SILVERHILL, Ala. — Elsie Adeline Sutton Chandler, former librarian at the Oscar Johnson Memorial Library died June 14. She was 99.

“She was just a pillar of Silverhill,” said Frankie Kucera, chairman of the Library Board.

Doris Dearborn. a retired teacher, and a library volunteer since 2000, says she met Chandler by accident.

“One of the volunteers was taking off for the summer and asked me to take her place. She never came back.”

Dearborn stayed, and came to respect Chandler’s work ethic.

“She was a hard worker, she wanted to work,” said Dearborn.

According to an Associated Press story, written when Chandler was 93, the library was founded in 1907 by the Non Pariel Club, a women’s organization in the community. Chandler began running the library when she and her husband, the late Leslie Chandler, owned and operated People Supply Company, a general store in Silverhill.

It’s said that Leslie Chandler was a speed reader, so Elsie Chandler getting involved with the library seemed a natural. She could walk to the library from her home.

"I kept it open, really, for my husband and two children," she said in the AP story.

The town probably wouldn't have a library, if not for Chandler, says Dearborn, recalling that all the library’s transactions were recorded by hand.

Chandler served as a librarian for more than 50 years, and was recognized as state’s oldest librarian. In honor of her dedication to the library and the community, the library’s children’s library was named for her.

Chandler’s service to the town went well beyond the library, said Mayor Tim Wilson.

“She was always supportive of the town in every aspect,” he said. “All the kids knew her and loved her. She will definitely be missed.”

Chandler was an active member of the Silverhill Covenant Church where she sang in the choir, taught Sunday School and worked on the hospitality committee.

Council member Steve Brooks, who is a member of the Covenant Church, said he remembers Chandler giving out apples at Christmas time.

“It was something that Mr. Chandler started and when he passed away, she continued the tradition,” Brooks said. It is a tradition that continues to this day at the church, Brooks said.

Her survivors include a son, Sidney Chandler of Silverhill; six grandchildren, Marilyn Brown, Cynthia Lyndall, Terri Cordova, Bryan Chandler, Kenyon Tribble and Chandler Tribble; nine great-grandchildren; and eight great-great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Bennett and Adelaid Sutton; four brothers and seven sisters; her husband, Leslie Chandler and daughter, Thelma “Plu” Tribble.

Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Friday, June 19 at the Silverhill Covenant Church.

Independent Editor John Underwood contributed to this report.