BARBARA BOLT,
a friend of the Greenville Bar for 86 years

As remembered by Frank Eppes

Barbara Bolt, believed to be the longest serving Legal Assistant/Paralegal ever to be a part of the Greenville Bar passed away peacefully on August 30 at the age of 86. In addition to being a devout Episcopalian and the youngest 1st Chair Violinist in the Greenville Symphony, Ms. Bolt’s career in the Greenville legal community spanned close to 80 years of the Greenville Bar’s History. She began working for her father, Ben Bolt when she was between 4 – 6 years old. Ben Bolt was one of the principal defense lawyers

In what is likely Greenville’s most famous trial, the lynching of Willie Earle. Mrs. Bolt really had no memory of not helping in her father’s office. Thereafter, she always worked as a legal assistant. After she got married, she did take time with her children, but she did occasional work for lawyers, including one memorable week when she helped Bill Bannister get the entire appellate record together right before the filing deadline that would have extinguished the appeal. Bill won.

After her kids got bigger, she worked almost continuously for law firms until her health would no longer allow. She went from the era of blue backed complaints and typing with carbon paper, through dicta-phones and whiteout up to our current computer age all without missing a beat. She knew how to find lawyers and judges in an emergency long before the cell phone.

The constants in her career were a smile, a willingness to help everyone (including many of the young lawyers coming up through the bar), an encyclopedic knowledge of legal procedure and proper filing of documents, and a cigarette. The following is an incomplete list of the attorneys she worked for and includes a list of lawyers she befriended, helped, mentored or baby sat because of firm or office sharing relationships. I would add that there are likely dozens of names missing from this list.

Ben Bolt
C.E. Smith
Will Dunn
Jerry Taylor
Tim Sullivan
Ben McClain
Jim Johnson
David Clark
Chip Price
Ronnie Clement
Pat Paschal
Frank Eppes
Lee Plumblee
Steve Sumner
Cameron “Bozzie” Boggs
Beattie Ashmore
Symmes Culbertson
Leigh Paoletti
JJ Andrighetti
Powers Price
James H. Price IV
Judge Frank Eppes
Chris Posey
Bill Bannister
Judge Ned Miller

It is difficult to imagine someone in today’s world working with so many different lawyers at so many different firms.

Her friendship, loyalty, and beautiful laugh will live with those who knew her until the end of our days.