GOODE — Gov. Bob McDonnell reminded Bedford County business leaders Wednesday night that Del. Lacey Putney capped his 52 years of General Assembly service by guiding the governor’s state budget through the Great Recession and coming out with surpluses each of the past four years.
Putney returned the favor, telling the audience of 150 that McDonnell’s character is beyond question, despite a scandal the past year involving a businessman’s gifts and loans totaling about $160,000 to the first family.
Putney said it was “abundantly clear that this man had integrity that was unquestionable, and no laws had been broken. I’m convinced of that, and we have been with you, governor.”
The exchange of tributes came as the Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce joined Bedford’s county and town officials in celebrating a House of Delegates career that began in 1961 with Putney’s upset win over an established incumbent.
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That victory launched him into “the wonderful world of politics,” Putney said.
“What are we going to do without you?” a woman in the audience asked near the end of the event held at the Trivium conference center.
Putney answered by quoting President Harry Truman, “who said, ‘a statesman is a politician who has been dead at least 50 years.’”
The 85-year-old lawmaker kept the audience chucking by quoting, nearly verbatim, speeches delivered on the House of Delegates floor by other lawmakers over the years.
In one of them, a delegate from Roanoke “who knew all the 16-inch words in the dictionary” was described as being “grossly inebriated by his own verbosity.”
Putney described himself as “a redneck river rat from Big Island” who grew up in a railroad family of five brothers, four of whom earned at least two college degrees.
He ventured into his usually little-discussed background of playing baseball to earn tuition assistance at Washington & Lee University.
McDonnell described Putney as “the consummate Virginia gentleman” and a “source of sage advice and institutional experience.”
Sen. Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg, speaking for the region’s younger legislators, praised Putney for mentoring them in the General Assembly.
“You have carried us,” Newman said.
Betty Lou Layne, Putney’s secretary for 54 years, called him a “true public servant” who sometimes gave free legal work, or went into his own pocket, to help people who couldn’t help themselves.
Putney said he didn’t think he deserved the accolades, and any other legislator who might have served the 19th House District would have done much the same things he has done.
But he quoted Winston Churchill who, in a similar situation said, “‘If you shall have no misgivings, neither shall I.’”
“Thank from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to come here to downtown Goode. We do appreciate it,” Putney told the crowd, which gave him a 45-second ovation.