Women in Law: A Look Back Judge Dorothy Young

Dorothy Young was educated in Chelsea, Oklahoma, and moved to Tulsa in 1917. While working as a stenographer with the Tulsa office of Ramsey, de Meules & Martin, she studied law and graduated from the University of Tulsa Law School. She was admitted to the bar in 1928. After working with a Tulsa firm for three years and then serving in positions with the State Corporation Commission, the Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Co. and the Barnsdall Oil Co., Ms. Young opened her own law office in Tulsa in 1950. She was an unsuccessful candidate for the Common Pleas Court that year and is believed to be the first woman in Tulsa's history to seek election to judicial office. She then moved on to become an assistant county attorney. In 1954, while serving in the county attorney's office, she was the first woman to be appointed as Tulsa County Juvenile Judge, a position she held until 1966. Young's salary on the bench was $12,250 and during her 12-year tenure on the bench, she was referred to as a "stand-in-parent for 30,000 children." In 1962, Ms. Young was named one of two "Women of the Year" by the Oklahoma unit of the American Women in Radio and Television, and the next year she was appointed to the Committee on Juvenile Delinquency of the American Bar Association. Judge Young died in 1970, but not before she was able to witness the realization of one of her dreams: a suitable home for juvenile offenders. Judge Young's career may be best summed up with her own quote: "Life is service, and when you're serving in some way, you're living."

The TCBA is taking a look back to share the stories of women in law and their contributions to the legal community. These biographies were originally printed in Women in Law as part of the TCBA Centennial Celebration in 2002 and recognized at the Women in Law Conference in Dallas, Texas that same year.

Photo credit: Cobb, Richard. [Photograph 2012.201.b1426.0737], photograph, August 22, 1951;(https://gateway.okhistory.org/ ark:/67531/metadc760263/: accessed September 16, 2020), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society. Reprinted with permission.

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