Gayle Reuter is retiring.
The news will travel fast around Del Ray, where the Alexandria Living Legend has lived and volunteered for decades. For the last five years, she’s also worked full-time as the accreditation manager for the Alexandria Sheriff’s Office (ASO).
“We are extremely grateful for Gayle’s outstanding service with the Sheriff’s Office,” Sheriff Sean Casey told ALXnow. “Alexandria not only ensured that we maintained our three major accreditations but also received the prestigious Triple Crown Award from the National Sheriffs’ Association. We wish her a happy and well-deserved retirement but know she will continue to be active in Alexandria and carry that spirit of public service in our community.”
Reuter moved to Del Ray in 1983. Before joining ASO, she spent 16 years working as a top aide to then-Congressman Jim Moran (D-8). Her first job in the city was as a council aide to former Republican Alexandria City Councilman David Speck.
Reuter’s last day on the job is July 3. She says she’ll be traveling in the days ahead and will have time to volunteer more for non-profits in the city.
In a brief interview with ALXnow, Reuter talked about her journey to success in Alexandria.
ALXnow: What are your plans for retirement? I’m sure many people want to know.
Reuter: I can’t believe anybody really is that interested. In all honesty, I think I’m probably like a lot of people, but very blessed with jobs that have been mostly community-related. I was a single mom with kids and sometimes working several jobs, and I actually, in my mind, thought I wouldn’t be able to retire. I just thought I’d keep working forever. But just a few years ago I was told that I could retire from the Sheriff’s Office, and I literally walked out in tears, because I never thought it was possible.
Yes, it means that I can sign up to do Meals On Wheels for Senior Services of Alexandria. I’m excited to get to do additional volunteering, and I’m excited to get to spend more time with my five grandkids. I’m also hoping to get to do some traveling. I’ve got a sister and brother both out of town, and having never gotten to spend as much time as I’d like to with them. So, hoping to do that.
ALXnow: What’s been your recipe for success in Alexandria?
Reuter: You don’t know how life is going to take you. It started in 1991, when I’d been going to Del Ray Citizens Association meetings. Back then, there were very few businesses on the Avenue (Mount Vernon Avenue).
ALXnow: Del Ray was sketchier back then?
Reuter: It’s hard to say that, because in all the years I’ve lived in Del Ray, it’s always felt safe. Even though right around the corner, a shopkeeper was shot and killed, and we had a lot of things going on with drugs in houses. But in 1991, we did the first neighborhood block party in Del Ray.
Nancy Dunning was working on the committee, and we were in charge of talking to the businesses and getting their donations for the block party. Nancy was already known in Del Ray, and she could have gone to Jack Taylor (former longtime owner of Alexandria Toyota), one of the only businesses on the Avenue and ask for money and he would have given it to her in two seconds. But she said “You need to meet this man. You need to go in and ask,” and I was scared to death to go in and ask him.
Well, that interaction changed my life. I got to know Nancy, I got to know Jack. I got to know the businesses by doing the block party, and while working it I also met Dana Lawhorne.
ALXnow: The former sheriff who hired you in 2020. Was he an Alexandria Police Department detective with a mustache at the time?
Reuter: Yes. Then David Speck got elected, and Dana said to him, “There’s this person in Del Ray who’s started to get involved and volunteer. You should talk to her about being your council aide.”
That’s how I became a council aide, and, in turn, leading to getting to work in the city. Then I met Phil Sunderland, who went to work for Jim Moran, and asked me to work there. I’d already gotten to invite Moran to all the different stuff going on in Del Ray. Long story short, from the moment that I met Jack Taylor, whether it was the farmer’s market, Art on the Avenue, or whatever, he became a dear friend.
Have you heard the story about how I got my house?
ALXnow: No, please tell me.
Reuter: I was renting a house near St. Elmo’s in Del Ray, and the owner wanted to sell it. They wanted to give me first dibs, but I was in no position. I didn’t have any money saved up, and the city’s program for first-time homebuyers took three months.
I’m looking for a place for the girls and me to move. Prices were rising in Del Ray, and I was devastated. I was looking on the West End, and there’s a knock on the door and it’s Jack Taylor and Scott Mitchell (the original owner of St. Elmo’s), and they said, “Have you decided if you want to buy the house?”
I said I’d love to, but didn’t have the deposit. They told me to meet them at what was then Potomac West Title, and we sat down and Scott negotiated a price. Jack bought the house so the girls and I could stay in it, and three months later, the girls and I signed the financial papers to buy the house from Jack.
ALXnow: That’s remarkable.
Reuter: It’s still not over. I thought I needed to do a lot of work on the house, and soon after all this I thought I was going to help a friend move a TV, and when I got there, there was Nancy Dunning, a bunch of business owners on the Avenue, a bunch of neighbors, Jack Taylor, who all went together to put a new roof on my house.
ALXnow: You’re like George Bailey, the richest person in town.
Reuter: It’s exactly like that. Still, to this day I will pull out of my driveway and look at that house and think that I only have it because of the community. This is a community like no other, and I’m thankful for every day, because I’ve never felt by myself. I’ve always been very blessed. It is a wonderful life.
ALXnow: Was it hard having to start over with a new career at the Sheriff’s Office?
Reuter: It actually was scary. I’d been with Congressman Moran for 16 years, and to go to a completely new job and didn’t know anything about the position was scary. I have heard that it’s really good to challenge your mind and do different things when you get older, and I kept telling myself that this was going to help my mind, is going to keep me young.
I have loved the Sheriff’s Office, from many years of working with them, and I’ve always been impressed with the high priority that they place on community. Having known Dana Lawhorne since 1991, I mean, how lucky to be honored to come and work for him.
ALXnow: You’re well known to lots of people in Alexandria. Is it hard for you to find peace at the grocery store, a restaurant, out in public?
Reuter: What I love is that if I’m with somebody that’s not necessarily from the area, and people are saying hi and stuff, it’s like, “God, you’re right. It really is a small town.” Just the other day I was mowing my lawn and somebody I didn’t recognize walked by and thanked me for collecting items for the domestic women’s shelter on my front porch.
ALXnow: So, I guess we’ll be seeing you around town?
Reuter: That’s right. I’m surrounded by so many people that are doing just as much, like Pat Miller, who I can’t even keep up with. There’s so many different things she’s helping and working with. She’ll have to start dragging me around, too, in her pickup truck.
