ROCKINGHAM — A former superior court judge’s legacy will now be memorialized with a portrait at the Richmond County Judicial Center.
The portrait of Tanya Wallace was unveiled during a special session of court early Wednesday afternoon in front of a standing-room-only crowd of family, friends, law enforcement and current and former court officials.
A former prosecutor, Wallace was the first female elected as a judge in the district during the Reagan administration in the ‘80s. Her tenure on the bench also included serving as superior court judge and senior resident superior court judge, retiring in the summer of 2019.
Her replacements in both positions were also women: District Court Judge Amy Wilson and Superior Court Judge Dawn Layton. Her daughter, Chevonne Wallace, is also a district court judge.
“She is still the only judge I’ve ever that went into labor while on the bench,” Chevonne Wallace joked, referring to the birth of her brother.
“The truth is that we are incredibly lucky to have her — and I don’t just say that because she’s my mama,” Chevonne Wallace continued.
Both Chevonne and Tanya Wallace mentioned the after-hours judicial duties of answering phone calls and signing search warrants during the holidays or while getting her hair tinted.
“She put the office of district court judge and superior court judge above everything — except us and God,” Chevonne Wallace said. “She taught myself, my brother, and so many other people what true duty was: when you …take that oath of office, it is not a 9 to 5 job. It’s a job you take home with you every single day.”
Tanya Wallace mentioned some of the darker aspects that came with the job, including bomb threats, an actual pipe bomb attached to a gas line of the old courthouse — and voo doo hexes of dead chickens on the courthouse lawn and roots on the bench.
During her time as a judge, Tanya Wallace presided over an estimated tens of thousands of child support cases, thousands of custody cases and “maybe” hundreds of thousands of criminal and traffic cases.
The former judge also served on the three-judge panel of Innocence Inquiry Commission that exonerated Greg Taylor in 2010 of a murder conviction for which he had been incarcerated for nearly 17 years.
“And that completely changed the way we try … cases now,” Chevonne Wallace said. “We have an independent crime lab … the whole reason we have that is because of the information that came out in the Greg Taylor case.”
Tanya Wallace was also an early advocate for making family court cases a priority in the system, according to Chevonne Wallace.
The portrait was painted by Linda Weaver of Winston-Salem — who lives less than two miles from where Tanya Wallace grew up.
“One day, this picture is going to be the only thing in this courthouse … that we have of her,” Chevonne Wallace said. “But so many people have been affected by her policy changes and things she did just by showing up.
“I’m so proud of everything that you have done. I will never ever be able to live up to anything that she has accomplished — and that is perfectly OK with me.”
