Cathy Lee Wade’s years as a librarian speak volumes about her interest.

Oak Harbor’s librarian for 22 years, Wade helped to raise the library from a basement that was once its home into a building shared with the city and Skagit Valley College.

With her 90th birthday approaching, Wade’s children are throwing her a party. It will be held at the library she helped expand.

During the 20 years Wade worked as librarian, the facility went from books and a card catalog to microfilm and, ultimately, to everything being online, said current managing librarian Mary Campbell.

“It’s just continued to grow and change.”

Wade was hired as head librarian in 1974, after the death of her husband and father of her three children.

“It think it helped her make her way for herself after my dad died,” said Wade’s daughter, Patti Wade. “And to connect with the community and have something independent that she could do that was different than just raising the children.”

Cathy didn’t start out as the head librarian and didn’t have a degree in library science, she said. In fact, she held several jobs outside of the field before joining the library.

That’s where she found the job that fit.

“I’ve always been a reader,” she said.

Cathy Wade said narrowing down the best part about the job is difficult, but it was “the people that came in and also the books and seeing the new books that came out, and just the people that I worked with.

“It’s a wonderful job,” Wade said.

Patti Wade said that growing up with a librarian for a mom meant that there were “tons of books.”

“We read all the time,” Patti Wade said. “We’re all very comfortable with the library, and my brother and I are teachers. My sister majored in English just like I did.

“It was really cool to be able to stay after school and walk to the library,” Patti added. “It’s a great place. All of us love it.”

For Patti, one good part about her mother working in the library was being around to hear her and the other librarians “hush people and go back to their booth and talk really loudly.

“It was a perfect job for raising kids on her own and teaching us to be independent because she worked nights all the time,” Patti Wade said. “She just loved the community and the library, and we love Oak Harbor.”

After her retirement in 1996, Wade joined the Friends of the Library, which she’s still a member of, though she doesn’t attend events as often since she can no longer drive.

“Young readers should visit the library often and find things to read,” Wade said. “They have programs for children at the library and also for adults.”

Campbell said that a part of Wade’s legacy is ensuring that children are able to have early literacy programs, such as Story time.

Having her birthday party at the library is something that’s not usually done, according to Campbell. The party will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 29, in the library’s meeting room.

“We normally would not use our meeting room for a birthday,” Campbell said, “but because Cathy was such an important part of our library’s history, we made an exception.”

“She loves the library, and she was there for a long time,” Patti Wade said.

“I just thought it was the perfect place.”