BATAVIA TOWNSHIP, Ohio — In 2011, Linda Fraley told her husband she'd retire soon. The longtime Clermont County auditor wanted to spend more time with family.
Then, after grandparents’ day at school, her husband took their trash can to the end of the driveway. Jim Bushman was hit by a truck and died in their front yard.
“It was life-changing,” Fraley said. “Sometimes it seems like that was just yesterday — that he was here. And then sometimes it seems like, gosh, it's been a long time.”
I met Fraley at a park in Batavia Township, where we walked to a baseball field marked with the words, “A life well played.” On the other side of the sign is her husband’s name.
Fraley tells me his death is part of the reason why she's still the county's auditor, more than three decades after she started in 1995. Without her husband, she needed some sort of stability. She didn’t need more change.
But as Clermont County continued to grow, almost doubling in population, that’s what she got.
WATCH: The longtime auditor speaks with us about her retirement
When Fraley was a kid, her mom told her not to go to college. But she did anyway, cutting hair and running a salon to pay the bills while studying to become a certified public accountant.
"I never thought it'd be 30 years later and I'd still be here," Fraley said.
Now, she tells me she will retire at the end of her term and not seek reelection.
“She's been a constant for Clermont throughout all the growth,” said Karen Swartz, administrator for Batavia Township, who's known Fraley for decades. "Through these trying times, she's just been a great resource."
That's why this isn’t just a story about a public official's retirement. This is a story about how Clermont County has changed — from farmland to heated debates about new subdivisions.
In many ways, it's the auditor's job to document that.
“If our records are wrong — if we make a mistake — it could cause problems,” Fraley said. “If my office isn’t successful, it’s going to be hard for you to be successful.”
And in that office, where it was once someone's full-time job to check the fax machine, Fraley shows me the plaques she's received for winning reelection over the years. Then, she laughs.
"I guess they'll trash them when I leave," Fraley said.
Now 76, she tells me she hopes to spend more time with her grandkids.
Just like she told her husband she would more than a decade ago.
