By Don Rider, Times-Union Assistant Editor
Thousands of people who have had their very personal problems ironed out in Kosciusko circuit court can relax when they read this bit of news.

Mrs. Gladys Nye will not write her memoirs for publication when she retires as court reporter at the end of this year.

"I would like to write a book," she confesses. "I've heard things in the last 14 years I didn't think were possible. But I just can't write," concedes the woman who has written enough words to fill dozens of books.

And there goes a best seller that will never be written.

A court reporter in is not a newspaper employee, but an omnipresent, inconspicuous and indispensable functionary of every major court.

Mum's the word
She hears everything, writes everything and tells nothing. In this case, Mrs. Nye won't tell after she has retired either.

Some 15 years ago when she was Gladys Ramsey and a deputy recorder under Chauncey Tucker, romance came into her life. It appeared on her desk in the form of candy boxes and it crept under the door in the form of notes.

The other part in this affair was George Nye, High school teacher and parttime assistant in the surveyor's office.

Miss Ramsey's desk in the recorder's office was next to an unused door connecting to the surveyor's office. As friendship blossomed into romance the number of messages passing under the portal began to rival the business handled by the postoffice.

Become Team
Moving upstairs to the court reporter's office ended the private mailing system, but not the friendship. In July, 1943, the two pooled their gas ration coupons and began filing joint income tax returns.

Nye who gave up teaching to become the county surveyor, will also retire at the end of this year and the couple plans to take a long winter vacation in Arizona. They'll summer at their Winona Lake home.

When Judge John A. Sloane gave her the reporter's job in 1942 Mrs. Nye ran to consult with Miss Harriett Frazer, the county's first reporter, who had retired many years before after serving 41 years.

Mrs. Nye came equipped for the work with knowledge of shorthand and experience as a legal secretary for Everett Rasor and Sloane before Sloane became judge, but she was still concerned about starting off right.

Handy Advice
From the sage Miss Frazer she got this advice, which she still practices: "When a lawyer makes a mistake in grammar always write it in correct English. When a witness does, write it the way he said it.

This reminded her that taking down what Chinese witnesses had to say proved easier than understanding some native Americans.

All the 14 years plus that Mrs. Nye has been reporting for Judges Sloane, Walter Brubaker and Seth Rowdabaugh she has done her work without the modern aids of a stenotype machine or recorder devices some reporters use.

Her stock in trade is a pen and a note pad. What she writes only she and Mr. Gregg can decipher, since it all comes out in shorthand.

Tireless Worker
All this pen pushing ought to give her cramps, but it doesn't, she says. "Oh, I get tired sometimes when dictation comes too fast for too long. Usually the judge calls a recess often enough that it doesn't bother me."

What gives her a case of nerves is anticipating a big case with a lot of technical testimony. That, and the couple of times that trial exhibits, for which she is responsible, turned out to be missing, temporarily.

Only three court reporters preceded Mrs. Nye in all the history of Kosciusko county. The first was Miss Frazer, the second Mrs. Nellie Tuckey and the third Miss Elva Easterly.

Warsaw Times-Union Friday, Nov. 30, 1956 page 1

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