for the Altrusa Governor over Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama and Louisiana chapters.
