ROCKY MOUNT -- One of Franklin County's most enduring and popular officials has announced that after 32 years as sheriff, he will not seek re-election this fall.

W.Q. "Quint" Overton, 69, told his deputies and staff Wednesday afternoon that he intends to step down at the end of the year.

He said Thursday that his health and the administrative demands of the office have started to overwhelm him.

"It's getting more complicated," Overton said. "There's more paperwork involved. I think it's getting to be more of a young man's job."

Overton has served as sheriff since 1976. During that time he's overseen his department as it has expanded to keep up with a rapidly growing county. When he started as sheriff, he had 15 deputies, four jailers, four dispatchers and a secretary to police a county of about 25,000.

Now, his department serves twice as many people with a staff of 24 deputies, four civil processors, five investigators and a supervisor, 27 jailers and bailiffs, 13 dispatchers and four secretaries.

His decision not to run for re-election opens the door for a potentially heated race for a post long considered unattainable by a challenger.

Already, three men -- Overton's son, W.Q. "Billy" Overton, a captain in the sheriff's office; Lt. Ewell Hunt, who has served since 1976; and M. Wayne Hodges, a clerk at 40 West Food Fare -- have announced their intentions to run for the position. Another three said they've been asked to run and are considering it.

Quint Overton was born in Farmville and had five brothers and two sisters. He first came to Franklin County as a state trooper in 1959.

"My first night on patrol I was riding with Don Riddle and we caught a load of whiskey out near Henry," Overton said.

He stayed with the state police for 14 years before leaving after a confrontation with another trooper. Instead of taking a transfer to Greenville County, Overton went to work for the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Ironically, he didn't spend much time chasing moonshine because "the price of sugar went sky-high," Overton said.

In 1975 he ran for sheriff to replace the retiring John Price. Since then he's been unbeatable.

Hunt and current Rocky Mount Supervisor Charles Wagner started in the sheriff's department the same day Overton took office.

"When we started, all the deputies did everything," Hunt said. "There was no investigative division, no civil division. Everybody did everything."

Wagner remembers as well.

"I worked shifts at the jail if there was a jailer out," Wagner said. "Sometimes you had to pull a deputy off the road to work a shift in the dispatch. You had to do it all."

It was during Overton's first term in office that a wave of fatalities swept Franklin County. In 1978, the county had nine homicides and two fatal hit-and-runs.

"I remember people told me, 'You're not going to be sheriff long if you don't solve some of these cases,' " Overton said. "There's no doubt about it. That's the toughest time I've had."

Franklin County Commonwealth's Attorney Cliff Hapgood was just starting as an assistant then. He marveled at the endurance of the sheriff and deputies working long days during that period.

But just as impressive, Hapgood said, was Overton's ability to maintain the county jail.

"One of the real tributes to the sheriff was that he could take a jail built in 1938 and get it through every state and federal inspection it's ever had," Hapgood said. "Our jail has never been shut down. If you go over there and look at the plumbing, you'll realize that's a miracle."

But for all his work in law enforcement, Overton is held in high esteem largely for the personal touch he brought to his job. The sheriff's office is in the geographic center of Franklin County, but in many ways it's the county's emotional heart as well.

"If you had a problem you just went to see him, and lots of times they weren't problems of a law enforcement nature," Hapgood said. "He's always been open and accessible to the people. You can walk right into the sheriff's office. He'll always talk to people. He takes just an innumerable amount of phone calls at home."

And when people died, Overton made sure they received proper respect. That started with his own mother's funeral when, while entering the cemetery, a town officer saluted the family.

"It touched me so much I came back and told my deputies to start saluting at the funerals," Overton said.

It's a small touch that's drawn notice.

"He has his guys at every road to stop the traffic while a funeral procession is going to the cemetery," said Alice Hall, Franklin County clerk of court. "They have their white gloves on and they salute. That means a lot to people."

Likewise, Elder E.A. Edwards, who pastors churches in Roanoke County and at Smith Mountain Lake, said Overton's policy has helped bring comfort to a number of grieving families.

"He knows how to deal with people," Edwards said.

That personal touch has made Overton popular among his constituents -- possibly the most popular official in Franklin County.

"I don't think I'm a politician," Overton said. "I speak to people, I shake hands with people, but I don't consider myself a politician. I really don't."

Others disagree.

"Quincy's politics run 365 days a year -- and good at it," said Blue Ridge Supervisor Hubert Quinn.

"We didn't see eye to eye all the time, but I respected him, and I think he respected me," Quinn added.

Franklin County Republicans will hold a mass meeting to select a candidate for sheriff in May. County Democrats, meanwhile, will hold a primary to select their own candidate.

Overton said his decision not to run for sheriff again doesn't mean he's leaving politics.

"I may run for [Rocky Mount] town council or [Franklin County] board of supervisors," Overton said.