Judge Tanya Gee remembered for her ‘bottomless well of love’

What was it about Tanya Gee that made her so special to so many people?

She claimed many superlatives, said her husband, Chris Koon, speaking at a memorial service Wednesday for the much-beloved S.C. circuit judge.

There was her unmatched intellect – “No one lost more arguments in front of Judge Gee than me,” her husband joked.

Her natural grace and elegance, the kind of beauty that was effortless.

Her devilish wit and humor.

Her sense of justice and fairness and her wisdom.

But none of those was what made Gee most special, her husband said.

“Tanya was special, I believe, for a much more simple reason,” he said. “It’s love. Tanya had a bottomless well of love inside of her. ... She loved you. She saw light and goodness in you. She saw your potential.”

Gee’s was a love that drew hundreds to her memorial at Brookland Baptist Church, among them lawyers, judges, legislators and countless who knew her and cherished her personally and professionally.

Gee died one week ago, Sept. 28, at the age of 39 after a lengthy battle with cancer.

“Tanya had an iron will. I never knew anyone with such a clear sense of right and wrong,” Koon again. “She believed in accountability. She believed in consequence. And she could be tough. She could be very tough – just ask cancer.”

The woman who loved her family, the court and playing board games with her children, Will and Sabin, was remembered for the many ways she shared her love and encouraged others to do the same.

Eulogizing her dear friend and one-time “right hand,” S.C. Supreme Court Justice Kaye Hearn spoke of a note Gee kept on her desk written by a young girl. As a young lawyer in her 20s, Gee used to stop at an elementary school on her way to work to read with the girl, Hearn said.

The note she kept read, “Ms. Tanya, you is good to me.”

“She drew us into her world and made us all better,” Hearn said. “We were all smarter, wittier, happier and more committed to our goals when she was in our midst. She brought out the best in everyone who was lucky enough to be around her.”

Goodness radiated from Gee, who as a lawyer and judge fought for mothers, fathers and children, Hearn said. Gee’s recent appointment to the S.C. Court of Appeals – where she never sat before her death – was the realization of a long-held dream, and she had called her friend Hearn “busting at the seams” with happiness.

But while Gee was a “superstar” in the justice profession, she made time for the things more important than work.

Gee hoped her life would be judged by her friendship, Hearn said.

And as her hundreds of friends filed from the church, a song Gee loved by Danny Schmidt played over them:

“When I die, let them judge me by my company of friends.

Let them know me as the footprints that I left upon the sand.

Let them laugh for all the laughter.

Let them cry for laughter’s end.

But when I die, let them judge me by my company of friends.”

This story was originally published October 5, 2016 at 7:16 PM with the headline "Judge Tanya Gee remembered for her ‘bottomless well of love’."