March is National Women’s History Month. Established by Congress in 1987, an annual Presidential Proclamation each year honors the extraordinary achievements of American women.

In Lincoln County, one of those women who has achieved the extraordinary is Chancery Clerk Alisha McGehee.

In August 1997, McGehee was hired by then-Chancery Clerk J. Ronny Smith, and worked as office manager through the final two years of Smith’s 20-year era, as well as through the 20-year service of the next Chancery Clerk, Tillmon Bishop.

When Bishop retired in 2019, McGehee ran successfully for the office, taking the position in 2020. In 2023, she was reelected without opposition to another four-year term.

McGehee is Lincoln County’s first female Chancery Clerk. As of 2024, just more than half of Mississippi’s 82 Chancerly Clerks are women.

“I had kind of been here my whole working experience, and it’s the only thing that I ever knew, so it was like home to me,” McGehee said. “I knew that I loved the job, loved what we did in the office, and I just wanted to stay here.”

The office of the Chancery Clerk does “so much,” McGehee said.

“The big thing is Chancery Court. We keep all those court files, and we handle Youth Court. We also have all the land records for Lincoln County, filed in the record room. We also do commitments for mental patients, and drug and alcohol commitments,” she said. “We also take people’s delinquent land taxes. We notarize documents for the public, and I’m also the clerk for the Board of Supervisors. It’s so much, so you never know when someone comes in, what they are going to want or need.”

McGehee said the most important component of her job is the one-on-one interaction with members of the public. How you treat people is important, she said.

“You have to have a lot of patience, and a personality that’s able to mesh with the public. Everybody that comes in either has a problem or needs information, and you have to be willing to take the time to get them what they need and get them to the right place. Sometimes we’re the first office they go to, because we’re the first office on the right in the Government building.”

But the work is rewarding, she said, when she and her staff are able to help the public, “getting their problems figured out or the information they’re needing and them leaving the office satisfied that they got what they came into the office to do.

Plus, you get to meet so many people, from all over. It’s interesting.”

On the night of the 2019 election, McGehee told reporter Donna Campbell before the results came in that she was at peace, even if she lost the election. “I said, ‘Ms. Donna, God’s in control. Whatever His plan is, is what will be done.’”

Her family has been very supportive of her through everything — from campaigning, to getting elected, to everything since. McGehee said her husband especially was there every step of the way, and her family has been behind her in all the decisions she made to pursue this service.

“And I couldn’t do it without my wonderful staff,” she said.

Not only is McGehee the first female Chancery Clerk for Lincoln County, she is the only female serving of the Commissioners Board for Region 8 Mental Health Services.

“Being a woman makes it more difficult at times, and at other times, it makes it easier — because if it’s a woman dealing with another woman, they can relate easier to you,” she said. “Sometimes it’s not easy to get your voice heard, being a woman, so you just have to stand your ground on that point.”

While she believes it is easier in today’s world for women to get ahead, McGehee attributes much of it to the fact that “a lot more women are taking initiative to step up and put in the work to get in that position.”

McGehee also has words of encouragement for any young woman looking ahead to the possibilities before them.

“This job is very fulfilling. I would encourage any young woman to do this or anything. Whatever you want to do, put your mind to it, first and foremost pray about it, and if that’s what God wants you to do, that’s what will happen, and go for it.”