The longtime McDonough County employee is retiring

Republican Gretchen DeJaynes has resigned as McDonough County clerk. She worked in the office for 24 years, the last 18 as a county clerk.

County clerks’ offices in Illinois maintain important records such as birth and marriage certificates. They also take care of business documents, certificates and more.

DeJaynes said those documents were filed on paper when she started working in the clerk’s office, but that has changed.

“Probably 80 percent of our documents are now recorded electronically. When I started, there wasn’t even e-recording yet. That was certainly a change. A good change, but a change,” DeJaynes said.

Her first job in the office was overseeing elections. She said these have also changed.

“We have moved from needing to have a reason to vote early or by mail to no-excuse early and absentee voting (voting) and same-day registration. That was certainly a big change,” she said.

DeJaynes said the national focus on election integrity in recent years has made that part of the office’s duties a little more stressful.

She believes the integrity of an election is as good as the person running it and said her staff did an excellent job keeping track of the election.

“Most people don’t understand how much training, testing and time is needed before Election Day to ensure elections run smoothly and are legal,” she said.

Voters first elected DeJaynes in 2006. She replaced another longtime county clerk, Florine Miller, who resigned from that position.

DeJaynes said she didn’t plan on becoming county clerk when she started in the office, but she’s glad it worked out that way.

“Meeting people, dealing with differences, learning everything there is to learn. It was fun. I feel honored,” she said.

DeJaynes’ time as county clerk largely coincided with Scott Schwerer’s time as county executive. He did not seek re-election this year after spending much of the past 17 years as chief executive.

DeJaynes said they both had a lot to learn in the beginning and worked well together and learned a lot along the way.

DeJaynes was re-elected to a fifth term in 2022, meaning she will step down at midterm. She does this for family reasons.

“My husband has been retired for three years and I want to spend some time with him,” DeJaynes said.

“I have an excellent replacement. It’s just time.”

The county board appointed Jeremy Benson as the new county clerk.

He had been training with DeJaynes for several months and previously owned Terrill Title Company in Macomb, so he already knew the people in the clerk’s office well.

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