The two longest-tenured Monroe County Superior Court staffers will get to enjoy the well-earned fruits of retirement at year’s end.
Clerk of the Superior Court Lynn Ham and Chief Deputy Clerk Angela Banks will both be retiring effective Dec. 31 after a combined 78 years of county service. They will be joined in retirement by longtime Senior Deputy Clerk Susan Niblett, who will also retire after 21 years of service on Dec. 31, and Senior Deputy Clerk Diane Letson, who retired within the past year after 31 years of service.
Ham is retiring after 45 years with Monroe County, the longest run of any current Monroe County employee. For the past 24 years, Ham has served as the county’s Clerk of the Superior Court, succeeding her mother-in-law Geraldine Ham.
Ham, a Monroe County native with the maiden name of Watkins, worked several summers in the Superior Court office while attending college at University of Georgia in the mid-1970s. She said she initially became acquainted with then-Clerk Geraldine Ham after going on several dates Geraldine’s son Max, who is now her husband of 43 years. Although Ham graduated in December 1975 with a degree in home economics, she developed an immediate fondness for the Superior Court office and decided to take a permanent job there in what was then a three-person office.
Ham, who married Max a year-and-a-half later in July 1977, joked of her future mother-in-law: “I always said she kept me around so we’d get back together.”
When Geraldine Ham couldn’t decide whether she would seek re-election in 1996, she decided to go ahead with filling out her qualifying papers but she also urged Lynn to fill out her own. When it came time to qualify, Geraldine opted for retirement, and Lynn became her replacement.
Lynn Ham said if Geraldine Ham was grooming her all along to be her successor, she never realized it.
“She was very kind and very understanding,” Lynn Ham said of Geraldine. “And of course any deputy serves at the pleasure of the Clerk. I don’t think she favored me more than she did other employees. One thing she did that was very helpful was to take me to some of her meetings while I was in college in Athens. They had training in Athens, and she had me over and I attended some of those trainings. And I met some clerks from other counties and was even able to go visit some other courthouses to see how they handle things, and I think that really helped my understanding.”
In 24 years, or six election cycles, as Clerk of Court, Ham has never faced election opposition. Ham said she hopes her lack of opposition reflects the way people felt about her performance as Clerk.
“I always tried to treat people the way I would like to be treated. And to be respectful,” Ham said. “And I loved helping people. Back then we had a lot more interaction before computers with the local attorneys as well as the general public.”
Ham said she also has a passion for record-keeping that has served her well as Clerk.
“I liked being able to keep the records and to have them indexed and available so that we could find them,” Ham said. “I liked that organization.”
But Ham said it is her staff of trusted assistants, like Banks, Letson and Niblett, that has kept the Monroe County Superior Court Clerk’s office running smoothly all these years.
“The people that I hired were absolutely awesome,” Ham said. “I could not have done this all by myself, and that’s the reason I was re-elected without opposition is because of my staff. They did such a good job.”
With the Clerk often serving as a de facto assistant to the Monroe County Superior Court Judges, Ham worked alongside at least nine different Superior Court Judges and at least a half-dozen other Senior and visiting judges. Among the most memorable of those were Judge Byron Smith and Judge Hugh Sosebee Sr. Ham said Judge Smith, who had an ever-present cigar and Tab soft drink while he worked, could be both gregarious and stern when the occasion called for it.
“Some people were surprised by Judge Smith and how down-to-earth he was,” Ham said. “But yet when he went into the courtroom, his demeanor was that of a judge. But sometimes he would get a little angry. He’d take off his reading glasses, and I knew they were coming down the bench toward me. And I wouldn’t even look, but when I knew somebody had said something, I’d go, ‘Uh oh.’”
As for Judge Sosebee, Ham said he was already well-established as one of the leading adjudicators in the state by the time she joined the Superior Court Clerk’s office in the mid-1970s.
Ham said of Judge Sosebee: “I was so young at the time. And of course I respect my elders, but I revered him because his demeanor demanded it.”
As for the two current Monroe County Superior Court Judges, Judge William Fears and Judge Thomas Wilson, Ham said she admires the empathy they have for persons who enter their courtroom.
“We have so many more divorces and child custody cases, and there’s never a really good answer,” Ham said. “They (Fears and Wilson) understand that, and they do the best they can rendering justice. And in criminal court too.”
Among the regular responsibilities of the Clerk’s office in addition to attending court hearings and keeping court records are to file deeds, plats and liens, keep records of military discharges, appoint notaries and even process passports for the federal government. Ham said the amount of paperwork produced and generated by the Superior Court office has increased tremendously over time.
