After 41 years of service to the Henry County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office, Frances Wade, Master Chief Deputy Clerk, has officially retired.
To celebrate her retirement, Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Moneta, presented Wade with a Virginia flag on behalf of the Senate.
“This flag was flown over the Commonwealth of Virginia’s capital in Richmond, Virginia for you and in your honor, and for one moment in time, we stopped what we did in the Commonwealth so we could honor you this way,” he said.
Stanley also filed a commending resolution to be heard in the Senate once it returns to session. He plans to present it to Wade in April.
Stanely said one of the duties and responsibilities of a state senator is making sure great Virginians are recognized.
“I am reminded today as I sit next to this lovely lady that when I was in my early 20s, I was working for a gentleman named Gil Davis. Gil would file a motion or two, or maybe 50, and he would make sure that he did it at the last minute and right before the offices closed,” he said.
Stanley, who was a law clerk at that time, would be the one to bring those motions and stacks of papers to the Clerk’s Office.
“I would come in, and I was not your favorite person to see in the Clerk’s Office at that time. But with a smile on her face, you were always as sweet as could be, and that was my first memory with you,” he said.
Anytime he had to go to the Clerk’s Office, Stanley said he made a beeline for Wade because he knows her great mood spreads joy to those entering the office, even on the tough days, “because it did for a small, little law clerk back in the early 90s.
“Most certainly, with your attitude, with your smiling face every day, and your hard work and dedication to purpose, you have made this place better,” he said.
“In some small measure, I stand here as you Virginia State Senator, and I still feel like that 24-year-old that handed a bunch of documents. But I want to say thank you on behalf of a grateful Commonwealth of Virginia,” he said.
Wade said the flag was a big deal to her, and credited “God because without him I wouldn’t be able to do it. I’m very grateful for all the knowledge He’s allowed me to be able to obtain down through the years, and I pray that each of you will take your jobs seriously.”
Wade said she’s enjoyed working with all the Clerk’s Office staff and being able to watch her coworkers’ children, and now grandchildren, grow up.
When the position came open in 1982, one of Wade’s professors at Patrick & Henry Community College (P&HCC) pushed her to apply for it.
“It was 94 applicants, and I thought, ‘it’s no way I’d get that job, I’m not even going to try and go.’ She kept after me, she said, ‘you need to go, you are needed there,’” Wade said. “So, I put in my application, and we went back and forth for a couple of months, and then finally I was hired.”
Wade said she is grateful this is where God ordained her to be, and thanked her family for their support, as well as the staff in the office, who treat her “like the momma of the gang.
“And I just eat it up,” she added.
