Woman oversees records for 40 years

A lot of things have changed in Tuolumne County government since 1972. Offices have moved, technologies have improved and staff and elected officials have come and gone. 

But at least one thing hasn’t changed — Patsy Knox handling county documents in the assessor-recorder’s office.

Knox, 60, celebrated her 40th year with the county in January. She currently serves as the assistant recorder under Assessor-Recorder Ken Caetano and has worked in the assessor-recorder’s office for the vast majority of her career.    

Since Knox has been with Tuolumne County, the recorder and assessor’s offices have been combined. More than two dozen county supervisors have come and gone. She’s seen the county take down offices near Rose Court and build a new administrative office over a former parking lot.    

“I definitely did not grow up telling myself I’m going to be a recorder,” Knox said with a laugh.    

She started with the county on Jan. 15, 1972, in a clerical position with the county tax collector. Knox said she was studying business at Columbia College and was a new resident to Tuolumne County at the time.    

She had moved around the country regularly with her family, following her father who worked in the steel industry.    

He had come to the area months earlier with his family to work on the New Melones dam.   

Knox started slowly working her way up the ladder. She was trained in drafting and learned to draw assessment maps by hand, which they had to do before computer software took over. She often jokes about her time at the county, telling people she started when she was 5 years old sorting paper clips.    

“I remember punching the old IBM (computer) cards and holding them up to the light to read them,” said Knox, who also keeps an old typewriter around.    

The county assessor-recorder’s office manages and oversees much of the documentation of people and places in the county. Property deeds and assessors’ maps are kept on the third floor of the county administrative building on Green Street, as are death, birth and marriage records.    

Walk behind the front desk, and you’ll see rows of bounded collections of those records, much like an archive or the reference section of a library. Inside many of those bindings are important milestones and mementos in the lives of county residents — the birth of a child, the death of a loved one, a couples’ wedding or their first home, possibly even their divorce.    

Knox also sees the important history collected and kept on the third floor. The gold and mineral claims that have shaped the county for more than 150 years are recorded there. When students from schools come by, Knox likes to show them emancipation records for more than a dozen freed slaves during the Civil War.    

Knox said she has a “real appreciation” for local history. Vintage photographs hang on the walls in the recorder’s office. When she found out the county museum didn’t have space for an old player piano from the Memorial Hall, she made some room in a corner at the office where it sits today.    

“I love all the history,” she said. “There are some really unique things here.”    

Knox lives with her husband, Ron, in Jamestown, where she served as a planning commissioner for about 12 years. The two are avid motorcycle enthusiasts and are involved with numerous community events through the Kiwanis Club.    

Knox said she’s proud of her four decades with the county.   

At a recent meeting of the county Board of Supervisors, Caetano and former Assessor-Recorder Dave Wynne both described Knox as someone who takes on a huge workload when asked, gives more than expected and brings a sense of caring to the job.    

She also remains connected to her professional peers, as she is involved in the state County Recorders’ Association and teaches professional classes for others in her field.    

For Knox, the most exciting parts of the job and the most challenging are not always separate.   

She said she loves to help people find documents they need to solve a problem or puzzle. But she said she often sees people who are going through difficult times, especially when it comes to liens or foreclosures on a property — something the county has seen a lot of as the economy has suffered.    

“If we are able to help someone find something they need, that’s the best thing (about the job),” she said.   

And while four decades is an accomplished career for many, Knox said she has her sights on even more. She’s currently taking classes again at Columbia College with the goal of getting qualified to be a paralegal.   

“If somewhere down the line I ever do retire, I want to be able to do that,” she said.    

But right now? “I’m content. I like what I do,” she said.