Shirley Ann Irby Patteson Simpson had served as chief deputy treasurer of Pittsylvania County under two county treasurers when she was elected treasurer in 2000.

Her third four-year term in office just started in January. She died Wednesday at Duke University Center in Durham, N.C.

A funeral will be held Saturday at 11 a.m. at Scott Funeral Home Chapel in Chatham, where she had moved from her native Lynchburg after marrying her first husband. Burial will be in Hillcrest Burial Park in Chatham.

The 64-year-old treasurer, who started working with the treasurer's office in 1978 as a bookkeeper, brought computers into her workplace. "I remember all the years that Shirley balanced the books all by hand. How proficient she was at it. She just had the knack for it," said Donna B. Meeks, Pittsylvania County purchasing manager.

Mrs. Simpson waged a campaign to reclaim a backlog of several hundreds of thousands of dollars in delinquent county taxes, said her husband of 12 years, Russell Simpson.

"She tried to work out a payment plan with people who were behind on their taxes," her husband said. "Once she had tried everything she knew to get them to pay, she turned it over to the lawyers. She started selling the property of people who had delinquent taxes. She sold quite a bit of property. It shook people up and they started paying their taxes better."

The first person whose property she sold "was my first cousin," her husband said. "He wouldn't do what he was supposed to do. She sold his farm. It showed she was fair."

During the past six years, she used a wheelchair after a knee replacement and two subsequent surgeries to redo it. She had been ill since undergoing a colostomy in November.

"Shirley never complained," Meeks said. "She always smiled and would say, 'I'm doing OK' when I knew she wasn't always OK. Shirley had the biggest heart. She always was willing to help anyone in need."

She was the widow of Edmund Lee Patteson, who died in 1994 after 24 years of marriage.

Survivors, in addition to her husband, include a son, Mark Lee Patteson of Chatham; a stepdaughter, Gloria Gail Strickland; and two stepsons, Ray Allen Simpson and Douglas Simpson, both of Chatham; and a sister, Joyce Childress of Evington.