The following candidates for the May 1 city council and school board elections have submitted information for publication.

Alba-Golden School Board
Three candidates for two positions.

Sancy Baker, 42, has been married for 20 years to James Green. They have two boys Jayden, a senior, and Landon Green, freshmen, at Alba-Golden.

Baker is a 1997 graduate of Alba-Golden. She has worked for the United States Postal Service in Golden for seven years. She has severed on several boards including PTA and youth foundation and currently serves on the Golden Sweet Potato Festival and Special Kids Farm and Ranch.

Grant Sadler and his wife Stephanie are both graduates of Alba-Golden and are both self-employed small business owners in Wood County. They have three children, Easton, Lucy and Liam who attend Alba-Golden Elementary. They are members of Lake Fork Baptist Church.

Sadler serves as a member of the Alba-Golden School Board. He is president of the Golden Sweet Potato Festival committee. He is also a Wood County Farm Bureau board member and vice president of the NETBIO organization.

Mike Ragsdale has also filed but chose not to submit information.

Mineola School Board
Three candidates for two positions.

Robbie Ballard, 40, owner of Yellow Jacket Welding and Metal Works, serves as a member of the Mineola Education Foundation. He has two children in Mineola ISD. Avery is in 3rd grade and Hunter is in 6th. He makes his living from a trade he learned in high school ag shop. He not only supports the Career and Technical Education program but every aspect of the children’s education, preparing youth for adulthood.

Douglas Coffman graduated from MISD in 2003 and attended East Texas Baptist while being part of the baseball program. He is 36 years old and an RSA for Ben E. Keith food service distributors. He is vice president for Texas Varsity Flag Football. He attended fire academy and graduated in 2013. He served as a volunteer for Mineola FD for four years. He is also a certified beekeeper from Penn State University. He has served the youth of Mineola and surrounding areas since 2005. He is completing his college degree in exercise and wellness science beginning this fall.

Jay McGough is seeking reelection to the Mineola School Board for a second term. He and his wife, Stacy, have two children, son J.D., a third grader at Mineola Elementary, and a daughter, Hannah. McGough is a 2001 graduate of Mineola. He is employed by Pro-Chem Energy Services and has worked in the oil and gas industry for 15 years. He and his family are active members of First Baptist Church of Mineola. He enjoys volunteering time working with youth sports such as flag football and baseball.

Quitman School Board
Six candidates for three positions.

Dustin Emerson is a Quitman native. He graduated from Quitman High School in 2004 and has spent the last 10 years working for the geotechnical engineering company, Braun Intertec. 
He is the operations supervisor over construction materials testing for the Tyler/Paris area. His wife, Brittany Emerson, is the health science teacher at Quitman High School. They will celebrate 10 years of marriage in January. 

The Emersons have three daughters attending Quitman Elementary, and they plan for them to grow up in the Quitman ISD system, just as he and his wife did.

Michael Hipp is running for re-election to the Quitman school board. He has been a resident of Quitman 21 years and is a member of the Flora Masonic Lodge and Shriners.

He and his family are active members of Northside Church in Mineola.

Hipp’s wife, Jeannie, is a literacy teacher at Quitman Elementary. His step-daughter, Karlee, is a 2020 graduate of Quitman High School. His son, Michael, is a freshman at Quitman High School. His step-daughter, Kallie, is also a freshman. His youngest is daughter Kinsey, a 6th grade student at Quitman Junior High.

Hipp graduated from Eustace High School as an honor student where he excelled in sports. In high school Hipp was coached by Chad Morris, former head coach of the SMU Mustangs and Arkansas Razorbacks. He pursued a football scholarship to Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina, Kan. He attended Southern Arkansas University as a walk-on football athlete. Following in his dad’s legacy, he served in the U.S. Navy.

Hipp’s professional experience has been highlighted through many avenues and facets of finance. From the emerging steps of a bank supply clerk, teller, loan officer, assistant manager, manager, to bank president, he has 15 years experience in the banking industry.

Hipp has served on the QISD school board since 2012.

