Courthouse dedication ceremony in honor of Judge Ola Lewis to be held next week

A ceremony celebrating the renaming of the Brunswick County Courthouse in honor of Judge Ola M. Lewis will be held next week.

BOLIVIA, NC (WWAY) — A ceremony celebrating the renaming of the Brunswick County Courthouse in honor of Judge Ola M. Lewis will be held next week.

The ceremony begins at 11 am on Friday, February 18 inside Courtroom No. 1 at the Brunswick County Courthouse in Bolivia. The public is welcome to attend and RSVPs are not necessary.

North Carolina Chief Justice Paul Newby, Judge Fred Gore, and Senator Bill Rabon will give remarks at the ceremony and Attorney R. Gene Davis, Jr. will serve as the master of ceremonies.

Chief Resident Superior Court Judge Jason Disbrow, the Honorable Pauline Hankins, and music from the South Brunswick High School jazz ensemble will also be featured during the program, among many others.

In a 4 to 1 vote, the Brunswick County Commissioners voted to rename the courthouse in honor of the late Judge Ola Lewis in November 2020.

The Commissioners also approved the installation of a plaque in the Courthouse rotunda for Judge Lewis in May 2020, as well as a new sign out in front of the building, which will be officially unveiled at the close of the ceremony by Judge Lewis’ mother, Doris Parker Lewis, husband, Reginald Ronald Holley, and her friend, Sheriff John Ingram.

Judge Lewis served Brunswick County for more than 20 years, the youngest appointed judge in state history and the longest-serving female judge in North Carolina.

She lost her battle to cancer in December 2019. Hundreds of people paid their respects to Judge Lewis after she was chosen to lie in repose in the rotunda of the courthouse the week after she died.