Independence Hall Site Director Debbie Jones Retiring
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WHEELING - West Virginia Independence Hall site director Debbie Jones will be retiring from her job later this year.
Her last day will be Oct. 31.
Jones took over as site director at WVIH in May 2016, and said leaving will be "bittersweet."
"You work to retire, in my opinion," she said. "I have been working since I was 15 - and that's 50 years. I would like to get out in the world."
Jones is a native of Charleston, and her children and grandchildren still reside there. Nevertheless, she has no plans to leave Wheeling after retiring.
Typically, weddings aren't permitted at WVIH, but Jones and her long-time partner Rick Morrison plan to have a small ceremony in the third floor courtroom there in early October just days before her retirement.
"My soon-to-be husband is retired, and he has been waiting on me," she said. "I just would like to get out of here, and there are things out there you just want to see and do.
"I would like to do it while I'm not in a wheelchair or pulling an oxygen cart behind me."
Jones noted she really does enjoy living in the Friendly City.
"I love Wheeling, I really do. I tell everybody about Wheeling," she continued. "I tell visitors. I tell the people in Charleston.
"I call Charleston 'home.' But when I am in Charleston I call Wheeling 'home.' I've lived here 11 years, and I wouldn't trade that for anything."
Jones explained that, when she took the job as site director, she was "the newcomer in town." She previously worked at the Grave Creek Mound Archeological Complex in Moundsville.
She noted she had no background in Wheeling or West Virginia history at that time.
"But I've learned so much here. There are so many people in town who know so many pieces of the history," Jones said. "I don't remember anything like this in Charleston. You know a couple bits and pieces of history down there, but up here people love the history here. I think that's phenomenal."
Jones admitted it's going to be hard for her to leave WVIH.
"I will worry about this place, but it is time," she said. "It is time for the new and fresh."
Jones noted she has notified those at the West Virginia Division of Culture and History that she will be retiring in October. She hopes officials move soon to find her successor, as the months of November and December are the busiest for having visitors at WVIH. She has offered to help out then as needed.
"I'm hoping they get somebody in here who can (handle the job)," Jones continued. "We've been writing up notes about things that might help the next person who comes in.
"It will definitely, definitely be hard for me that week to walk out the door."
Jones plans to return as a visitor for annual events at WVIH.
She also has thoughts on a community project she wants to facilitate.
Jones remembers when she first came to Wheeling and exited from W.Va. 2 to 16th Street she found that entrance to not be all that welcoming.
"Sixteenth Street needs more," she said.
Jones wants to take a page out of Charleston's book and have murals placed throughout East Wheeling. She sees the community participating by helping to apply the paint to murals etched by local artists.
"It's one of my goals," she said. "I'm not a person to sit at home. I don't plan on going anywhere.”