Longtime Rainbow City mayor remembered as a visionary pioneer

Sue Glidewell is being remembered as both a pioneer and a visionary.

Glidewell, who served six terms as mayor of Rainbow City, died Friday at age 92.

“She's the person who put Rainbow City on the map, there's no doubt about that,” current Mayor Joe Taylor said. “I had the opportunity to go to Washington, and met security people at Senate buildings and the Capitol that knew her, because they saw my name tag and said, 'Oh, you're from Rainbow City, you're from Mayor Sue's city.' ”

Glidewell became Rainbow City's first full-time city clerk in 1967. A City Council member suggested that she apply for the mayor's job, Glidewell recalled to Staff Writer Perry Pearson in a 2004 Times story on her decision not to seek a seventh term as mayor.

She was a bookkeeper for DePaul Motors at the time; she had previously worked for the Credit Bureau of Gadsden, at Gadsden's water department and at South Central Bell, before leaving the workforce to be a housewife.

“I was the only woman in the building for many years,” she told Pearson. “I did the courts. I was there when the city did its first zoning ordinance, about 18 months of work. I did the council meetings. I did all the correspondence. It was pretty difficult for me to take a week off."

Glidewell was encouraged to run for mayor when W.R. Smith, who except for a brief period had been Rainbow City's mayor since the city was incorporated in 1950, decided not to seek re-election in 1980.

“There (were) some men who have lived here all their lives and they came in and said, 'Hey, we want you to be our mayor,' ” she recalled to Pearson. “... I will never forget their encouragement. I said, 'Do you mean you would actually vote for a woman?' And they said, 'Yes, we would. We trust you. You have been here. You know how to maintain the budget and keep us in a good financial position and we want you to run.' ”

She was elected and became Etowah County's first female mayor. Rainbow City's annual revenue at the time was less than $100,000. By the time Glidewell left office, it was $7 million.

“She's the one who set the tone,” Taylor said. “She had the ability to 'see more,' and that's why we're a growing city now. She was a special lady and she set the tone for where Rainbow City will be for a lot of years to come.”

Taylor said Rainbow City's municipal complex — City Hall, police department (a full-time force was established during her tenure), main fire station, community center and library — which opened in 1986 was an example of Glidewell's vision for the future.

“Her daughter told me that she caught a lot of flak for building a City Hall that was so big for the time,” he said. “But we are right-sized in our City Hall, we don't see any need to build bigger or expand. And at the time she built it, we were half the city or less than we are now.”

Rainbow City's economic base also surged under Glidewell's leadership. Taylor said businesses that are looking at the city often wonder how a place so small has had the expansion of industry and its commercial presence.

“It always comes back to the three mayors who did so much, Mr. Smith, Sue Glidewell and Terry John (Calhoun, who succeeded Glidewell). I'm getting to reap the rewards of her great leadership,” Taylor said.

The city's water and sewer service expanded during her tenure, a second fire station was build in Riddles Bend, recreation facilities were improved and industrial parks launched.

Current City Clerk Beth Lee said Glidewell was personally responsible for what has become an icon at the entrance to the Rainbow City Industrial Park on Alabama Highway 77.

“She was driving somewhere in the state and saw that twisted rainbow, and just about slammed on her brakes,” Lee said. “She found the guy who created it and brought it to Rainbow City.”

Glidewell's efforts earned respect and recognition from her peers. She was the first female vice president and president of the Alabama League of Municipalities, after serving on its Executive and Human Development committees and chairing its Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee, and received the organization's Distinguished Service Award. She twice chaired the East Alabama Regional Planning and Development Commission.

She twice chaired the Etowah Mayors' Association and was a member of the Governor's Drought Task Force, the Etowah County Board of Education's Steering Committee, the Gadsden/Etowah Chamber of Commerce's Executive Committee, the Alabama Solid Waste Management Planning organization, the local Red Cross' chapter's board of directors, the Coosa River Development Task Force, the National League of Cities' Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee and the board of directors (as chair) of the Alabama Municipal Insurance Corporation.

Glidewell also saw many other female mayors follow in her path, no longer dissuaded by the demands of the job. “I just feel like women feel like they have to prove themselves and work harder,” she told Pearson in the 2004 story. “I've had some say you're my role model. ... They have said I was the reason they ran.”

Gadsden Mayor Craig Ford said Glidewell was “a close personal friend” both to him and his late father, longtime state legislator Joe Ford.

“She was a straight shooter, but always honest and a wealth of knowledge,” Ford said. “Sue was always deeply connected to her community and loved serving not just Rainbow City, but all of Etowah County.”

Ford during his time in the Legislature helped facilitate the renaming of Alabama Highway 77 from the Southside bridge to Steele Station Road as the “Sue Glidewell Parkway” in 2007, noting at the time her instrumental role in development along that roadway.

“She will be missed, but her life of service will continue to impact our community in her absence,” he said.

Glidewell's funeral will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Collier-Butler Funeral Home; visitation is from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Burial will follow at Rainbow Memorial Gardens.

She is survived by children Gina and Charlie Passmore, Horace Leon (“Buddy”) and Stephanie Glidewell, and Kelly and Bain Stephens; grandchildren Amanda Blalock, Daniel and Devon Glidewell, Brent and Sara Nowell, Taylor Stephens and Anna Stephens; and great-grandchildren Reese and Riley Blalock, Gabriel Glidewell and Brylee Mueller, and Kathy Sue, Tucker James and Lorelai Gayle Nowell.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Sue Glidewell, longtime Rainbow City mayor, dies at 92