Former court-at-law judge Gebhardt dies of cancer (mold)

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Former court-at-law Judge Gebhardt dies of cancer

Her time on the bench included an arrest and an illness that lasted

months.

By Carmina Danni

Express-News Staff writer

12-20-05

Shay Gebhardt who presided over Bexar County Court-at-law

No.3 for 12 years., died at home of cancer early Sunday. She was 58.

Her last years on the bench - she was defeated in 2002 - were marked

by an arrest for carrying a concealed weapon at San

International Airport and a severe illness she contracted from

exposure to mold.

Gebhardt was arrested in 1998 for carrying a handgun into a secure

area at the airport while seeing off a friend.

The .25 caliber Beretta semiautomatic pistol was in Gebhardt's purse.

A day after her arrest, Gebhardt said she " flat forgot the gun was

in my purse. I saw the look on the lady's face. I said, " Ma'am,

there is a gun in the purse. It belongs to me. "

Gebhardt said she obtained the weapon three weeks earlier because of

threats, but did not elaborate.

She was charged with a third-degree felony, but a Bexar County grand

jury decided not to indict her.

Gebhardt learned she was hypersensitive to mold when she became ill

in l996.

" The fatigue was overwhelming, " she told San Express-News

columist Yerkes in 2003. " I'd get off work, drive home and go

straight to bed every day. I was falling asleep talking to people.

On weekends, I would literally sleep around the clock. "

" By then, I had taken every antibiotic, every cough syrup and

prescription on the market. I began to have this overwhelming sense

that I was dying. "

A visit to an allergist revealed that she was severely ill wih

stachybotrus, a fungus that is found on saturated wood materials and

can lead to headaches and respiratory problems.

" After a year I was diagnosed and told that I had two weks to live. "

she said.

Her health returned only after months of living in a motel room

while her house was decontaminated and taking high doeses of

steroids.

Former County Court-at-law Judge Bill White, who attened St.'s

University School of Law at the same time as Gebhardt and later

worked with her, said she was " the hardest-working person I've ever

known. "

She also had the hardest luck of anyone I've ever known, " White said.

Carmen Rojo, a lawyer and part-time Municipal Court Judge, recalled

how Gebhardt concocted a special ceremony when she performed Rojo's

marriage ceremony.

" Shay did a ring ceremony with my daughter, whowas little, and my

present husband in which they did vows with him promising to make

her part of the family, " Rojo said. " It was a really special part of

the wedding. "

Gebhardt was a single mother and a Republican. She was working at

the law firm of & Gamble when she decided to run against

County Court-at-law Judge Ray Wietzel in l990.

Wietzel, a Democrat, had been on the bench for 15 years.

It was Gebhardt's first political campaign.

" I started out with nothing - nothing but determination, " she told

the now shuttered San Antinio Light in l993. " It's my dream come

true. "

In 2002 Democratic challenger J. defeated Gebhardt.

Born in Sequin on Jan. 12, 1947, she was a 1968 graduate of the

Texas Eastern School of Nursing in Tyler.

She received a degree in political science from the University of

Texas at Tyler in 1980, and four years later she got her

jurisprudence degree from St. 's.

Gebhardt is survived by her fiance', Dr.Hulan Yarbrough; daughter

Ann Gluckman; granddaughter Hallie Marie Gluckman, all of San

; and two brothers, of Garland and

ph of Taiwan.

Cremation is planned.

visitation will be from 5 to 9 p.m. today at Mission Park Funeral

Chapels North at 3401 Cherry Ridge Drive.

Service is slated for 11 a.m. Wednesday, also at the funeral home.

cdanni@...