a biography of the day-florence ellinwood allen (musician, lawyer, pioneer woman judge, feminist)

[niyad]

Florence Ellinwood Allen


Dates: March 23, 1884 - September 12, 1966

Known for: pioneer as a woman judge: first female elected as a judge of the court of common pleas, first female elected to the Ohio Supreme Court, first woman in the world to sit on a court of last resort, first woman appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals, first appointment of a woman to any federal bench of general jurisdiction, first woman judge to deliver a death sentence
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Florence Ellinwood Allen studied music first in Ohio, then in Salt Lake City, and finally at the College for Women of Western Reserve University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
After her career as a pianist was cut short by an injury, Allen studied politics at Western Reserve while working as a music critic for a Cleveland paper. She then decided to study law. Western Reserve would not admit women to its law school, so she studied at the University of Chicago and New York University. She worked as a music lecturer and an investigator for the New York League for the Protection of Immigrants while she completed law school.
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During the 1920s, Allen became a friend of Eleanor Roosevelt. In 1932, Allen ran for the House of Representatives, winning the Democratic primary but losing the general election. In 1934 President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Florence Ellinwood Allen to the US Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, the first appointment of a woman to any federal bench of general jurisdiction.
When there was a vacancy on the US Supreme Court in 1937, it was widely thought that Roosevelt would appoint Allen to that seat. She likely had the support of Eleanor Roosevelt, but FDR appointed Hugo Black, a Senator from Alabama.

She served on the Court of Appeals until she retired in October 1959, and was chief judge of that court in the later years of her service.
Among the many cases she heard was the testing of the constitutionality of the Tennessee Valley Authority. She was active in human rights work through the International Bar Association and the International Federation of Woman Lawyers.
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http://womenshistory.about.com/od/publicofficials/p/florence_allen.htm