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September 12, 2025 • 14 mins
Jefferson County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw passed suddenly this week, leaving a grieving husband and sons. Her husband Edward and son Brad Holsclaw dropped by WHAS Radio to share stories about their beloved mom.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Euro News Radio eight forty wha, as we lost a
great leader here locally this week. Just to just one
of the kindest people ever knew, and she visited my
radio show a few times over the years, and some
of her family members are in here right now. Bobby Holeschool,
Jeff's county clerk, passed a couple of days ago. Brad,

(00:26):
you're at the microphone over here. I want to say
hello to you and send condolences from all of us here.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, thank you, Terry. I just wanted to thank you
for everything you've done in regards to the friendship that
she had with you.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Your mom's sat in that same seat. I wanted you
to be in the same seat where your mom's been before.
She's also at our old studio back on Newburgh Road,
off Newburgh Road.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, no, I appreciate that. It means a lot because
she's with me every day, every minute of the day.
It's spend so hard to be honest with you, to
not know if she's here. But but we have to
move on and we have to keep her in our
prayers and and what you had The one thing I
thought of you was when you had posted once my

(01:11):
mom's announcement of her passing that you put such a
nice tribute it out and you put her your link
to her last interview with you online, and it really
moved us because, let me tell you something, she thought
you were the best.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
I loved hearing her voice again. Yeah, and she and
I would text every now and then.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
That's what exactly what she said.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
She said she was always so polite with her text,
just like her her personality. Absolutely, and so you know,
I'm just I'm feeling pain for you guys, and.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Well, we we just it's you know, it's going to
be a tough couple next seven to ten days for
our family, and so but we thought it would be
nice to be able to come back because you were
such a a huge part of her life, especially in
the public service area, and we thought it would be

(02:05):
kind of nice to maybe just take a few minutes
to talk about her and maybe some things that a lot
of people don't know about my mom.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Outside the clerk's office. She had a brilliant sense of humor.
I sent her the video that little parody of the
woman every clerk's office in the South, where this woman
says uh huh, and I sent it to your mom,
and she just waked send saying you in a while,
of course they could do. Don't even worry about filling

(02:31):
all this now, I don't even know why they put
that stuff on there. Don't even worry about filling all
this stuff. And it's like the local clerk that's so
friendly with everybody. It's like, oh, you don't have to
fill that out, that's all. It's all well and good.
And then your mom wrote back how much she enjoyed that.
It's just funny. She had a good sense of humor,

(02:52):
she really did. You told me a couple of things
before we got on the air that I was totally unaware.
So I'll let you tell more of your mom's story.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Well, first of all, my dad's here and he's got
probably all the stories of sixty two years. They were
just celebrated their sixty second wedding anniversary a couple of
weeks ago.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
You've always been so quiet in the past. I wasn't
sure you were ready to speak on here, but I'm
glad to hear that.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
Never had to do the talking. Yeah, really talking people.
So I let him tell you. Maybe my job is
always you know the old movie driving Miss Daisy, it's
a sweet lady though, Yeah, very much. She was always
so polite, the most polite guest ever was Yeah, indeed.

(03:36):
And well, I'm just I'm so sorry for the whole family.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
All you got. I appreciate that you almost sixty two
years together, sixty two years.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
We were last two weeks ago.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Brad and I was just discussing a few minutes ago.
I didn't know this. Bobby was a model as one to.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
Model back when we you know, the early years of
we getting married. She was with the I think it
was the Aleas Adams. Yeah, that's around anymore. But she
bottled clothes for manufacturers and they would come in there
for these big shows at fair grounds and stuff like that,
and she would they they did send her out there
and she did those measured clothes and all sorts of them,

(04:14):
you know, like you said, a few of them.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
And then what would the pictures show up, like in
the store or the well, they would be well, a
lot of poster newspaper in the newspaper, Yeah, a lot
of my I've still got copies of newspapers that they had. Actually,
one time there was a page of all these clothes
and different outfits and she was in every one of them,
and I have that picture that hop somewhere. So were

