It’s usually a sad occasion when a husband and wife stand before a judge in chancery court.
But Concetta Brooks’ family and friends were all smiles there Monday morning when she was sworn in as Jones County’s new chancery clerk.
Judge Frank McKenzie administered the oath of office as her husband Russell held the Bible for her.
“This is the first time in the history of Jones County that we’ve had a female chancery clerk,” McKenzie noted before she took the oath.
Afterward, Brooks said she hadn’t thought about being the first woman to serve in the county’s highest-paying position.
“That puts a little more pressure on me,” she said with a smile, “but that’s OK, I work well under pressure.”
Brooks takes over for Larry “Coach” Ishee, who announced in June that he was stepping down to help his wife tend to her elderly mother and his father.
“We appreciate his service,” McKenzie said, then looked at Ishee and said, “We’re going to miss you.”
As has become a tradition in Jones County, Ishee served as circuit clerk for two terms then moved down the hall after being elected chancery clerk. He was a little more than midway through his second term when he announced that he was resigning to help tend to his family. Brooks worked with him for the last five of his eight years in the circuit clerk’s office and was with him the whole time he served as chancery clerk. She wants to continue serving the way he did, she said.
“Honesty and hard work” is the advice Ishee offered, Brooks said. After she was sworn in, Brooks administered the oath of office to her deputy clerks — Jeanetta Brown, Brittany Welch, Britney Gleason, Noel Phillips, Deborah Jones, Angie Herrington, Jan Hughes, Carol Brownlee, Lucille Holifield, Debra Spalding, Debbie Knotts and Sheila Godard.
The Board of Supervisors unanimously accepted Ishee’s recommendation that Brooks be appointed to take his place. There will be a special election in November to finish the final year of his second term. Brooks has said she will run for the position then and two-term Circuit Clerk Bart Gavin has said he will, too.
The chancery clerk gets a base salary of $125,000 plus a percentage of fees collected that pushes the annual pay to well over $150,000. The chancery clerk maintains records for the Board of Supervisors and the chancery court, which has jurisdiction over divorces and custody disputes, as well as sanity hearings, wills and land matters.
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