Lionel Creekmore

*"I love Ashford Falls as much as I love my daughters... Well, the two I didn't send to boarding school!" - Lionel Creekmore*

**Lionel Creekmore** is the former mayor of Ashford Falls and former State Senator of New York. He has been married for twenty years to Jackie Creekmore with whom he has three daughters noted locally for being frivolous and wild-spirited.

A native of Ashford Falls, Creekmore was a lawyer in nearby Albany for 18 years and worked for the New York Children and Families association which he helped found in 1973. He also served in the public school system and served on several corporate boards before running and serving for New York state senator for four years. After leaving office, he ran for mayor of Ashford Falls, serving two terms in office.

A staunch liberal in favor of worker's rights, Creekmore radically improved Ashford Falls by starting a tourism campaign to boost the economy and attract tourists, opening the Ashford Falls Scenic Lookout natural park among other sites and registering a landmark bill that instituted the town square a local landmark to protect the architecture from heavy alteration and keeping it intact. Under his eight years of progress, he turned the sleepy hamlet into a prosperous New York village with several developments built after he re-zoned sections of the town's outskirts for new sub-divisions to be built. However, he was heavily criticized by Carter Hedison and the town's elite for raising property taxes in town and extending the interstate around town to deter large trucks from going through town and "spoiling" the small town image. Despite the ill will from the majority of the town's businessmen, Creekmore was very well liked by the local citizens and always stopped to talk with his supporters. However, the press was mostly full of the exploits of his daughters' lifestyles, partying and drinking in the town's social nightspots, particularly Cathy Creekmore, who he sent to boarding school to deter her hard partying. Without her, his other two daughters, Tricia Creekmore and Lisa Creekmore calmed down.

In 1985, Creekmore announced he was retiring to support his wife in her charities, and he was replaced in office by the conservative and very corrupt Republican Carl Griggs, who was heavily supported by Carter Hedison, who considered him more in line with his personal views. However, Creekmore did try running again in 1991. The election was heavily maligned in the press with Griggs falsely claiming the town was left broke had left office and playing up the fact that Creekmore couldn't control his partying daughters. Where Griggs failed in the issues, he attacked Creekmore as incompetent and Featherstone as delusional. Griggs went on to name and support his Democratic supporter Nate Featherstone as the candidate of his choice. However, Featherstone lost the election by less than a thousand votes, but public opinion believed the election was rigged after Griggs's campaign headquarters mysteriously burned down by unknown parties, taking evidence that supposedly would have shown Carter's effort to influence the vote. No investigation was ever held.

For the next five years, Creekmore stayed out of the public eye except for rare public appearances. In 1995, he supported Sabrina Collins in her run for mayor.