By Linda Cicoira — District 7 Supervisor Laura Belle Gordy has been a devoted member of the Accomack Board of Supervisors since she was first elected in 1988. She is now serving her seventh four-year term and announced this week that at the end of 2019 it will be time to sit back and enjoy her great-grandchildren. She is not seeking re-election.
“I’ve been on there a long time,” Gordy said. “I have really given it my all. It’s time for me to stay home.”
Often the voice that let other board members know it was time to move on to the next subject, Gordy has not been timid with her views. She served as chairwoman five times and she was on the hospital board when plans were finalized to build the new facility in Accomack County.
“We did get the Folly Creek boat ramp in our budget this year,” Gordy said of recent endeavors for her district. “I’ve been trying to get that for years and years,” she said of the needed improvements.
Gordy was first elected in 1988 and served two terms. After being defeated by 17 votes in 1995, she came back in 2000 and has continued to serve on the board ever since.
She was there when land for a recreational park at the former Jones lumber yard near Accomac was obtained, the Wallops Research Park was established, convenience centers were erected, new schools were constructed, the Eastern Shore Area Agency on Aging purchased its own building, and when the county and Onancock first made an agreement regarding water and sewage.
“There have been a lot of changes,” the supervisor said. She also was around when the board hired its first full-time county attorney.
Gordy has served on the Accomack-Northampton Planning District Commission, the Accomack Social Services Board, the Eastern Shore Area Agency on Aging Community Action Board, Eastern Shore of Virginia Tourism Commission for which she was chairwoman for five years, the Solid Waste Management Committee, the Accomack Parks and Recreation Commission, the Eastern Shore Public Library Board of Trustees, the Accomack County Agriculture and Forestal Committee, the Eastern Shore Community College Board, and the Eastern Shore Health Advisory Board.
She was chairwoman of the hospital charity ball for two years and a member of the Executive Finance and Long-Range Planning Committee as chairwoman of Public Relations for Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees. Gordy volunteered as manager of the hospital’s gift shop for more than 15 years and was hospital auxiliary president.
She has served on committees of the Virginia Association of Counties and was appointed by the governor to serve on the Delmarva Advisory Council, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (six years), and the Chesapeake Bay Governor’s Board. She also was appointed a secretary of the Commonwealth Advisory Board and Regional Economic Development Advisory Council.
She was president of the Woman’s Club of Accomack County and has been a member of Temperanceville Chapter 88 Order of the Eastern Star (past worthy matron), Onancock Emblem Club 195, Friends of the Onancock School, Exmore Moose, Delmarva Firemen’s Ladies’ Auxiliary (past president), Virginia Federation of Business Professional Women’s Club (past president), and the Virginia Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Board of Trustees (president).