JESSUP MOVES ON
Bullard city secretary takes job in Balch Springs
By Lori Mellinger

If you wanted to know something about Bullard, you only had to travel down the hall of Bullard City Hall. Acting City Secretary Deborah Jessup knew the answer.

"She knows everything about Bullard's history, " said co-worker Jennifer MacWhirter. "She's answered questions about the past or who to contact when the rest of us were stumped."

But now Jessup has packed up her knowledge and memories, to go where, she said, she hopes to continue learning.

"When I first moved to Bullard, Highway 69 was two lanes," Jessup said. "There was one gas station and the population sign read 890."

Jessup resigned the City of Bullard last week and began the next day as Balch Springs new municipal court administrator.

The geography is Jessup's reason.

"I knew I needed to keep working," she said. "But I miss my children and I don't get to see enough of my grandchildren."

The town, located outside Mesquite, with a population of about 12,000, will give her equidistance between those she loves.

And while so much has changed, Jessup remembers Bullard fondly.

"The road we moved on to was all dirt, as most were," she said. "We had no water, no gas, and no electricity when we moved here in 1981."

It took her 18 months to get a gas line to her home - even though she was in the city limits. It was also, to her recollection, one of the harshest winters Bullard has seen.

"We moved everything into the living room, and tried to stay warm.

"Gerald, the kids and I all bundled up - took TV trays outside and sledded down the incline," she said. "Those are my best memories."

And while she'll miss her friends, she said she's accomplished what she wanted to here.

"This is a good, safe place to raise children," she said. "And Bullard's gone from a little town to an actual city."

But, she said, another impetus is her thirst for knowledge.

When Jessup started work at city hall in 2000, she answered the telephone and filed, but it didn't take long before she began moving up.

"I enjoy learning, putting things in my head," she said. "And it never seems to fill up.

"Everything you learn leads you to something you need to know."

It also led her to more responsibilities in the city.

She was promoted to court clerk in 2003 and appointed interim city secretary in 2005, shortly after Bullard voters change to a council-manager form of government.

Since then, she's been gaining knowledge and certification - going to classes to help her understand more of her job and more about municipal government.

"They found out I could do stuff," she said, laughing. "And when they find that out, they make you do it."

She holds a level three certification as a court clerk and is a Texas Registered Municipal Clerk. She's a member of the Texas Court Clerks Association, the Texas Municipal Courts Association and is working on certification with National Center for State Courts.

But her contributions aren't limited to her job. She's been a recognized asset through myriad volunteer projects - such as the gazebo that sits downtown.

"It was Deborah and Gerald who built that gazebo," said Dr. John Alexander. "When no one else wanted to help, the two of them did it."

Jessup has also served on the Bullard Community Library Board as vice president, served the Bullard Chamber of Commerce as parliamentarian, worked on the veteran's monument that sits in front of city hall and the Texas Historical Cemetery designation for the Bullard cemetery and helped with fund raisers for the rejuvenation of O.L. Ferrell Park.

But she's not completely saying good-bye.

Jessup said she will keep her house here, and her husband Gerald, will continue his roofing business.

Jessup was born in Tyler, and graduated from John Tyler High School and Tyler Junior College. She married Gerald in 1981 - the same year she moved to Bullard.

The two started Jessup Roofing in 1988, and Gerald is a former Bullard councilman.

Jessup has two children, Colin Roth and Denise Roth Kenyon and two grandchildren: DeJay Kenyon, Addysen Kenyon

She is godmother to Lauren and Jessica Alexander.