Linda James worked as secretary at same law firm since high
school graduation
Gilroy – Linda James was 18 when she first walked into the building that once housed Byers & Jacobs law firm.
The local had just graduated from Gilroy High School and needed a job.
“I had heard they needed a secretary and I was naive enough to apply for the job and they hired me because they were desperate,” James said.
And 45 years,
two babies, two grandchildren and the painful death of her husband later,
James is finally calling it quits. Ken McDonald, the lawyer responsible for the firms’ name change to Jacobs & McDonald, held a retirement party for the business’ most tenured employee last week.
James never set out bent on surpassing any type of employment record. And she never expected to remain in the same post high school job that she applied to on a whim.
Actually, her first day on the job, the other office secretary invited the teenage James to lunch. Over their meals, she told the young woman not to worry if it doesn’t work out.
But she stayed, because, as James put it “it just worked out.” A year after high school graduation the now 63-year-old married her high school sweetheart.
The couple had two children, Leighan and Brian, who both live in Gilroy. The mother of two knew there were higher paying jobs in San Jose and was even offered one but she never realistically considered moving.
During her tenure James became an expert in probate law and evolved with the times, moving easily from typewriter to computer, notebooks to Excel spreadsheets.
She liked living and working in Gilroy where she was close to her children, didn’t have to deal with an annoying commute and could attend all her kids’ extracurricular activities. And since it was trendy to be a stay-at-home mom and all of the women in her neighborhood wore that label, James never felt like she was a working mom, even though that was exactly what she was.
But at the firm, her kids could drop by and hang out if necessary and she could run home for a second to grab a sandwich. That’s exactly what happened when the original law firm on First and Princevalle streets, burned to the ground in 1997.
James was in the office completely alone since McDonald had just left town for a vacation that never was. She considered skipping lunch to get some work done but changed her mind.
James returned to a building consumed by flames. Thousands of wills and other files had turned into ash.
When McDonald saw the damage he told his wife, “I don’t know if I’ll be able to start over.” But they did. The landlord of a real estate office on Monterey Street volunteered to house the displaced firm and McDonald and Linda set up camp.
But they had no phone system or furniture and few files.
“So, Linda was absolutely invaluable,” McDonald said. “Whatever had to be done (she did). Linda was just an enormous help. I could not have gotten through this without her.”
That’s the attitude that kept James at the same business all these years. Of course, it wasn’t a Pollyanna environment day in and out, she said. There were times when co-workers, bosses and employees grated on one another’s nerves but they worked through the snags.
No time was that more apparent than three years ago when her husband of 42 years was diagnosed with cancer. When she told her boss that Dick was ill he said without pause “‘You do whatever you need to do.'”
While James tended to her husband, McDonald often had to fend for himself. And a year ago when he died, she continued to receive a bevy of support.
Unlike many retirees with grand plans of trips and cruises, James doesn’t have any particular goals. Basically, she wants to be free from the constraints of a schedule, free to make hair appointments and to hang out with her children and two grandchildren. And the third child her daughter and husband are expecting this summer.
Also, James is set on returning to the golf course and walking, two pastimes she shelved during her husbands’ illness.