Royce Patterson is seeking his third term as a QISD school board trustee. Patterson has been in Quitman since 1985 when they moved to Lake Fork as it was nearing completion. Patterson is a QISD graduate from 1986 and attended Stephen F. Austin University. In 1997 he and his Dad started a new business in Quitman. He married his wife Stacy who is from Longview. In 1998 they had their first child, Hunter. It was 1999 when they built their first house here and moved the family back home to Quitman. For the past 22 years the Pattersons have raised two children, Hunter and Hannah, who attended and graduated from QISD.

Mike Pence was born and raised in Southeast Oklahoma. He married his wife Lisa in 1992. They moved to Texas with their daughter, Brittni, in 1998. He has worked for AT&T for the past 23 years holding multiple positions.
He is a member of AT&T staff in East Texas. He has been responsible for maintaining budgets and managing AT&T employees. Pence also has a 15-year old son, Weston, who attends QISD.

They have four grandchildren who all attend school in Quitman. Mike and Lisa chose Quitman for their family’s home in 2009.

Mike has been active in coaching youth sports for over 20 years, with nine of those years in Quitman. Mike, Lisa and Weston attend Faith Baptist Church. Pence is an avid hunter and fisherman who loves the outdoors and spending time with his family.

Brook Rogers is running for a seat on the Quitman school board. She was born and raised in Henderson and is a lifelong East Texan.

After graduating from Henderson High School in 2000, she attended Kilgore College and focused her career in telecommunications and physical fitness. She met her husband, Brooks Rogers, 20 years ago, and he has been running a fishing guide service on Lake Fork since 1996. She moved to Quitman in 2002. In 2012, they had their son Brennen, who is in the third grade at Quitman Elementary. The family has been actively involved in Broad Street Church of Christ since 2002.

Rogers has spent 18 years in telecommunications and technology services. Prior to becoming the vice president of sales and marketing for Omega Networks in 2018, she was a director at Peoples Telephone in Quitman. In addition to her telecommunications business, she studied health and fitness and has been a certified personal trainer for the last 15 years. She also owns and operates Rock Solid Fitness in Quitman.

She was a member of Quitman Pilot Club and a board member of the Quitman Chamber of Commerce. The Rogerses are actively working toward bringing flag football to the community and enjoy volunteering to coach basketball through the Quitman Youth Foundation.

Dr. Jeremy Smith is seeking reelection for Quitman ISD School Board. Smith has been a member of the Quitman community since June 2003. He grew up in Emory and attended Rains ISD. Smith attended Texas A&M University-Commerce and earned a bachelor of science in 1998. In 1999, he was accepted into the College of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M. Since graduation in 2003, Smith has been working at Quitman Animal Clinic. 

Smith has two daughters who attend Quitman High School. Hannah is a senior and Sarah is a sophomore. Both of his grandchildren attend Quitman Elementary. Micah Croney is in the second grade, and Paisley Croney is enrolled in Pre-K. His oldest daughter, Jessie, is a graduate of Quitman ISD.

Smith has served on the school board since 2012, and he has been board president for the last several years.

Mineola City Council

Sue Jones is running for mayor of Mineola. She has served on the Mineola City Council since 2012 and is mayor pro tem.

She has served Ward One for nine years, winning her fifth term in 2020.

Jones was an educator for 30 years, including 20 in the Lindale school district, residing between Lindale and Mineola.

She and her late husband, Larry, purchased a 100-year-old home in Mineola and operated English House bed and breakfast for 10 years.

Jones has served on the tourism/marketing board and the landmark commission. She was involved with the chamber of commerce from 2000-2012 and served as president in 2003 and 2006.

Jayne Lankford is seeking to become mayor of Mineola. She was elected as council member for Ward Two in 2016 and is serving her third term.

Volunteering to serve her community was something that began when Lankford moved here at age 14 and began serving as a candy striper at the Mineola General Hospital.

She retired after 32 years with the local post office and is a charter member of the Mineola Umpire Association established in 1980.

