Gibbs retiring as Washington County clerk of courts
In the Observer-Reporter, it was the top local news story of the 20th century.
To Barbara Gibbs, it’s been Case No. 57 of 1970.
Forty-five years ago this month, Gibbs, then an employee of the Washington County clerk of courts office, was attending a festive luncheon with Democratic Party officials at The George Washington hotel after courthouse swearing-in ceremonies when then-Coroner Farrell Jackson, an ex-coal miner, left abruptly.
Dissident United Mine Workers leader Joseph “Jock” Yablonski, his wife, Margaret, both 59, and their daughter, Charlotte, 20, were found murdered in their Clarksville home.
Three assassins, Aubran “Buddy” Martin, Claude Vealey and Paul Gilly, were charged shortly thereafter, and the conspiracy to silence Yablonski reached all the way to then-UMW President W.A. “Tony” Boyle.
At that time, co-defendants were charged as part of a single case file, No. 57.
“Paul Gilly is still writing to us,” Gibbs said Friday of the convicted murderer whose death sentence was reduced to life imprisonment. Gilly, 81, wants to be released from the State Correctional Institution at Albion.
This will be the last year Gibbs will use her encyclopedic memory of case numbers and myriad laws and procedures that apply to the daily business of running the row office.
At 71, Gibbs is Washington County’s longest, continuously serving elected official, and she’s decided not to seek a ninth, four-year term as clerk of courts.
On Friday, she released a three-paragraph statement she issued from the desk she has occupied for the past 30-some years in the thick of things in the clerk of courts office.
“When I first campaigned for election to this office, I promised to work hard, give the county an office they would be proud of and to make a difference. Hopefully, I have fulfilled my promises. The clerk of courts office is fully automated. We scan all documents as they are filed, and collections of fines, costs and restitution is approaching $4 million. Additionally, all information is available online at no charge.”
The approximately 3,000 cases each year, beside criminal charges filed against adults, include juvenile court petitions, those who post bonds, road dockets, miscellaneous matters and appeals of orders in domestic relations disputes.
Though Gibbs held elected office for decades, she actually started working in the clerk of courts office just after her graduation from Ellsworth High School in 1961. Her mother found out about a summer, part-time opening and promptly sent her daughter to secure employment. Part time became full time, and she later became deputy to Clerk of Courts Joseph Mouyard of Donora.
After stints in court administration, emergency management and equal employment offices, she decided to try for the elected office in 1983, winning the Democratic nomination in a field of nine candidates. She later defeated Frank Paterra, then a Republican, in the general election.
Though she was hit by a car while walking away from St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church, Richeyville, in June after Sunday morning mass, she said the accident was not a factor in her retirement, during which she’d like to travel and spend time with her daughter, Laural Ziemba, and 27-month-old granddaughter, Leah.
“It’s been interesting, never boring and exciting to me,” Gibbs said. “Every day was different.”