Bettie Runnels

Bettie Runnels (October 29, 1871 – January 7, 1943) was an American attorney who was Louisiana's first female lawyer.^[1][2][3]

She was born in Houston, Texas and moved to Louisiana in childhood. Her grandfather, Hiram Runnels, was the former governor of Mississippi.^[4]

Runnels' first exposure to the legal field was working as a stenographer for the law firm Dinkelspiel & Hart.^[4] 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 in 1897 and graduated a year later.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10]} In the same year, Runnels became the first female registered to practice law in Louisiana.^[11]

She moved to Illinois, where she worked as a stenographer and court reporter for several decades. She did in 1943 in Maywood, Illinois.^[12]

See also

• List of first women lawyers and judges in Louisiana

References

1. Weatherford, Doris (2012-01-20). Women in American Politics: History and Milestones. SAGE. ISBN 9781608710072.
2. Norgren, Jill (May 2016). Rebels at the Bar: The Fascinating, Forgotten Stories of America's First Women Lawyers. NYU Press. ISBN 9781479835522.
3. "First 100 Women Lawyers in the Greater New Orleans Area | New Orleans Bar Association". www.neworleansbar.org. Retrieved 2019-08-24.
4. "Miss Bettie Runnels". The Daily Picayune. November 10, 1897.
5. "Bettie Runnels law school 1897". Newspapers.com. 8 December 1897. Retrieved 2019-08-24.
6. "Bettie Runnels. Tulane Graduation 2". Newspapers.com. 24 May 1898. Retrieved 2019-08-24.
7. Albany Law Journal. Weed, Parsons & Company. 1900.
8. Norton, Francis. "LibGuides: A Brief History of the Requirements to Join the Louisiana Bar: 1894". lasc.libguides.com. Retrieved 2019-08-24.
9. Medina, Maria Isabel (2016-05-18). Loyola University New Orleans College of Law: A History. LSU Press. ISBN 9780807163207.
10. Friedman, Joel William (2009). Champion of Civil Rights: Judge John Minor Wisdom. LSU Press. ISBN 9780807133842.
11. Lindig, Carmen (1986). The Path from the Parlor: Louisiana Women, 1879-1920. Center for Louisiana Studies, University of Southwestern Louisiana. ISBN 9780940984301.
12. Illinois, U.S., Deaths and Stillbirths Index, 1916–1947