Lankford served as secretary of the Greater Wood County Baseball/Softball Association for many years and has coached at all levels of softball, taking a senior girls team to state. Her greatest love is teaching fundamentals to 5- and 6-year olds.

She helped implement the softball program at the high school level, traveling to other towns to talk to their school boards.

Lankford was a founder and first president of the Tyler Softball Officials Association and conducted many meetings and clinics, helping train umpires and rising to the national level in the umpiring community.

She served as a volunteer umpire for area youth foundations.

She worked with the volunteers who built the bike trails at the Mineola Nature Preserve.

Quitman City Council
Three candidates for two council positions and two candidates for mayor.

Pamela Darrow Bowdoin is seeking election as Quitman City Council alderman.

She grew up in Sulphur Springs, and her family moved to Quitman over 50 years ago. In 1967, her grandparents, Floyd and Jean Klee, retired to Lake Lydia to finish raising their two daughters, Karen and Susan. Floyd and Jean were both active in their community and church in Quitman.

After attending college in Tyler, she moved to Quitman and began working at Wood County National Bank in 2008 in the operations department. In 2011, she moved to Peoples Communications where she spent the last eight years as a supervisor. She is a project manager overseeing many fiber projects for the company. In addition to her career at Peoples, she and husband, Seth, own and operate Seth’s Lake Fork Creek Steak & Seafood a few miles south of town.

She met Seth in 2010 and they married in 2015. She has been an active member of the Quitman-Lake Fork Kiwanis Club since 2012 as well as a past president of the club. She has also been the treasurer of the Quitman Salvation Army since 2014 and is responsible for bringing the Red Kettle Bell Ringing to Quitman for the past five years during the Christmas holidays.

David Dobbs is seeking reelection to the city council. He has served as Quitman mayor pro tem the past two years. He served one term as mayor from 2017-19. Previously, he served as mayor pro tem from 2015-17 and has served as alderman since being appointed to the council in 2013.

Dobbs and his wife, Michelle, graduated from Quitman High School in 1985. He graduated from Texas A&M University in 1989. They have raised three children, all graduating from Quitman High School, Mandi, Austin and Abby.

Brad Medlin is seeking re-election to the Quitman City Council.
Medlin grew up in Quitman and graduated QHS in 1988. After graduating from Texas A&M University with a degree in agriculture economics in 1992, he lived and worked in the DFW area for almost 13 years. He and his wife, Sarah, decided to move their family back to Quitman to raise their children, Allie and Josh.

Medlin returned in 2005 to work in his family’s oilfield electrical service company, Medlin Electric, Inc. The company was founded in 1948 by his grandparents, Newt and Margaret Harris, and carried on by his parents, Bill and Beth Medlin.

He has served as an alderman five years.

Incumbent mayor Randy Dunn has filed for reelection. His family moved to this area in 1986 from Lubbock.
Dunn and his wife of 45 years, Teresa, have two daughters and six grandchildren. They became active members of Quitman FUMC immediately upon moving to Quitman and continue to serve every way that they can. Dunn was a self-employed farmer for 10 years before he began a career with Texas Farm Bureau Insurance Company for 33 years while his wife taught second grade for 20 years.

Dunn retired in May 2016. He has served on the city council for 15 years and Quitman Develop Corporation for 15 years.

Former Quitman mayor and alderman J.R. Evans has filed to run for mayor.
Evans retired from AEP, an electric utility, after 20 years. He also served 30 years in the Army/United States Army Reserve for 30 years.

Evans and his wife, Sandra, have lived in Quitman for over 17 years. Since coming to Quitman, Evans has been a member of different boards, civic groups, and foundations in Quitman and Wood County, working for the betterment of the community and its people. He is president of the Quitman/Lake Fork Kiwanis Club. He is also a member of the Quitman Lake Country Charitable Foundations.

He has served as an alderman for the city of Quitman for eight years and was the mayor from 2013-2017.

Election Day is Saturday, May 1.
Early voting will be held April 19 to 27 at the Wood County annex building in Quitman.