Jim, Joanne Posegay to lead Sumpter parade as Honored Citizens

“United We Stand” is the theme for this year’s Sumpter Country Festival and that theme pretty much says it all for Jim and Joanne Posegay, the 2014 Honored Citizens.
The Posegays will be leading the Country Fest parade, which begins at noon on Saturday heading north to the fairgrounds on Sumpter Road from Judd.
The Posegays tell their story:
We have been standing together since our first date Feb. 26, 1955 when Jim Posegay took Joanne Sala to an Ice Review at Olympia Stadium in Detroit.
We were married in 1961 and have remained Sumpter residents, living and raising our family in our home on Rymut Drive which was named after Joanne’s maternal grandfather: John T. Rymut.
Jim’s family moved to a small farm on the corner of Judd and Martinsville roads in Sumpter Township in 1944. He attended Martinsville School until the ninth grade, then he went to Belleville High School and graduated in 1953.
The Posegay family was very involved in the school system, Martinsville 4-H Club, and the Wayne County Service Club.
Joanne’s family has been Sumpter residents since 1916 when the Sala families homesteaded properties on Bohn (pronounced Bone) Road. Joanne attended the old West Sumpter School on Wear Road (as did her parents), went on to the then “new” Sumpter School on Sumpter Road which is now the Sumpter Community Center, and then to BHS where she graduated in 1957. Both Jim and Joanne have been very involved in the planning of their class reunions.
Jim proudly served in the Armor Division of the U.S. Army. He was stationed at the Tank Training Center at Fort Knox, KY. When he was 19, Jim started working for General Motors at the old Willow Run Hydra Matic Plan as a lay-out inspector of specifications.
Through the years, he advanced to an executive position in the GM Production Planning International Program of Future Products. His job took him to GM plants throughout the U.S., in several foreign countries, and all the way to the North Pole. Except for the two years spent in the army, Jim worked for GM until his retirement in 1991 after 36 years of service.
Joanne was a volunteer librarian at the Elwell Elementary School for many years, was a very active PTO member, and a dedicated Girl Scout mother. She was a secretary, worked as a caterer, and manned a vending location. She was also an employee of American Express Travel Ticketing Department. Joanne is very proud of her heritage, home, and family.
We were blessed with three beautiful daughters.
Our first Lynne and her husband Richard Mills live in Northern Michigan and love it. Our second daughter Lori and her husband Christopher DeMond and our “Very Special” grandson James Christopher DeMond have chosen to remain in Sumpter, as has our third daughter Lisa Posegay.
We go up north, to our place in Alba, as often as we can and like walking in the woods, hanging out together, and spending time with our family. We enjoy the 1958 Chevrolet Impala that we acquired 37 years ago. It is almost exactly like the one we had back in 1958. We also like country music and dancing. Especially the dancing!
You will find us at most township events. We are proud to be dedicated volunteers of the Sumpter Township Parks and Recreation Commission and we do as much as we can to help provide meaningful and entertaining events for the community.
We have been married 53 years and can still say, “United We Stand.”
— Jim and Joanne Posegay