CATLETTSBURG — Community service is a theme that runs through the life of Gail Sammons.

The 65-year-old Catlettsburg native’s father was a businessman and a member of the city council and her brother, Don, was a business owner and served as mayor.

“I don’t want to be a councilman or mayor but I want to devote my time to what’s right for the citizens of Catlettsburg and to help people,” she said. “You will be rewarded for the good you do.”

Sammons said she can remember when her father owned and operated a small grocery store in town.

“Back then, they had a community store on just about every corner,” she said. “My dad had Wellman’s Grocery. I remember he just gave groceries to people he knew really needed it.”

Sammons was working for National Mine Service Co. in Wurtland when the owners sold to another company and moved to Morgantown, W.Va. She had the chance to transfer but, like many in the area, decided to stay in her hometown.

At that time, her father, who suffered from emphysema, was bedfast.

“He made me promise on his deathbed I’d take the store and take care of my mother,” she said. “I said, ‘I can’t make a living on a community grocery. There are too many big places now to shop.’ But he said, ‘If you do this for me, I know the Lord will bless you and you’ll find a way.’”

At the time, she had another job offer from Corbin’s but decided to please her father and run the grocery store.

“At first, we had the boat business,” Sammons said, referring to sales to river traffic, which is just about a block away from the store.

As that aspect of business diminished, Sammons sought other options to bring in customers. First, she added jeans and tops for sale. Then, inspired by having named the store Angie’s Actionwear after her only child, she began selling her daughter’s used prom dresses for half price.

“Pretty soon, her friends’ parents started asking if I would see theirs, too, so I did for $10,” Sammons said. The exchange became so popular, she eventually stopped carrying jeans and tops and sold the dresses from one room.

She said now she has customers from North Carolina, Virginia and throughout Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia who have heard about the dresses.

“The Lord did bless me,” she said, referring to her father’s prediction that she would be blessed if she took over his community store. She still carries a few “pantry” items, she said, such as “canned soup, sodas, chips, bologna and cheese, a few things like that to try to keep my dad’s memory alive,” but the store that has become Angie’s Formal and Pageant Wear has done business with generations.

“I have kids that bought their dresses here coming in now with their kids looking for the little pageant dresses,” she said.

And Sammons is the one to help a contestant select her clothing. She was co-director of the Miss Ashland Area Scholarship pageant with Glorious Hensley for 13 years; both resigned their positions last year, but Sammons said she remains an adviser to the current directors and she and Hensley continue organizing the Miss Flame Pageant in Catlettsburg, as they have for 30 years.

“Being in the pageant system has helped me so much to know what is right,” she said of buying and selling gowns. “I enjoy it. It’s not for every girl, but if the girl sticks with it, it’s good to help them out when they get older with confidence and talking to people on a one-on-one basis.”

Besides business ventures and pageant work, Sammons has been chairman of the United Way for Catlettsburg, on the Ashland Oil Community Advisory Panel and the board of directors for the Catlettsburg Youth Center. She has been involved in PTA and coached cheerleading at Catlettsburg Junior High School. She has helped organize Labor Day events in the city and was part of Main Street. Among her honors she was the first person to be named Citizen of the Year in Catlettsburg by the mayor.

“If everyone would give an hour a week to help someone, you would be rewarded,” Sammons said.

Sammons’ husband is Arnold Sammons. Her daughter, Angie Chilton, lives in Lexington and has one child, Carter.

LEE WARD can be reached at lward@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2661.