Clayton is looking forward to more time with his wife Melissa, though he says they don’t have big plans. They have two grown daughters, Beth and Sarah and hope to spend more time with them as well as each other. Beth is a teacher in Powell, and Sarah is the head of the Department of Vet Tech Education at Pensacola State College
Fulfilling a noble purpose
Clayton Meyers leaves the job he loved for 52 years at Washington Farmers Co-op
Story and photos by Glen Liford
You trade your life, eight hours at a time on a normal day, 40 hours a week, for a paycheck. And if you’re lucky, you get something more than the pursuit of profit in return.
Perhaps it’s the opportunity to serve. To help people. To make a difference. And in the Co-op system, for the noble purpose of serving farmers. Co-op’s brand statement is Driven to Serve, and among the better illustrations of this concept is Clayton Meyer’s career as the bookkeeper at Washington Farmers Cooperative.
Much of the work of his lengthy 52 years of service at the Co-op in Jonesborough has been taking care of farmers, customers, and fellow employees. He helped the farmers with their credit needs, collected on past-due accounts for the Co-op, ensured payroll was completed and employees were paid, and he kept the books with integrity in an accurate and orderly fashion.
Clayton graduated from Greeneville and Tusculum College, what is now known as Tusculum University, in 1969 with a bachelor’s in business administration. After graduation, he immediately joined Austin Tobacco Company, a worldwide exporter of tobacco. He spent approximately two years at the local company before joining a nearby accounting firm that was more in line with his career interests.
“I worked there about six months, auditing schools in Unicoi and Hawkins counties,” says Clayton. “On Christmas Eve in 1972, they called me in and said the audits were done and they looked good. And then, also, that they didn’t need me anymore.”
Clayton had only been with the company for six months, and he didn’t see the separation coming. He recalls it was snowing when he went home to tell his wife, Melissa. The good news? He did receive a $25 Christmas bonus.
After the holidays, he went to an employment firm in Johnson City where he received two interview possibilities — one at Washington Farmers and the other at Greene Farmers Co-op. His met with noted Co-op manager James Wright on February 1 and was hired after that first interview.
Clayton Meyer retired May 21 after working as Washington Farmers Cooperative bookkeeper for 52 years. He was hired by Co-op Manager James Wright when he was only 26 and is an outstanding example of the Co-op’s Driven to Serve brand statement.
“We had $69 in our checking account,” he recalls. “I had been making $650 a month at both the tobacco company and the accounting firm. James offered me $625, and I accepted.
“I never went to Greene Farmers,” he adds. “A few months later they hired Kathy Shipley.”
Kathy, who serves as the Greene Farmers Co-op office manager, was featured along with Assistant Manager Gary Shelton and Maintenance Technician Everette Dixon, in the March 2025 issue of The Cooperator as part of Co-op’s Driven to Serve series showcasing the dedicated employees. Kathy and Gary started at the Co-op within a few months of each other and are still working at the Co-op after more than 50 years.
In 1973, Washington Farmers Co-op was quite a bit smaller than it is today, Clayton notes. Sales were around $6 million and there were 12 employees.
“The ledger, sales reports, and everything else was done by hand,” says Clayton. “I had a ledger with sheets you could remove, and you wrote your transactions and kept your balances. You compiled it all at the end of the month for the sales reports. And you paid your taxes with a check. It all worked. We had 14,000 customers and about 1,500 members. Today, there are a little more than 800 members.”
Back in the 1970s, the most popular agricultural operations were dairies and tobacco, he says, mentioning that he thinks there’s only two dairies left in the area now.
“On the way to lunch the other day, my wife said that she misses seeing cows and horses,” Clayton says. “On the way back, we saw a field of Holstein heifers — something you just don’t see much anymore.”
Clayton is 78 years old now but is looking forward to simple pleasures and a respite from his long Co-op tenure. There are no travel plans or intentions for a second career. He says he might get in a little more fishing in the Nolichucky River which his home overlooks. He wistfully mentions a .22 target rifle he bought years ago and muses that he might take it shooting again. There are visits with his two grown daughters to look forward to and precious time to spend with his wife.
Clayton says he is already feeling some of the stress of the job slip away. Several years ago, TFC’s Co-op Financial Solutions began handling the cooperative’s credit and accounts receivables, taking a load of responsibility off Clayton.
When he began to seriously consider retirement, Clayton called TFC Regional Manager Gary Satterfield and TFC Regional Accounting Manager Amy Forst for a visit to see what help might be available. She brought two other members of the Regional Accounting Team. The Co-op contracted with the TFC Regional Accounting Department to take over the payroll and oversee generating W-2s and paying the taxes.
“I told Keely what I wanted and asked if they were going to handle everything that I was accustomed to doing,” says Clayton. “She promised they would.
“[The team has] already completed one payroll, and the second one will be finished on Monday before my last day on Wednesday. I’m going to stay Tuesday and make sure everything is okay and everything hits the banks.”
After more than half a century of quiet dedication, Clayton is comfortable handing over his duties to the Regional Accounting Team’s capable hands. Though some will never know the big role he played behind closed doors, his lasting imprint will remain not only in the books and ledgers he meticulously kept but in the hearts of all who worked with him.
Story by Glen Liford,
Contact gliford@ourcoop.com