"I missed that big time," she said.

And so -- she's back and enjoying every minute of it.

Usry said she first applied at the City of Norman when she was appealing a traffic ticket. Since she was already at the City, she thought she'd check out the available jobs.

They asked her to take a typing test, which surprised her. That was good because she said she has high test anxiety, although she types 100 words per minute. By the time she had time to get nervous, which would slow her down, she had already nailed the test.

Usry started out working with the city's microfilm and eventually became deputy city clerk.

She's a history buff and loves to research local cemeteries.

That seems a little odd, even to her, because her family is not from Norman, although her husband Bob's family are Norman natives.

And she loves to walk, go see movies and reads voraciously, mostly fiction.

Her favorite right now is Harlan Coben, a best-selling mystery author with a sports emphasis.

"You need to read him," she said. "You never can guess the end to his."

Usry was born in Muskogee, an "Okie from Muskogee" she calls herself, and grew up mostly in Seminole.

Her family moved to Norman in 1964 when she was in the ninth grade to help support her older brother who was on "full ride" scholarship to the University of Oklahoma. She had three younger sisters who were triplets.

She attended Norman High School and graduated with the Class of '68.

And she met Bob Usry, a renowned, young troublemaker, when they were both 18. Bob had already been married once by then.

"He was the 'hood' and I was the nice girl," she said. "We went out with a big group of people and everybody went home except me and Bob. And we decided we were going to get married. And we did."