Beloved SC circuit Judge Tanya Gee dies after long battle with cancer
Tanya Gee, an S.C. circuit judge beloved by many in the state’s legal community because of her natural, gracious nature and high intellect, has died after a long battle with cancer. She was 39.
Born in Michigan, Gee leaves two school-age children, Will and Sabin, and her husband, Chris Koon. He announced the death Wednesday in a message to a large community of friends and family supporting the family throughout her illness.
Gee graduated from Winthrop University and got a law degree from the University of South Carolina Law School.
State Supreme Court Associate Justice Kaye Hearn on Wednesday described Gee as “a superstar” both in the law and in her relations with others.
“She had such an incredible spirit, and she was so kind as well as being very capable,” Hearn said.
In the early 2000s, Gee worked for Hearn, who was then on the S.C. Court of Appeals, starting out as a law clerk and eventually working her way up to that court’s chief staff attorney and ultimately the clerk of that court. Among her strengths were the clarity of her writing and her quick grasp of the law’s complexities, Hearn said.
“She could read a case and know instinctively how the law would require the case to come out,” Hearn said. “Yet she always made time for others. Before she had children, she would go to one of the elementary schools and read with a child in the morning. And she was a big team player – she wanted what was best for the entire court.”
Former longtime Columbia mayor Bob Coble, a member of Nexsen Pruet law firm where Gee practiced law before becoming a judge, said, “Tanya was the most delightful, wonderful person I have ever had the privilege of knowing, and one of the strongest fighters against cancer I’ve ever seen.”
The S.C. General Assembly elected her a judge on her first try in January 2015. It normally takes a candidate for a judgeship several elections to gather enough votes to win. The victory didn’t surprise friends.
“The second she started working with us, we knew she was special,” said longtime Nexsen Pruet lawyer Vickie Eslinger. “She was one of those rare people that made you a better person for knowing her and working with her – hardworking, brilliant, funny.”
During her years at Nexsen Pruet, Gee represented some high profile clients – former S.C. Sen. Paul Thurmond and the late S.C. Sen. Clementa Pinckney – in cases involving their candidate eligibility, and won, according to biographical material Gee furnished the Judicial Merit Selection Commission when she ran for judge.
The commission noted that her years working for the S.C. Supreme Court and the S.C. Court of Appeals had given her “impressive credentials in the area of appellate law.”
In her application before the commission, Gee acknowledged she was battling cancer. “Undoubtedly, battling sarcoma and losing my right hip has changed my perspective on life.”
But, she went on, although cancer gave her a “more refined sense of what is important and what is not,” her greatest life teachers were her parents, who though starting out in life poor and uneducated worked their way through adversity. Her father eventually got a college associate degree, with Gee’s help typing his papers. He taught her “the importance of education, work ethic and perseverance.”
Her mother was a native of Germany who met her father there when he was in the Army. Of her, Gee wrote, “My mom is brilliant and nurturing. The young woman who barely spoke English soon became fluent. ... Her bookshelves are stuffed three books deep, and most of her books are falling apart at the seams. I loved nothing more than snuggling into her side as she read to me ... .”
Her life has given her insights that would help her as a judge, Gee wrote. “When litigants come before me, I believe I will be able to appreciate the circumstances of their lives.”
One of last trials, in Columbia in July, involved a notorious convicted child molester who was trying to win the right to get out of prison.
Among attorneys, “her reputation was that she was extremely bright and very fair and was liked by every lawyer I know,” said Jack Swerling, for 40 years a defense attorney who put her on legal panels for new lawyers. “She was an outstanding speaker.”
Outside court, she displayed a mischievous sense of humor.
“She is a Clemson Tiger fan by marriage,” she wrote in her official court biographical sketch.
As her disease progressed, she and her husband kept friends and family up to date with her changing status.
Her last post – to “Dear friends” – was made Sunday morning and announced that doctors had told her the cancer was progressing and she had not much time left. It said in part:
“We all die, right? And we all know we’re going to die someday. That’s part of living. Perhaps it’s because of this that I feel strangely calm about knowing that it will be cancer that kills me. ...
“I am damn proud of the life I lived, the children I have, the husband I married, and the circle of friends I leave behind. I hate that I’m leaving the party early, but am awed by being on the brink of taking the next step which we all should be looking forward to. ...”
“I don’t like conceding I have lost the fight because I don’t feel like a loser right now. I feel like I have one last battle in front of me, and that is to die well. That’s a battle I pledge to win.”
State Supreme Court Chief Justice Costa Pleicones said he had appointed Gee to sit on some S.C. Court of Appeals cases because she was familiar with that court’s practices and she had “an incredible work ethic.” But Gee died before she could hear any cases, he said.
“She was one of the best and brightest,” Pleicones said, adding that had she lived, her career would have gone upward, perhaps “ultimately to the Supreme Court.”
Services are scheduled for Oct. 5 at Brookland Baptist Church in West Columbia.
This story was originally published September 28, 2016 at 11:35 AM with the headline "Beloved SC circuit Judge Tanya Gee dies after long battle with cancer."