“I can remember when a former district attorney, Judge (Arch) McGarity, would come down here and get a bucket drawer with the pending cases in it,” Ham said. “And I’m not talking about a big bucket. And he would take them upstairs and they would study on them for a while, talk to some of the law enforcement officers, and go in and try a case. It doesn’t happen that way now. Times have definitely changed. We couldn’t even get one case in a bucket drawer now. Now we take tubs of them.”
Ham noted that the addition of computers in the Superior Court Clerk’s office only increased the amount of work required.
Ham said, “We used to handwrite all subpoenas. We used to handwrite in a docket when we filed a case, and we were done. Now we get lots and lots of paperwork with a new case. And we have to put it in the computer, which is helpful when you’re printing out notices and things like that, but it just takes a lot more time. And we’re also required by law to send so many more reports, I can’t even name them now, to different agencies. As far as the money and the distribution of the money and the criminal fines and all the add-ons that the legislature has put on that area. If you’re in this job, you need to have some bookkeeping experience.”
Ham said there were numerous memorable court proceedings that stand out, but she said the one that most stuck with her was the 1998 capital murder conviction of Andrew Cook for the 1995 shooting deaths of two Mercer University students at Lake Juliette.
“The Juliette murder case was very emotional,” Ham said. “Because it was the only child of both sets of parents, the deceased. And then I was good friends with the defendant’s sister. It was just hard to comprehend. And the sentencing was done by Judge (Johnnie) Caldwell, who had been appointed to hear it. He has a very deep voice. And when he pronounced the sentence, there was a quiet in the courtroom.”
Ham, who first publicly announced her impending retirement nearly two years ago, said she knows it’s the right time to step away.
“When I ran this last time, I decided it was time,” Ham said. “I’m retirement age. I want to enjoy my grandchildren, and I help look after my 93-year-old mother. I enjoy being with family.”
Ham has two adult children, Adam Ham, an information technology manager at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center (GPSTC), and Nicole Ham, a teacher at Westside Middle School in Winder. She also has two grandchildren, Carter, 11 and Anna, 7, who live here in Monroe County.
Among the hobbies Ham plans to undertake in retirement are gardening and interior home improvements, such as painting.
Banks, a Monroe County native with the maiden name of Walker, joined the Superior Court Clerk’s office in 1987 after learning of a job opening through a mutual friend of then-Clerk Geraldine Ham. Prior to being hired by Geraldine, Banks initially thought about entering the nursing field before taking a job with William Carter Company.
Banks said, “It was a great opportunity for me to be able to work here in the beginning. Mrs. Geraldine was such a kind person. She was easy to get along with. She was very understanding. Because I was a single parent at the time. And then when Geraldine left and Lynn came on, she’s a very good boss. And I enjoy the job because I love helping people. That’s my mission every day. My prayer coming to work is: ‘Let me be available for someone today.’”
Ham said Banks was a perfect fit to fill the crucial Chief Deputy Clerk role.
“We could almost read each other’s minds,” Ham said of Banks. “We had worked together for so many years. She was my right-hand person. She really was.”
Banks said she’s intended all along to retire at the same time as Ham rather than run as Ham’s replacement. She said husband Cleve Banks has already been retired for nine years, and this will give her more time to spend with her husband, her mother and her grandchildren.
Banks has four adult children, Roderick Brantley, Carnarvis Brantley, Norbert Banks and Courtney Banks, and nine grandchildren, Kendall, Journey, Christian, Parris, Champ, Cassidy, Raven, Daisua and Madison, ranging in age from 4 to 22.
In retirement, Banks said she plans to travel as well as do yard work and home improvements.
Both Ham and Banks said they will most miss being around each other and their remaining co-workers.
“Because it’s like a family,” Banks said of their office. “Lynn, Diane (Letson) and myself, we were like sisters.”
Ham and Banks also agree that the 2010 renovation of Monroe County Courthouse, including the Superior Court Clerk’s office, was a tremendous highlight of their long tenures.
Ham said of the renovation: “I think the best thing the county has ever done for the courthouse is to renovate it and fix the roof from leaking and make it so beautiful. Because it was all done by county maintenance, and they just put their hearts into it, sweat and labor.”
Banks agreed, saying, “We get so many compliments from people coming in about how nice it is and how we keep our records.”
Ham said she has no regrets about giving up the post she held for nearly a quarter century because she feels very confident leaving the Superior Court Clerk’s post in the hands of her Clerk of Court successor, Lindsey Taylor. Taylor, who was elected in November, has worked as a Deputy Clerk under Ham for the past several years.
“She is amazing,” Ham said of Taylor. “She’s so nice, so calm and so organized. I just can’t say enough about her. And she cares about the records, cares that things are right. She’s not in it to be in the public spotlight at all.”
Banks agrees that Taylor will excel in her new leadership role.
“You hear people talking about your purpose,” Banks said. “It’s kind of like her purpose. She just fits in.”
