Bettie Runnels ( fl. 1897) was

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

's first female lawyer. She was born in Texas and moved to Louisiana in childhood. Her grandfather,

Hiram Runnels Hiram George Runnels (December 15, 1796 — December 17, 1857) was a U.S. politician from the states of Mississippi and Texas. He was a Democrat who served as the ninth governor of Mississippi from November 20, 1833, to December 3, 1835. B ...

, was the former governor of Mississippi. Runnels' first exposure to the legal field was working as a stenographer for the law firm Dinkelspiel & Hart. When the state law was revised in 1894 to allow women to study law, medicine and pharmacy, Runnels enrolled as the first female student in the law department of

Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...

in 1897 and graduated a year later. In the same year, Runnels became the first female registered to practice law in Louisiana.

References

Year of birth missing Year of death missing Louisiana lawyers 19th-century American women lawyers Tulane University Law School alumni 19th-century American lawyers {{US-law-bio-stub

See also

References