Friday, May 9, 2003
In re: Retirement of Sara Gainey

Leon County

This event honors the retirement this summer of Supreme Court calendar clerk Sara Gainey, who has worked for the Court since Oct. 1, 1956.
Gainey, 70, has served under nearly 45 percent of the 81 Justices who have sat on the Court since statehood in 1845 and under nearly half of the 50 Chief Justices. When she first came to work, Tallahassee still used 5-digit dialing for its telephone system, the clerk's office reproduced everything with manual typewriters and hand-cranked Mimeograph machines, and the Supreme Court was the only appellate tribunal for the entire state.

Former Justices and court staff will join with their current counterparts at a reception following the ceremonial session. Expenses for the reception are being paid by many of the attorneys who worked closely with Gainey through the years as she scheduled their appearances and made sure they were ready when the Court summoned them to hear arguments.

"She not only has made sure the attorneys were in place at the right time," said Chief Justice Harry Lee Anstead, "but she also has acted as adviser to the novice attorney, as counselor to those whose personal lives were troubled, and even as nurse to the occasional lawyer who fainted or grew ill at the court. She has always done this with a grace and a charm that we can simply never replace."

A native of Cairo, Georgia, Gainey moved to Tallahassee in 1953 to work for the state comptroller. In 1956, then-Clerk of Court Guyte P. McCord brought her to the Supreme Court after a 30 minute talk without so much as asking for a resume. She became calendar clerk in 1973, a position that at the time meant she also was the main court contact for the media. In 1978, the Tallahassee Capital Press Club and Tallahassee Democrat jointly awarded her the John P. Kilgore Headliners award for her work with them.