Oct 12, 2015 3 min read

From grisly crime scene details to heartbreaking family issues, Sharon Harmon captured each word during her 48 years at the county courthouse.

“I could almost tell you the next question they were going to ask,” Harmon, 73, of Monongahela, said of court hearings. “I just knew what was going to happen. It was so involving.”

So much so that she was heartbroken to announce her retirement Sept. 28.

“I loved it,” she said. “I didn’t want to retire, but once I made the decision, that was it.”

Harmon started at Washington County Courthouse in 1967 as a secretary in the domestic relations office. Roughly five years later, Harmon said she was transferred to Judge Charles G. Sweet to work as his tipstaff.

She assumed the position of court stenographer two years later after Judge Alexander Curran’s stenographer walked off the job.

“In those days, if you knew somebody who knew somebody, they would put you in the job,” Harmon said. “She walked off, and I got thrown into it.”

Although she had no formal training, Harmon said she took shorthand in high school.

She quickly transitioned into the position and continued to use shorthand until her retirement.

Harmon was the last stenographer at the courthouse to use shorthand. Court reporters these days typically use a stenotype machine and a voice recorder.

“When the stenotype first came on board, I thought those girls were faster than I was,” Harmon said.

“So I went to night school to learn. I found out it wasn’t faster.”

In nearly 50 years, Harmon said there was only one defendant, Roland Steele, convicted in the karate-style killings of three elderly East Washington women, who made her uncomfortable in the courtroom.

“He was so rough looking and scary,” she said.

Harmon also vividly remembers being present for Paul Gilly’s sentence. Gilly, Aubran “Buddy” Martin and Claude Vealey were charged in the murder of dissident United Mine Workers leader Joseph “Jock” Yablonski, his wife, Margaret, both 59, and their daughter, Charlotte, 20. Their bodies were found in their Clarksville home.

Gilly originally was sentenced to death. His sentence was later commuted to three life sentences.

“It’s very impressive to be in a courtroom and watch someone be sentenced to death,” Harmon said. “Your adrenaline runs high when you do an important case.”

She said not getting involved with a case was one of the hardest parts of her job.

“A lot of those cases, you want to come out and bawl your eyes out,” she said. “You have to steel yourself.”

Harmon spent most of her last 10 years on the job assigned to Judge John DiSalle. She thinks very highly of her former boss, noting that “he went to bat for me several times.”

“He always had my back,” she said.

DiSalle said Harmon was always “prompt, diligent and accurate.”

“We miss her,” he said. “She spent so much time as a fixture in my courtroom. We had a good rapport.”

Before retiring, Harmon was the second-longest-serving person working for the county. Clerk of Courts Barbara Gibbs is Washington County’s longest, continuously serving elected official. She is set to retire at the end of the year.

While she already misses the people and the job, Harmon said she has plenty to keep her busy. But she’ll never forget her time at the Washington County Courthouse.

“I’ve seen a great deal,” she said. “If I had the mentality, I’d probably write a book.”