This is a list of the first women lawyer(s) and judge(s) in

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

. It includes the year in which the women were admitted to practice law (in parentheses). Also included are women who achieved other distinctions such becoming the first in their state to graduate from law school or become a political figure.

Firsts in Missouri's history

Law School

* First female law graduate:

Phoebe Couzins Phoebe Wilson Couzins (September 8, 1842 – December 6, 1913) was one of the first female lawyers in the United States. She was the second woman to serve as a licensed attorney in Missouri and the third or fourth to be a licensed attorney in t ...

in 1871

Lawyers

*First female: Lemma Barkeloo (1870) * First female (practice law in the first congressional district of Maryland): Lois Buhl (1904) *First African American female: Dorothy L. Freeman (1942) *First (African American) female (U.S. Commission on Civil Rights):

Frankie Muse Freeman Marie Frankie Muse Freeman (née Muse; November 24, 1916 – January 12, 2018) was an American civil rights attorney, and the first woman to be appointed to the United States Commission on Civil Rights (1964–79), a federal fact-finding body t ...

(1937) in 1964 *First African American female to practice before the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

: Leona P. Thurman (1949)

State judges

*First female (non-attorney judge): Frances Hopkins in 1915 *First female elected: Margaret Young (1931) in 1954 *First female appointed: Marybelle Mueller (1950) in 1955 *First female (under the Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan): Anna Forder (1974) in 1979 *First female elected (circuit court): Ellen Roper (1973) in 1982 * First African American female: Evelyn Marie Baker in 1983 * First female (

Supreme Court of Missouri The Supreme Court of Missouri is the highest court in the state of Missouri. It was established in 1820 and is located at 207 West High Street in Jefferson City, Missouri. Missouri voters have approved changes in the state's constitution to give ...

Ann K. Covington Ann K. Covington (born March 5, 1942) is a former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri. She was the first woman to hold that position. Covington served on the Supreme Court from 1989 to 2001; in 2001 she joined the large St. Louis, Miss ...

(1977) in 1988 * First Hispanic American female (circuit court): Justine Del Muro in 1993 * First female (

; Chief Justice):

(1977) from 1993-1995 * First African American female (

Missouri Court of Appeals The Missouri Court of Appeals is the intermediate appellate court for the state of Missouri. The court handles most of the appeals from the Missouri Circuit Courts. The court is divided into three geographic districts: Eastern (based in St. ...

): Lisa White Hardwick (1985) in 2001 * First Asian American (female): Judy Preddy Draper in 2004 *First African American female (Chief Judge;

): Nannette Baker in 2008 * First African-American female (Presiding Judge; Twenty-Second Judicial Circuit):

Robin Ransom Robin Ransom (formerly Robin Ransom Vannoy; born July 21, 1967) is an American lawyer who serves as a judge of the Supreme Court of Missouri. She was appointed to the court in 2021 by Governor Mike Parson, and is the first African-American woman ...

in 2018 * First African-American female (

in 2021

Federal judges

*First African American female (U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri; Chief Justice):

Carol E. Jackson Carol E. Jackson (born 1952) is a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. Education and career Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Jackson received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wel ...

(1976) in 1992 and 2002 respectively

Assistant Attorney General

* First female: Margaret Young (1931)

Public Defender

* First female: Terry Daley Schwartze in 1980

County Prosecutor

* First female: Mayce Jones Maness (1929) in 1942

Missouri Bar Association The Missouri Bar is the official bar association for all Missouri lawyers and judges. Every licensed Missouri lawyer is automatically a member of The Missouri Bar. Every applicant for admission to the bar must meet a list of requirements set by ...

* First female president: Doreen Dodson *First African American female president: Dana Tippin Cutler

Firsts in local history

Hilda Neihardt Hilda Neihardt (1916–2004) was one of her father John G. Neihardt's "comrades in adventure," and at the age of 15 accompanied him as "official observer" to meetings with Black Elk, the Lakota holy man whose life stories were the basis for her f ...

(1963): First female lawyer to practice law in central Missouri * Mary Tiera Farrow (c. 1924): First female lawyer in Kansas City, Missouri Jackson County, Clay County, Missouri">Clay County Clay County is the name of 18 counties in the United States. Most are named for Henry Clay, U.S. Senator and statesman: * Clay County, Alabama * Clay County, Arkansas (named for John Clayton, and originally named Clayton County) * Clay County, Flor ...