Cover designed by Dave Heneise © 2005. Women shown on cover from top to bottom and left to right: M. Pearl McCall, Edith Miller Klein, Kate Nevile Feltham, Karen Orndorff Vehlow, Margaret Beall Connell, Zoe Ann Warberg Shaub, Maxine Whitney, Darla Sanders Williamson, and Linda Jean Cook. By Debora K. Kristensen 2005 Acknowledgements Gathering the personal and professional biographies of Idaho‘s first 50 women admitted to the Bar has been a passion of mine for the past year which would not have been possible without the unselfish help and cooperation of many people. Although I am sure to miss someone (and for that I apologize in advance), I would like to thank and acknowledge the following people and organizations that have helped make this ―First 50‖ project a reality: Justice Robert E. Bakes, Jeanne Barker, Michele Bartlett, Cameron Burke, Carl Burke, University of Idaho College of Law Dean Don Burnett, Laura Burri, Joan Cartan-Hansen, Liz Clark, Paula Coburn, Donna Dimino, Allyn Dingel, Stephanie Ebright, Ellen Scott Elliott, Dick Fields, Leslie Goddard, Michael Greenlee, John Hasko, Dave Heneise, Susan Heneise, Kendra Hooper, Idaho Women Lawyers, Inc., Justice Byron Johnson, Jacquelyn Jurkins, Rinda Just, Judge Karen L. Lansing, Monique Lillard, Fred Lyon, Emily Mac Master, Phyllis Martin, Kelly Greene McConnell, Jack Miller, Diane Minnich, Deb Nelson, Kaye O‘Riordan, E. W. Pike, Dan Popkey, John Rosholt, Rita Ryan, Angela Sasser, Rhea Schroeder, John M. Sharp, Judge Randy Smith, Annette Strauser, Roger Swanstrom, Glenda Talbutt, Patti Tobias, Justice Linda Copple Trout, Susan Troyano, Nicol Tyler, Dana Weatherby, Hon. B. Lynn Winmill, Melissa Wintrow, the staff at the Elmore County Historical Society, the Idaho State Historical Museum, the Utah State Historical Society, the historical archives and special collections division of George Washington University, Grinnell College, the University of Utah, the University of Washington and Washington College of Law, the reference librarians at the Boise Public Library, Caldwell Public Library, the Ingham County (Michigan) Genealogical Society, the Mary Baker Eddy Library, Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Library, New York Public Library, the Washington State Archives, Pierce County (Washington) Public Library and Okanogan County (Washington) Auditor and County Clerk, the National Archives and Record Administration in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., and, finally, to the each of the ―First 50‖ honorees and their family members who have unselfishly shared their stories of adversity, hope and inspiration for future generations of Idahoans. Deb Kristensen Boise, Idaho February 2005 Disclaimer Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information provided in this collection of ―life stories‖ of Idaho‘s first 50 women admitted to the Bar. Much of the information has come from the honorees themselves, or their family members, while other information has been gathered by researching historical archives and materials. All information that has been collected is accurately reproduced herein, but the ultimate accuracy of such information cannot be fully confirmed (since many of the honorees are deceased). Introduction In the early 1900s, Bertha Stull Green (No. 2), a young mother and lawyer in Mountain Home, searched for childcare at a time when women rarely worked outside the home, let alone in the courtroom. Fifty years later, Mary Smith Oldham (No. 10), a new mother and lawyer in Rexburg, set up a bassinet in her office in an effort to balance work and motherhood, while Alberta Morton Phillips (No. 14) juggled clients around a long lunch break (her six children had differing lunch hours) and paid three childcare providers in order to maintain her practice in Pocatello. Other women, such as Adelyne Martha Burrus Champers (No. 9), gave up successful law practices while their children were young and in school, before returning to practice after the children were raised. Their stories are unique and similar at the same time – all were dedicated mothers and lawyers at a time when being both was neither common nor easy. Today, women make up approximately 23% of the membership of the Idaho Bar and 12% of its judiciary. But, despite significant progress, women attorneys face many of the same challenges as the earliest women practitioners. The quest to balance personal and professional responsibilities has long been pursued by women (and men) lawyers. In 1890, Lelia Robinson, one of the earliest women to practice in the United States, noted that even with the struggle for society to accept women in the legal profession ―[t]he great problem is that of the married woman‖ given the demands of raising children, nurturing a home and being a good partner. Mary A. Greene, a Boston lawyer in the late 1800s, was even more direct: ―Nothing would please me better than to devote myself to the practice just as a man does. But I cannot for two reasons. First, the want of physical strength, second, household duties which cannot be delegated to anyone else.