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Kammie Elmore.
Kammie Elmore.
Marshall County resident Kammie Elmore is a mom, a wife, a blogger, a runner, and the Secretary for the Marshall County Election Board. Her journey is one that she is open with by sharing her life on a blog where she talks about everything from her marriage to her husband Matt, their life as foster parents and self love.
Elmore said she is an Okie by birth and proud to call Madill and Marshall County her home. Elmore’s family was on a trip from Texas to Oklahoma when her mom went into labor with her, making her the only sibling to be born in Oklahoma.
“I was born in Oklahoma City, I am the only one of my siblings born in Oklahoma, the rest were born in Texas,” she said. “When my mom was pregnant, they were visiting her aunt in Oklahoma City when she went into labor unexpectedly and I ended up being born there.”
Elmore’s family lived in Gainesville, Texas at the time but eventually moved to Madill when she was in the 4th grade. Elmore graduated from Madill High School in 2010. During her high school career, she was on the field and track team for Shot Put and Discus, where she still holds a record for 40ft 10in for Shot Put and 119Ft 10in for Discus.
Elmore said that she is surprised that the record has stood for this long but can feel a contender nipping at her heels to break that record.
“I have gotten a call from a girl asking for me to give her pointers, and I am like absolutely.”
Elmore is more than happy to share any tips to help and would be happy to see the record broken.
“I have held it for 14 plus years, it’s meant to be broken,” Elmore said with a smile.
After Elmore graduated from high school, she attended Crowley College in Kansas on a Throwing Scholarship in Track and Field for Shot Put and Discus, where she received her Associate Degree in Applied Science. Elmore later attended Southern Oklahoma University where she received a Bachelor of Applied Science in 2022.
In between that time Elmore was very busy in life. Elmore and her husband Matthew Elmore have known each other since the time she moved to Madill but it wasn’t until later after high school that they started dating and eventually married.
Elmore said their families were close growing up and spent many family gatherings and outings together; so it was not unusual that their first official date in 2013 was a family camping trip with Matt’s family.
“We went on a three-day camping trip with his entire family for our first date,” Elmore said.
That September camping trip led to two years of dating before tying the knot in September of 2015.
The Elmore’s have been foster parents to multiple children over the years. She said they made the decision after infertility.
“My husband and I had talked about it, we hadn’t had any luck on our own with fertility,” she said.
Then in 2016, Elmore saw someone in the community needed a saving grace and she was it. While her husband Matt, who is a long haul truck driver, was out on the road, Elmore took on the process of becoming a foster parent to assist in a special situation.
By the time Matt came home, they were foster parents to three children; and that opened the door to the Elmores having fostered 10 children over a four-year period. Even though her husband was on the road when she began the process, she said Matt was supportive of her every step of the way.
“He’s the kind that never tells me no he always supports anything I do.”
In 2019, they were fortunate enough to adopt their son who is now 16 years old. In 2020, after several years of being foster parents, the Elmores decided to take a break and focus on the family they had created with the addition of their son.
Elmore also is an avid runner and said she enjoys doing marathons and is trying to get her family involved. She did the Oklahoma City marathon last year and she's hoping that her family will run with her this year.
Elmore said that in her spare time she enjoys reading. She set a personal goal for herself to try to complete at least 52 books. She said she bypassed that amount last year, and is on track to reach that goal this year with 35 books already under her belt.
“I set a personal goal for myself to read 52 a year. I exceeded that goal last year by 77 books.”
Elmore has been in her current role as Secretary of Marshall County Election Board since 2022. After obtaining her bachelor's degree in 2022, Elmore said she wasn’t sure what was going to be her next step.
“I told my husband I don’t know what I will do with it.,” Elmore said. “At the time, I was still searching and then I found this job and I absolutely love it here.”
Elmore said that at the previous job she had held in the past she did not feel like it was what she was supposed to be doing in the long term. She said that she wasn’t initially offered the secretarial position, but fate smiled and the door opened. She said she hasn’t look back since settling into her position.
“I actually was not initially offered the position, one of my friends was but she turned it down,” she said. “I got to doing it and I absolutely love what I do.”