Denese Turner
Most of America’s Notaries work in offices, often carrying out their duties for their employers. But how many perform thousands of notarizations a year? NNA Hotline Consultant Denese Turner has. In fact, she reached an impressive milestone in January, breaking the 70,000-notarization mark.
“To be exact, it was 70,019 — I counted through my journals to make sure,” said Turner, a veteran Hotline Consultant who has been notarizing since 2005.
It took her a while, though — as a California Notary, Turner is required by law to keep every journal she completes, and over the past 14 years she’s collected 144. Of course, she always follows her state’s requirement to keep her Notary journals stored securely — in her case, it’s a locked metal shed on her property.
Turner puts her longtime experience and knowledge of Notary rules and procedures to good use every day, answering questions from Notaries across the nation on a wide variety of subjects — some simple, others bizarre.
“The strangest question I was ever asked was ‘Can I notarize a dead person’s signature?’” she said. Needless to say the answer was a definite, “No.”
Between answering notarization questions on the phone and by email, Turner regularly notarizes signatures on surety bond documents at the NNA’s Chatsworth, California, office, which make up the bulk of her notarizations. To reach her milestone, Turner averaged about 5,000 notarizations a year, or nearly 100 a week. She also performs notarizations outside of work, including visits to a local assisted living facility to help elderly residents with any Notary services they might need.
Denese has completed 144 journals.
While she never charges a fee for Notary services, Turner says she often has to refuse offers of tips, food and flowers from friendly signers at the facility. “One lady even tried to slip a $20 bill in my pocket!” she said. Always a strict adherent to California’s fee schedule, Turner politely declined with thanks.
While storing her massive collection of journals can be challenging, Turner says she loves being a Notary.
“It makes me feel good to help people — it gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling!” she said.
And the NNA is grateful to have a Notary with her experience available to help our members when they turn to the Hotline Team for assistance.
David Thun is an Associate Editor at the National Notary Association.