Boley’s service recognized by state Senate
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PARKERSBURG - The long-time senator representing Pleasants and Wood counties was honored by her colleagues in the upper chamber.
Sen. Donna Boley, R-Pleasants, has been in the Senate since 1985 and is the longest continually serving senator in the state's history.
A resolution in her honor, Senate Resolution 2, was introduced on Thursday and was sponsored by all Senators. Senators also held a luncheon for her.
"Thank you very much," Boley told the assembly.
The resolution starts when Boley was born in Bens Run. She graduated from Sistersville High School and in 1956 married the late Jack E. Boley, who died in 2017.
Boley was on the Pleasants County Republican Executive Committee for many years and served as its chairman. The late Gov. Arch A. Moore Jr. appointed Boley to the Senate in 1985.
She has since won re-election to the office nine times and became the longest continuously serving senator in state history in 2018. Boley also was minority leader from 1991-1996 and president pro tem since 2015.
The resolution also cites her service as a West Virginia delegate to the Republican National Convention four times, as the president of the Pleasants County PTAs and a member of the St. Mary's Women's Clinic, Lions International and Toastmasters Club, among others. She received the Distinguished West Virginian Award in 1970.
"I am so honored and privileged that I have had the opportunity to serve with Sen. Boley, but only for a few years. Some of you have known her for way longer," Sen. Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, said. "I can tell you that she has been a mentor. She has been a leader. She has been a trailblazer. More importantly, she has been a friend. She is someone that I know I can go to and I will always get advice and support."
Boley is respected by all the Senate, Rucker said.
Sen. Bob Plymale, D-Wayne, who was elected eight times during Boley's tenure, said Boley is "an institution of the institution."
"I will make a statement here that I don't think that we need to make very often, but sometimes people serve here and they hold a position and they are in an institution that we revere," Plymale said. "And some people come here and they become an institution of the institution. So to me, she has done that."
Sen. Mike Azinger, R-Wood, who is in the same senatorial District 3 as Boley, said she is recognized everywhere they go together.
"And they turn to me and say, who are you?" Azinger said.
Boley before the Republican Party because the majority party of the Senate and the House of Delegates was among the few Republicans in the Legislature. She was one of two in the Senate 30 years ago.
"Bob (Plymale) and I go back a long time and I remember when he was education chair, but I've enjoyed working with each and every one of you," she said. "And it was a lonely time there for a while."