‖ To that end, a study of the earliest women lawyers – their struggles and their successes – is instructive for today‘s practitioners. In July 2002, I was elected as a Commissioner of the Idaho State Bar. Given the notoriety of some contemporary women lawyers in Idaho, including Justice Linda Copple Trout, Justice Cathy Silak, Judge Karen Lansing, and former Idaho United States Attorney Betty Richardson (to name a few), I was surprised to learn that I was only the third woman in the history of the Idaho State Bar to be elected to the Commission (Kaye O‘Riordan was first, Jean Uranga second). I realized that I knew relatively little about the ―early‖ women lawyers in Idaho and the role women have played in the Idaho Bar. This ignorance was understandable, I soon learned, because no one had ever gathered information about who the earliest women lawyers in Idaho were, let alone what they did in their professional and personal lives. Out of this ignorance was born The First 50 Women in Idaho Law project (―First 50 Women‖), an idea inspired by a similar project undertaken by the Utah State Bar to honor the first 100 women admitted in Utah. Little did I know, however, how this idea would grow to become a passion of mine for a year. Initially, my goal was to identify the first 100 women of the Idaho bar. With the gracious help of former Idaho Supreme Court Justice Byron Johnson and the Idaho State Bar‘s Executive Director, Diane Minnich, over the course of three weeks of looking through the original rolls of attorneys in the vault of the Idaho Supreme Court, the records of the Idaho State Bar and those at the Idaho State Historical Society, I learned that 50 women were admitted between 1895 and 1975. The fact that it took 80 years to have 50 women admitted in Idaho was astounding and compelled me to pursue this project with more vigor. But, fearing that I was headed to hosting an event to honor my ―contemporaries‖ along with the ―pioneering‖ women of the Idaho bar, I decided to limit the endeavor to the First 50 women admitted in Idaho (actually 53 since five women were admitted on the same day in September 1975). My next task was more daunting. I decided to collect the personal and professional biographies of each woman, together with a picture, to chronicle their lives and accomplishments. At the time, the only information I had for most of these women was their name (often a maiden name), a date of admission and place where they lived when they were admitted. Some of the First 50 women‘s names were well known (e.g., Edith Miller Klein (No. 17)), but most were obscure. Thus began a yearlong odyssey of research and interviews. Thankfully, my efforts (and the efforts of numerous volunteers) paid off and I was able to contact most of the First 50 Women and/or their family members to bring you this collection of their life stories. Finding these women, their families and their life stories was inspiring, but an exercise in patience and persistence. And, surprisingly, an opportunity to reach out and receive help from many unexpected sources. Somehow, the search for information about the earliest women lawyers in Idaho was a topic that resonated. For example, during my research on Bertha Rado Muckey (No. 8), I was unable to find out much of anything other than her admission date and the fact that she had moved to Wyoming. On a chance, I e-mailed a website that listed Wyoming cemeteries for help in locating Muckey and explained my efforts on the First 50 Women project. To my surprise, Phyllis Martin, an amateur family historian from Scottsbluff, Nebraska, e-mailed me, offering her help. Phyllis spent part of her summer vacation last year doing just that, traveling to Wyoming to research the Muckey family. While there, Phyllis was able to locate Muckey‘s obituary, land and business records, and much of her family‘s history, including the fact that her father had operated cheese factories for almost 42 years (including one outside of Twin Falls). Phyllis did not stop there, however, she also located a woman who had lived next door to the Muckey‘s in the 1940s and interviewed her for a first-hand account of Muckey and her life. After collecting all of this information, Phyllis summarized her findings in an e- mail to me. Phyllis, like many of those listed in the acknowledgments, was not paid, but helped with this project because of a curiosity to uncover a piece of Idaho history and sympathy and respect for these pioneering women. In this book you will find stories of triumph over great odds.