Barbara Murden Henley is a politician, farmer and author who serves as a member of the Virginia Beach City Council in Virginia Beach, Va.
Henley has served on the City Council during nine terms over the past 42 years. She served as vice mayor of the city from 1982 to 1984. Henley represents the Princess Anne District, which includes Courthouse, Sandbridge and rural communities in the southern city.
Henley is a partner in Henley Farms, LP, a family farm with locations of Charity Neck Road and Pleasant Ridge Road in the Pungo area.
She is a former city school teacher and the president of the Princess Anne County/Virginia Beach Historical Society.
Henley wrote and edited contributions to Glimpses of Down-County History: Southern Princess Anne County published in 2013 by Echo Images in Virginia Beach, Va.
Henley is the co-author with Susan Flanagan of a history of Charity United Methodist Church in Pungo.
Political & Government Career
Henley is known for fighting sprawl as an advocate of the city’s Green Line and as a proponent of agriculture, maintaining open space and limiting development in the rural southern city.
Henley was a chief architect of the Virginia Beach Agricultural Reserve Program, a program that began in the 1990s to purchase development rights to preserve farmland. It was the first program of its kind in Virginia. As of 2020, it had enrolled about 10,000 acres.
In 2012, Henley and her family enrolled their farm in the Agricultural Reserve Program she had championed. She told The Virginian-Pilot she had avoided participating in the program until then because she realized there would be scrutiny.
At least two other public officials had enrolled property in the program at the time.
Elections
In May 1978, Henley won 62 percent of the vote to defeat incumbent Floyd Waterfield Jr. and challenger John D. Holland in the old Pungo Borough.Waterfield, who had represented the Pungo Borough since 1970, earned nearly 32 percent of the vote.
In May 1982, Henley won reelection against challenger Larry Joyner.
In May 1986, Henley won reelection. She was unopposed for the first and only time in her political career.
In May 1990, Henley lost to challenger Paul Lanteigne, a future Virginia Beach sheriff who earned 51.5 percent of the vote during this election.
In May 1994, Henley returned to the City Council in the final election in the old Pungo Borough. She defeated Oscar Northen Jr. by earning 60 percent of the vote.
In May 1998, Henley defeated Tim Jackson, earning 61 percent to Jackson’s 39 percent. This was the first election in the Princess Anne District.
In May 2002, businessperson Jim Reeve defeated Henley by 500 votes, or 50 percent to 49 percent.
In May 2006, Henley defeated Reeve to return to office in the Princess Anne District. This time, Henley earned 64 percent of the vote to nearly 36 percent for Reeve.
In November 2010, Henley defeated challenger Tanya Bullock. With the district election shifting to November from May, turnout rose to 42.1 percent from nearly 17 percent in the 2006 citywide elections.
In November 2014, Henley defeated challenger Pieri Burton with nearly 76 percent of the vote for Henley compared to 23 percent for Burton.
In November 2018, Henley defeated challengers Tim Worst, Karen Beardslee Kwasny and Burton to win reelection. Burton, who had challenged Henley in 2014, dropped out of the race, but his name appeared on the 2018 ballot because it had been printed. A fifth candidate, David Fowler, initially filed paperwork to run but dropped out of the race before ballots were printed.
Sources:
- Applegate, Aaron, The Virginian-Pilot, “Virginia Beach official may join land program” [March 4, 2012]
- City of Virginia Beach website, “Barbara Henley” [Accessed Aug. 30, 2020]
- Doucette, John-Henry, The Princess Anne Independent News, “Citing unfinished business, Henley seeks reelection in Princess Anne District in Virginia Beach” [Feb. 15, 2018]
- Doucette, John-Henry, The Princess Anne Independent News, “Princess Anne seat on the Virginia Beach City Council draws crowded field of candidates” [April 26, 2018]
- Virginia Beach Department of Voter Registration and Elections
- Virginia Public Access Project
- The Virginian-Pilot, “Councilwoman needs to wait on program” [June 26, 2012]