As Mary Kay Heard tells it, “I was a nobody,” for much of her life.
That’s when you want to shake her by the shoulders and say it’s because of people like her and her husband Dave’s 46 years at Western Auto that Iola’s retail economy kept afloat.
But with her nose to the grindstone and raising a family, Mary Kay was too busy to take such a perspective.
Since her retirement in 2009, Mary Kay, now age 78, has begun to take on roles that all her life she saw as the purview of “leaders.” She certainly didn’t consider herself one, but accepts that role as a natural progression of a lifetime of taking on responsibility.
In 2006, she and others began meeting weekly over the course of four years to see that a new hospital would come to fruition. In 2010, their dedication was rewarded with passage of a bond issue.
Most recently, she’s zeroed in on a developer’s request to rezone land on North Walnut Street in order to build apartments. On Jan. 18, Mary Kay addressed members of the Iola Planning Commission as chairman of the board of Iola Industries, an organization whose goal is to bring industries and manufacturers this way and which backs the new development.
Though she’s not comfortable speaking in public, she felt her obligation took precedence.
“I could not stay quiet,” she said Wednesday.
“I think it’s important to let people know how you think. To stand for something,” she said.
Mary Kay credits her dad, Harold “Smitty” Smith, for helping her find her voice.
“He always believed in me,” she said. “If you don’t think you can, then you sure can’t.”
That confidence in Mary Kay probably stemmed from her mother Kathryn’s role at the family’s Western Auto store where she served as secretary, bookkeeper and oversaw credit and collections.
“She worked there from the time they bought the store in 1944 until the day she died in 1986,” Mary Kay said. “I suppose that’s why Dad thought I could do such a good job.”
An only child, Mary Kay frequently accompanied her mother to work.
“My favorite activity was playing store. I loved walking down the block to the Register’s print shop and buying little pads of paper to write up receipts and whatnot.”
