Joe Headley wanted to run for a seat on the Chilton County Commission when he was about 30. His father told him to wait until he was about 40.

Headley may have made a successful commissioner as a younger man, but he heeded his father’s advice and ran, and won, in 2004 as a 41-year-old.

“I’ve enjoyed it thoroughly,” Headley said. “It’s really not hard; you just have to shoot straight and tell people how you will get things done or tell them if you just can’t do something.

“I just felt like I could make a difference.”

County residents apparently approved of the job Headley did, as he was re-elected in 2008.

Headley and his wife, Michelle, have four children. Headley lives in a home off Enterprise Road that is within a mile of where he was raised.