Longtime Orange County Clerk of Courts Lydia Gardner has died.
According a source with the Clerk of Courts, Gardner died Wednesday night at Winter Park Hospital. She was 68.
Gardner had battled breast cancer for years, the source said.
Gardner was first elected to the Clerk's Office in 2000. She was sworn in for her fourth term as Clerk of Courts in January.
According to the Florida Constitution, Governor Rick Scott will appoint someone to that office who will serve until Tuesday November 12, 2013.
"When not otherwise provided for in this constitution, the governor shall fill by appointment any vacancy in state or county office for the remainder of the term of an appointive office, and for the remainder of the term of an elective office if less than twenty-eight months, otherwise until the first Tuesday after the first Monday following the next general election."
Armando R. Ramirez, the Osceola County Clerk of Courts, released a statement on the death of Gardner.
"My heart goes out to the family of Lydia Gardner, the late Clerk of Courts of Orange County. We will miss her greatly. Ms. Gardner’s family will find solace in these profound words: God “will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” Revelations 21:4
This is a developing story. Check back and refresh this article for the latest updates.
———————————————
Lydia Gardner bio from the Orange County Clerk of Courts website:
"Lydia Gardner has led tremendous change in the Clerk’s Office since her election in 2000. With an emphasis on providing exemplary Customer Service, she has developed a strategic plan for the Clerk’s operations, overseen revolutionary technology changes, and worked within the statutory requirements to operate the Clerk’s Office with no tax dollars. Many customer service features have been realized, most notably that over one million customers have the ability to pay their traffic tickets online at myorangeclerk.com. The Clerk’s website receives almost 240 million hits per year.
Gardner has used her office to advocate for the mentally ill, receiving the Central Florida Mental Health Association's Golden Bell Award. She played a key role in establishing the Domestic Violence Commission in Orange County, served on the Jail Oversight Committee, the Juvenile Justice Commission, as well as the Board of Directors for the Central Receiving Center. She has been appointed by the Florida Supreme Court to a number of special committees, most recently one to study privacy and court records. She also serves on the Board of the Orlando Science Center and the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce as a past chairman in 2003. Lydia was named chairman of a statewide committee that will create a Florida portal for Electronic Case Filing. ECF allows attorneys and pro-se litigants to electronically initiate cases and subsequent pleadings 24/7. In 2010, the Speaker of the House appointed Lydia to the Florida Clerks of Court Operations Corporation.
Gardner is a graduate of University of Michigan, holds certificates in the management program at the Crummer Graduate School of Business, Rollins College, and the executive leadership program at John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. She has taken graduate level courses at a number of universities. Previously she was a teacher, a member and chairman of the School Board of Orange County, a real estate broker, and an executive with a Fortune 100 telecommunications company."