Tribute To Haseltine Shockey

Thank you to the family for allowing me a moment here to express my thoughts on Haseltine Shockey.

I first met Haseltine Shockey many years ago. I was a first term supervisor and represented a one member minority at the time and looked pretty pitiful losing 8 to 1 on a weekly basis.

She gave me sympathy and made a serious effort to help me get past my doubts. She smiled and laughed with me.

Most people in life and in Loudoun would just drive on by my crumpled political spectacle. Haseltine Shockey had a dream and it was the same dream that we all share.

A Loudoun where Tradition, Family and Property are embraced and protected out in the open and just because things are not that way does not mean they can not ever be that way.

She gave me an electrical jolt and strong encouragement and mostly she had faith in me and a sense of timing about her judgment. And she decided to join what was a lonely and clearly losing battle.

Haseltine Shockey rolled up her sleeves and decided to fight for her beliefs.

Haseltine Shockey and her late Husband Joseph brought their first 100 acres in 1945 and had a dream for their family and to improve all of our lives.

PTA's, Fire and Rescue for Arcola, and massive fundraising for this Pleasant Valley United Methodist Church. She gave and gave.

NO ONE would blame her if she sat out another political or civic struggle. There are plenty of them every day. There will be another struggle tomorrow.

She did not sit it out. We needed an anchor or foundation and she knew she was the only person to be that moral figure that was above reproach.

She kindly spoke and lent her wonderful spirit to preserving Loudoun's future. Single-handed she rode forth and plainly expressed her family's hope and dreams held since 1945 in this county.

Haseltine Shockey took a stand and did it for her family, for tradition and for property.

Not just once but many many times she rode forth and brought together the Shockey family in a just cause.

For many years, she spoke many times before the Board of Supervisors and the Planning Commission expressing the concerns of farmers and their families who believed some of the policies and practices of various governing bodies were unfair and unjust.

As a result she took a stand for all of our traditions, all of our families and all of our property.

She gave frequent thanks to God and she gave mothers and children everywhere someone to lock arms with. She inspired us all.

She won that battle and she won it with the support of Loudoun's citizens behind her.

Thousands joined Haseltine Shockey and the Shockey family under her leadership and put me in the majority and put Loudoun on the way to prosperity and world leadership.

It was not the White House, CNN, Congress, or the United Nations that saved Loudoun. It was Haseltine Shockey.

She enjoyed that victory at the ballot box, in the courts and then turned around and started donating to Loudoun Hospital as her next cause.

It was just another of her urgent causes that she dived into.

She embraced that urgent project as passionately as she embraced the previous victory and the many causes she helped. Her name and her husbands name will forever remind Loudoun of their team work and Haseltine's philantrophy.

Now thousands will be saved by doctors and nurses working at the Joseph A.W. Shockey INOVA Medical Hospital and the Haseltine C. Shockey INOVA Medical Campus.

She put her stamp on a movement.

To the family, we were all blessed by your mother.