Ask the movers and shakers of Sequoyah County about political influence, and they’ll point to the person who held sway during her 32 years serving the county — Helen Edwards.

“She’s been the face of this courthouse for a lot of years,” District 3 Commissioner Jim Rogers said Monday morning following the dedication of a bench in her honor at the gazebo on the east side of Sequoyah County Courthouse. “She probably weened a lot of us, taught a lot of us.

“Like I told them [at the dedication] this morning, when I decided to run for office, they told me the first person you need to see is her. If you can get her stamp of approval, then you move forward. If you don’t, then … “Bud Smithson, after I said that, he made the comment, ‘You know how true that is.’ He said, ‘I went to her, and I won the first couple of times. The last time, I didn’t go to her and I got beat’,” Rogers recalled during the county commissioners’ weekly meeting.

“She was a wonderful lady. She was a big influence here for our county. She was a lady really of few words. But when she spoke, you paid attention to what she said.”

Rogers said as many as 50 people were on hand for the dedication. “That’s kind of testimony to how she impacted people’s lives,” he said.

Edwards started working at the courthouse in September 1983, first as secretary for former Sheriff Sam Lockhart, then later as secretary for the District Attorney’s office under then-DA Gerald Hunter. She was also a reserve deputy for the sheriff ’s office, and served as commander of the sheriffs office reserves. In 2001, she was named Outstanding Secretary of the Year by the Oklahoma District Attorney’s Office.

She retired in June 2015, before passing in October 2018. Two county awards presented each year bear her name — Helen Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Domestic Violence Prevention, and Helen Edwards Award for the Co-Reserve Deputy of the Year.