Tefft left lasting impression as clerk
In 2007, as planning was underway to dedicate Town Hall, Jamestown native John Doty Jr. proposed that the newly renovated council chambers be named in honor of Rosamond Tefft.
“In earlier times,” the resulting proclamation about the former town clerk reads, “before town managers and administrators, the town clerk was the hub around which the wheels of local government revolved, and sooner or later, everyone who lived in town called upon the services of the town clerk.”
This was certainly true of Teftt.
Although she was born in Chicago in 1913, her family had deep roots in Jamestown and returned within the year. She went to school locally through the ninth grade, which was the highest grade taught at Thomas H. Clarke School on North Road. She rode the ferry to Newport to attend Rogers High School.
Like many other young women from Jamestown, Tefft worked as a “purserette” on the ferry before enrolling at Ithaca College to become a speech therapist. She taught at Devereaux School for children with disabilities outside Philadelphia, but returned to Rhode Island after her father’s death. For several years, she clerked at Lang’s Dry Goods store at East Ferry, worked for the Newport Preservation Society at The Breakers during the summer, and had a part-time job as Jamestown’s deputy town clerk.
Town clerk was an elected office. John Hammond, the elected clerk who had the position for 22 years, died Jan. 1, 1955. The town council immediately appointed Tefft as Jamestown’s first female clerk. In the following election, she ran unopposed for the office.
Jamestown was much smaller and more insular when Tefft took office. There were only about 2,100 residents, and many of them had grown up together on the island. The local government still was run mostly on the “good old boys” model and took place behind closed doors. The members of the town council met for an hour prior to their official meeting and agreed, or agreed to disagree, on the actions to be taken. Tefft attended both private and public meetings and carefully recorded the decisions.
Times were changing. The Jamestown Bridge, the first bridge connecting Jamestown to the mainland, had been completed in 1940. By 1955, the Jamestown Shores, platted in 1947, was bringing newcomers to the town. Between 1955-70, Jamestown’s population increased by almost 40 percent.
The facilities available to the town clerk for storage of the paperwork generated by the growing population did not, so organization and retrieval suffered. Tefft worked closely with her deputy, Lucy Carr Jenkins, to keep up with the demand for services, and everyone who encountered her was struck by her kindness and cheerful demeanor.
It was clear, however, that administration of the growing community could not continue to rest entirely with part-time elected officials. A charter commission was appointed to define a new method for conducting the day-to-day business. The charter created the role of town administrator and changed the town clerk to an appointed, rather than an elected, position.
Tefft was not happy with the proposed charter. She enjoyed her election campaigns and years later recalled a campaign poster that said, “The job she has done is recognized locally and statewide.” During the negotiations leading to the charter, the charter commission had considered, in deference to her, continuing keeping the town clerk as an elected position, but the need for long-term professionalism prevailed. The proposed home rule charter was adopted in November 1974.
Tefft was appointed town clerk under the charter. She was in her office working when she suffered a stroke in 1979. Bob Sutton, who was then the town administrator, recalled hurrying from his office on Southwest Avenue to Town Hall to watch her being carried out of the building.
Tefft never returned to Town Hall in an official capacity. When the town had an appreciation day in December 1981, to honor both Tefft and Jenkins, she attended in a wheelchair.
Tefft died March 15, 1994, at the South County Nursing Center in North Kingstown, where she had lived for many years.