(04:37):
you bragging to your buddies, I'm dating a model, I'm
engaged to a model.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
I was dating, I wasn't dating.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
I was married to. Oh you're already she was already
your wife, right, Well that was interesting. Yeah, so, uh,
you know, but then did that bring in big money
back in the day.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
I don't think there's a big money, you know, but
it was. It was always extra, you.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
Know, yeah, and prestige that goes along with it.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
We work, you know. We used to sit on the
bed and count out our bills and then we'd see
what was left over. She'd liked to play bingo, and
we did we have enough to go to the local
high school? Trinity was in Saint Matthew's, so they always
had a bingo, said do we have enough for her
to go play bingo? So then would there be enough sometimes?
And all other times she because Brad's got to eat

(05:21):
and so yeah. So that was actually before Brad, that
was before children. That was before children, so and then
things changed. Uh, but she's she's probably one of the
best cooks around. If I could say that, and I'll
tell you a quick story. You don't, we'll go go on.
I don't want to tie it up. But when we
first got married, we had a little apartment up on

(05:42):
furnished apartment up off Brownsboro Road, down down towards where
her past steakhouse is, and uh I got I came
home from work and she was home. She she worked
at a little laundry in Saint Matthew's and uh I
went in and I can smelling some and I said,
what are you doing? She said, I'm cooking you dinner.

(06:04):
Now this is early on in our wedding. I'm married,
she said. I said, great, you know. So we sat
down to the table and she had fried chicken and
when I bit into it, the blood came out of it.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
Oh my god.

Speaker 4 (06:17):
And she started crying like crazy because Newly went, that's
a story that I held on her all the time,
you know, because now I mean she's she said, absolute great.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
Everybody says about her cook it so well. If there's
a learning, there's a jumping off point everywhere. I guess
if I could share that, that was that's amazing. Tell
me about when she transitioned to becoming a public servant.
What what happened. What was the transition where it's like,
I think I'll try to.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
Run this story behind. It was I was coaching football
for one of the local Catholic schools here, you know,
and I had to you know, practices with the kids.
And one night, one kid parents were picking them up,
and they came up and they asked me if I
would be interested with Bobby and I would be interested

(07:09):
in going to wood Having Country Club, for they have
a dinner and music and all that kind of stuff
on Saturday night. So I asked Bobby, she said fine,
and we went okay. Then the next week they asked
us again and they brought another couple, and the other couple,
the lady was have retired, but she was one of
the former US senators from our state secretary and she

(07:33):
they had asked her to that woman to be the
run the campaign office for Louis Nunn when he was
running against John Y Brown. And so they said we
should ask her because our kids are all at school
at that point.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
In nineteen seventy nine. That sounded about right earlier than that.
And then she said yeah, so she did. For you know,
it's just a receptionist say and then that grew because
she's she's like a magnet anyway, people come to her,
and she ended up doing uh through that campaign that lost, Okay,

(08:14):
but they came in next and asked her she would
be involved in the Reagan campaign and uh, so she
did that. And then at that before the Reagan campaign though,
the the guy that was the charge of their thing
was a lawyer out of Elizabethtown for none. Uh, he

(08:36):
asked her to he asked her to work in the U.
S Attorney's office. He was the US attorney he was appointed. Okay,
So how did she get to the point where she
running for office?

