Lucy Somerville Howorth

Lucy Somerville Howorth (July 1, 1895 – August 24, 1997) was an American lawyer, feminist and politician. Howorth was born in Greenville, Mississippi. On August 18, 1917, in the State Capitol gallery in Nashville,Tennessee, she witnessed the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution being ratified, giving women the right to vote. She spent her life fighting for the civil rights of minorities and women. She is also known for her New Deal legislative efforts.

Lucy Somerville Howorth was born on July 1, 1895 in Greenville, Mississippi. As the daughter of Nellie Nugent Somerville, the first female to serve in the Mississippi Legislature, she was raised in an 'enlightened' atmosphere of female equality, a rarity for the 19th century.

Lucy Sommerville began her educational career by attending Randolph-Macon Women’s College, now Randolph College, in Lynchburg, Virginia (1912-1916) where was a member of Alpha Omicron Pi Fraternity , Phi Gamma Mu International Honor Society and the Phi Beta Kappa Society . After completing her A.B., Lucy continued her education at Columbia University as a graduate student in psychology and economics. From 1920-1922 she attended the Law School of University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi and graduated summa cum laude with a LL.B., being one of only two women in her class. While a law student at the University of Mississippi, she started a female basketball team, a writers group and a book review column.

She returned to Cleveland, Mississippi to begin practicing law. She then moved her law practice to Greenville, Mississippi where she met and married Joseph M. Howorth, a local lawyer. After five years of practicing law, she was appointed as a judge, and acquired the beloved name “Judge Lucy”. Lucy was admitted to Mississippi State and Federal courts, the U.S. Supreme Court and all of the courts in the District of Columbia.

As a Democrat, she served Mississippians as a Hinds County Representative and as a member of the Mississippi State Legislature from 1932-1936. Appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lucy served on the Board of Veterans Appeals from July 1934 to April 1943. John F. Kennedy appointed her to his Commission on the Status of Women. Lucy also served on the War Claims Commission, 1949-1954, as associate general counsel, deputy general counsel, and general counsel.

After leaving government work in 1954, she moved back to Cleveland, Mississippi where she practiced law with her husband until about 1980. Lucy’s husband died in 1982 after 54 years of marriage. Lucy also spent her time co-editing her grandfather’s Civil War letters, which were published under the title, My Dear Nellie. Lucy died from heart failure in Cleveland, Mississippi on August 23, 1997, at the age of 102.

In her lifetime Lucy was an esteemed member of many organizations including the National Association of Women Lawyers, Phi Delta Delta Legal Fraternity (founded 1911, merged with Phi Alpha Delta in 1972), the Professional Women’s Club, and the Daughters of the American Revolution. She served as vice president of the American Association of University Women, and played a role in ending their segregational practices in the 1940′s. Lucy was member and chairman of the United Nations League of Lawyers, and she served as the chairman of the Cleveland Public Library Commission for ten years.

References

• Swain, Martha H (March 2009). "Lucy Somerville Howorth: Lawyer, Politician, and Feminist". Mississippi History Now. Mississippi Historical Society. Retrieved 2011-01-08.