Tyler Charles Lockett (December 7, 1932 – November 28, 2020) was an American judge, attorney, and jurist. He served as a Justice on the Kansas Supreme Court from 1983 to 2003.

Early life and education

Lockett was born in

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, to Tyler and Evelyn LeMond Lockett, and moved to Wichita, Kansas, at a young age. His father, Tyler "Ty" C. Lockett (1908–1960), was the Sheriff of Sedgwick County, Kansas, from 1951 to 1955. His brother Hal Lockett was a prominent Wichita attorney. He graduated from Wichita North High School in 1951. From there, he attended Washburn law school receiving an AB degree and an LLB. While at Washburn, Lockett was a member of the Kansas Beta Chapter of

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. As a Naval aviator, Lockett spent four years on active duty in the West Pacific. He continued to fly in the Naval Reserve in the late 1960s. In 1967, he was reported to be serving as a co-pilot on a Navy Neptune patrol plane stationed at the Naval Air Station in Olathe, Kansas.

Legal career

After being admitted to the bar in 1962, Lockett practiced law with the firm of Ratner, Maddox, and Ratner. From 1964 to 1966, he served as a Deputy County Attorney for Sedgwick County, Kansas. He engaged in private practice until Governor

Robert Docking Robert Blackwell Docking (October 9, 1925October 8, 1983) was an American politician who served as the 38th governor of Kansas from 1967 until 1975. Early life Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Docking attended public school in Lawrence, K ...

appointed him as a common pleas judge in 1971. In 1977, he was elected as a judge of the Sedgwick County District Court. In 1983, Governor

John W. Carlin John William Carlin (born August 3, 1940) is an American educator and politician who served as the 40th governor of Kansas from 1979 to 1987, and the archivist of the United States from May 30, 1995, to February 15, 2005. He teaches at Kansas ...

, a fellow

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, appointed him to the Kansas Supreme Court. Lockett served on the high court until his retirement in 2003. He continued to hear cases in retirement through 2007.

Personal life and death

Lockett married Sue Warburton in 1961. She was the executive director of the Court Appointed Special Advocate in Shawnee County, Kansas, for more than a decade.See story at http://cjonline.com/stories/073102/com_casa.shtml and they had two sons. He died from COVID-19 in Topeka, Kansas, on November 28, 2020, at age 87.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lockett, Tyler C. 1932 births 2020 deaths Justices of the Kansas Supreme Court Kansas state court judges People from Corpus Christi, Texas Washburn University alumni Kansas Democrats Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Kansas