How much legal knowledge can you pick up after five decades inside of a courthouse? Brenda Owenby could tell you.
In her 50-year career as a Cobb County court clerk, Owenby, 67, has mastered the complexities of the judicial system so well that Juvenile Court Judge Joanne Elsey called her "the best attorney in the courthouse." High praise for a woman who never went to law school, let alone college.
Owenby's many duties include swearing in witnesses, bringing the case file into court, filing the judge's orders, furnishing certified copies and being caretaker of the evidence. But many young lawyers also credit her with helping them learn the ropes.
"Brenda probably taught us as much about law as we learned in law school," said attorney Stephanie Glymph-Ramsey, who worked with Owenby as a law clerk in Superior Court Judge Watson L. White's courtroom from 1994 to 1995.
Owenby's parents raised four daughters on a small family farm in Acworth. Owenby went looking for a job in Marietta at the end of her senior year at North Cobb High School in 1959. She excelled in her shorthand-writing classes and wanted clerical work.
As fate or luck would have it, John LeCroy, the clerk of Superior Court at the time, had an opening. He hired the 17-year-old to start the Monday after graduation.
When Owenby hearkens back to the way things used to be in Cobb County, she said it's been "a world of difference in a short length of time."
"You can't image the amount of turnover of employees," she said.
The county's current population is close to 700,000 —- six times higher than it was in 1959. When Owenby started working in the courthouse, there was but one county commissioner, one Superior Court judge and one courtroom. Now there are four commissioners, 10 Superior Court judges and four senior judges.
Owenby has worked for four clerks of court in three different Superior Court buildings during her tenure. The historic Victorian courthouse on Marietta Square with its beautiful sweeping staircase was demolished in the 1960s. Two other buildings have housed the court since then, and a new one under construction is scheduled to open in 2011.
There were, of course, no computers in the early days. Clerks used typewriters to compose filings and pleadings for civil and criminal cases. Entries to the docket books were handwritten.
Part of her job initially involved processing bar exam applications for recent law school graduates and issuing licenses to those who passed. In that way Owenby came to know most of the attorneys who now practice law in Cobb.
"She made a personal telephone call to me to tell me I passed the bar," recalled Superior Court Judge Adele Grubbs, who was an aspiring attorney when Owenby delivered the news 40 years ago. "We've been close ever since."
Women in Cobb were not allowed to be deputy court clerks until the late 1970s, when Jack Graham changed the rule as newly elected clerk of Superior Court. Owenby became a deputy clerk for Superior Court Judge Watson L. White when he took the bench in 1979.
White and Owenby remained a team for 30 years.
He said she is "like a sister to him," having watched his children go from babies to adults during office visits and family outings. He prizes her even temper and only recalls seeing Owenby get angry once. A man who wanted to get a certified copy of his divorce grew impatient as he waited in the clerk's office. He badmouthed the judge loudly while talking on his cellphone, complaining about the inefficiency of the court.
"She made him come apologize to me before she would give him his divorce," White chuckled. "She's a very gentle soul, very soft-spoken, but she's not timid."
Owenby grew to love working in the courtroom and the wide variety of cases she gets involved in —- adoptions, custody disputes, lawsuits, criminal cases and divorces, to name a few.
"We see the worst of people at times and the best of people at times," she said.
It's not unusual for her to be within spitting distance of an accused rapist, burglar or child molester. She sees all the evidence from grisly murder trials. But then there are adoptions, which Owenby cherishes. Sometimes she gets to hold a child while their parents speak with the judge.
"That is special," Owenby said.
Owenby was unable to have children with Harold, her husband of 48 years. She has many four-legged children —- eight goats and two cows, to be precise —- on her 10-acre farm in Acworth. She is also a doting aunt for her seven nephews, two nieces, six great-nieces and great-nephew.
Owenby's husband retired from the U.S. Postal Service 12 years ago, but she isn't ready to relax. When the new Superior Court building opens in 2011, Owenby plans to be there.
Clerk of Superior Court Jay Stephenson hopes retirement is a long way off for his most experienced employee. After all, he needs her skilled hand at training new clerks.
"Everybody loves Miss Brenda," he said.
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