Speaker 3 (08:46):
Well, she kept going and kept going and then uh
but she she ran, you know, she ran for a
state house position. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
But I think what it all ties back to. My
mom was a stay at home mom, raising four boys
all the way through we got through high school and
then the college and things like that. But her, as
my dad said, she during that time of that, she
got involved with some volunteer work with the Governor's rais
and turning into potential Reagan's Kentucky office where she worked

(09:20):
out of Louisville. So I think she got a little
bit of a bug. But people don't realize. My mom's
father was a state representative here in Louisville in the
Saint Matthew's areas for several years, several terms as a Democrat,
and my mom was raised as a Democrat, And I
think the Reagan time kind of turned her to more
thinking more on the fiscal conservative side of things. But

(09:41):
she never really got heavily involved in politics in the
weeds of it. She just liked the idea of the
public service of it and getting involved there. So she
went to She So her first real after that was
she got involved. A lot of people know. She was
in the US Attorney's office here in Louisville and worked

(10:03):
a division of some of the white, white white I
call her crime. And she met some people there that said, Bobby,
maybe it's a You seemed that you've got a knack
for people, and people really like you and you you're
you're a quick study. And so she decided that she'd
run for a state Senate race against uh a guy
who was in office named Tim Shaughnessy.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
Oh for years and she raised in my high school class. Yeah,
so she.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
Ran against him, and we we she gave it her effort.
I mean, she worked hard. She didn't win, but it
was close. But after that she decided UH to go
to Washington and she worked four years in the US
Senate as a staffer for under the leadership of Bob Dole.
And at that time I had gone to Washington, probably
four years before that, in a position in the Senate

(10:52):
as well. So she kind of came up and teamed
up with me for a few years. And then she said,
we're having grandkids. I'm moving back to there you go,
So so she moved back and then they said that
they U. She said, what I'm gonna do, and Rebecca
Jackson h hired her as one of her managers and
she spent about four years there. And when jack Rebecca

(11:14):
Jackson decided to UH to run for county judge, my
mom says, I'm thinking I'm going to run for county clerk.
And we came with really, she said, what I got
to lose, Rebecca's leaving as a manager. I'm probably getting
like going anyway. Also, me and Rebecca can help us
with a cru safer show. When you guys are funding
father and son, you're finishing each other's sentences. That's where

(11:35):
that goes that's familytally.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
So she ran and against bb Meltin if you remember
that name, and she won fifty one forty nine and
ever since then she's held that office.

Speaker 1 (11:46):
Yeah, it was a long, great run. Her employees lover, Yeah,
you know, the county Clerk's office.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
And they give you one quote though, the night we
were sitting at the golf house, you know, because that's
where all the party was and everything to people. And
when it came on TV it said she won. She
looked at me and she says, now, what would we do?

Speaker 1 (12:07):
I can see that. Well, I'm so glad you guys
gave us a few minutes to talk about Bobby.

Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, the outpouring as an example what you did, and
all the folks with us community leaders. I mean, we
were down this morning with Reverend Elliott and Reverend McIntyre.
They wanted to have a little prayer service and acknowledge
her her work even in the West End and what
she did down there, and the new office space down

(12:34):
there and all the new hires.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
That's an efficient office. I've used that one before.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
Yeah, and so, and in fact, they were hoping that
my mom's replacement is a family member.

Speaker 1 (12:46):
So they that's up to the mayor, isn't it. That's correct. Yeah, yeah,
so the mayor could install you.

Speaker 2 (12:55):
As a bridge, as a bridge, a bridge to get
to the next November, November twenty sixth, correct, Yeah, it
would be about a fourteenth month.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
I got you. Okay, Well, best of luck working that
out with the administration. I'm so glad you guys are
here to share some of your mom's stories. She's enigmatic
in a way in that some folks she just quietly
ran in a fishing office.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
She never really sought to really promote herself in the
way she she got elected. And she one thing was that,
you know she for twenty six years, she always says,
I'm going down to the to the office. I'm going
to the clerk's office. She never called it hers because
she knew that it could have been one term. It
could have been terms, but she would never take that.

(13:40):
She was always the people, always just the epitome of humility,
always right. So, but we love her and we're going
to miss her, but she's not miss.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
Her leave us. And I appreciate you guys dropping in
today here. Thank you remembering Bobby Holesquaw, Jeffson County clerk
for the longest time here in a quiet little supporter
of the city and a staff that absolutely loves her.
All right, guys, thank you. Hearts go out to you
back in a minute on news radio eight forty WHS
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