Transcript Staff Writer

The new deputy city clerk may look familiar.

Ellen Usry spent 13 1/2 years working for the City of Norman before taking a nine-year break. And before she left, she was -- you guessed it -- deputy city clerk.

The feisty, funny, outspoken 57-year-old Usry is back and some say it's as if she never left.

The opening for deputy city clerk came along when former city clerk Mary Hatley retired and the most recent deputy city clerk Brenda Hall was promoted to that spot. That left the deputy city clerk job open.

"I think it was meant to be," Usry said. "I have always missed it, always missed it ... These city people are my extended family ... Leaving here, I always regretted it. ... I thought, how many times is this (job) going to come open?"

Ironically Usry trained Hall for the deputy city clerk position before she left.

"She's a hard boss," Hall said, jokingly.

And Usry stayed friends with many of the long-time employees at the City of Norman, including Hatley and Hall.

She left the City of Norman because her family had purchased a business and needed someone to run it. One of her sons took it over and now runs it.

Usry also had a heartbreaking loss of a grandchild about that time.

"And I decided I needed to spend some time with my grandkids while I can," Usry said.

That move also freed up time for her to do volunteer work for the Assistance League, where she published the newsletter, the yearbook and handled dues for about 600 members.

"Best thing I ever did," she said. "I was big on clothing these kids because that's what we do."

But she missed doing clerical work.