By By Connie Nowlin Managing editor
When Sarah Gibbs Beyette started as a staff accountant at a small firm in Atmore, she probably did not think about where she would be in 40 years.
"I can't believe I've been here 40 years," she said, while thinking back to September 1963.
At that time Hal K. Waller was in business by himself. Then the Troy State graduate joined the company, one of many changes it has seen over the years.
"We used to work night and day during tax season," Beyette said. "Everything was manual."
Those days are gone with the wind of technology that has swept away the piles of paperwork formerly associated with tax returns.
"Now we have a lot more employees, and more technology, since we have gone to computers," she said. "I know it is a lot more efficient."
John Garrard recommended Beyette for the job in 1963.
"It's true, I did. I didn't realize it had been 40 years, though," he said. Garrard said he had taught Beyette in the seventh and eighth grade and had known her family for years.
"I knew her background and knew she was a good student. And I knew she was coming back to Atmore, needed a job and wanted to work."
Garrard said he remembered making the recommendation when he was invited to the party in Beyette's honor held Tuesday.
"Boy, it makes you humble when you have a student from that long ago who remembers your influence on their lives," he said.