Cher, Madonna … and Margaret.

Margaret Woodbury leaves behind a legacy so impressive that she will be known by her first name alone, Napa County Executive Officer Nancy Watt joked Tuesday.

After 20 years as chief deputy counsel with the Napa County Counsel’s Office, Woodbury spent her last full day in the office last week, and will officially retire on New Year’s Eve.

“I know good lawyers when I see them. You’re an excellent lawyer,” Napa County Health and Human Services Director Randy Snowden told Woodbury Tuesday, after the Board of Supervisors presented her with a proclamation thanking her for her work.

 Woodbury started with the county in 1988 after being recruited from Tulare County, where she served as chief deputy counsel.

During her career in Napa County, she worked on the Winery Definition Ordinance — the law setting out what activities and land uses are appropriate at county wineries — and defended the growth-control ordinance Measure J when it was challenged in court. She helped with capital projects related to the flood project, and developed a format for contracts in the county.

“Margaret has been the person everyone goes to when there is a question no one else knows how to answer,” Supervisor Brad Wagenknecht said Tuesday, reading from the proclamation.

She is “the county’s contract guru,” he said. “Her signature appears in just about every contract ever made and every record ever recorded. Margaret knows everything about everything, from the first file ever made to the last one. She knows each and every county department, its employees and predecessors by name and date of hire.”

Woodbury’s “meticulous attention to detail and compact penmanship has kept the manufacturers of Sticky Notes and colored assignment progress sheets in business for two decades,” Wagenknecht declared.

Napa County Counsel Robert Westmeyer teased Woodbury, “Today I feel almost like a widower, because it’s like being married to two women for 20 years.”

“It’s been a long time, it’s been a lot of fun, we’ve had a lot of arguments, … (and) we never got divorced,” Westmeyer said.

Woodbury told her colleagues that she has “appreciated the challenges, and there have been a lot.”

In an interview, Woodbury said the highlight of her job has been to contribute to the changes in her own backyard. Specifically, she said, “seeing the never-ending changes in downtown is fascinating — frustrating sometimes, but fascinating.”

Now, she hopes to stay involved in town as a volunteer, primarily with the Napa County Parks and Open Space District, which is supervised by her brother, John Woodbury.

“In retirement, I expect I’ll be more involved as a citizen and on the political side,” Woodbury said.

She’ll keep her law license active, though, because you never know when someone might have a question that only Woodbury can answer.