Susie Marshall Sharp (July 7,1907 – March 1,1996) was an American jurist who served as the first female Chief Justice of the
North Carolina Supreme CourtThe Supreme Court of North Carolina is the state's highest appellate court. Until the creation of the North Carolina Court of Appeals in the 1960s, it was the state's only appellate court. The Supreme Court consists of six associate justices and one chief justice, although the number of justices...
. She was not the first woman to head the
highest courtIn the United States, the state supreme court is the highest state court in the state court system.Generally, the state supreme court is exclusively for hearing appeals of legal issues. It does not make any finding of facts, and thus holds no trials...
in a U.S. state, but is believed to be the first woman elected to such a post in a state, like
North CarolinaNorth Carolina is a state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties...
, in which the position is elected by the people separately from that of
Associate JusticeAssociate Justice or Associate Judge is the title for a member of a judicial panel who is not the Chief Justice in some jurisdictions. The title "Associate Justice" is used for members of the United States Supreme Court and some state supreme courts, and for some other courts in Commonwealth...
. In 1965,
Lorna E. LockwoodLorna Elizabeth Lockwood was a Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court. She was the first female Chief Justice of a state supreme court in the United States. In the 1960s she was almost nominated by President Lyndon Johnson to be the first female justice on the United States Supreme Court...
became the first chief justice of a state supreme court, but in Arizona, the
Supreme CourtThe Arizona Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Arizona. It consists of a Chief Justice, a Vice Chief Justice, and three Associate Justices. Each Justice is appointed by the Governor of Arizona from a list recommended by a bipartisan commission. Justices stand for retention in...
justices elect their chief justice.
Sharp was born in 1907 in
Rocky Mount, North CarolinaRocky Mount is an All-America City Award-winning city in Edgecombe and Nash counties in the coastal plains of the state of North Carolina. Although it was not formally incorporated until February 28, 1867, the North Carolina community that became the city of Rocky Mount dates from the beginning of...
but spent most of her life in
Rockingham County, North CarolinaRockingham County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of 2000, the population was 91,928. Its county seat is Wentworth.- History :The county was formed in 1785 from Guilford County...
.
Susie Marshall Sharp (July 7,1907 – March 1,1996) was an American jurist who served as the first female Chief Justice of the
North Carolina Supreme CourtThe Supreme Court of North Carolina is the state's highest appellate court. Until the creation of the North Carolina Court of Appeals in the 1960s, it was the state's only appellate court. The Supreme Court consists of six associate justices and one chief justice, although the number of justices...
. She was not the first woman to head the
highest courtIn the United States, the state supreme court is the highest state court in the state court system.Generally, the state supreme court is exclusively for hearing appeals of legal issues. It does not make any finding of facts, and thus holds no trials...
in a U.S. state, but is believed to be the first woman elected to such a post in a state, like
North CarolinaNorth Carolina is a state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties...
, in which the position is elected by the people separately from that of
Associate JusticeAssociate Justice or Associate Judge is the title for a member of a judicial panel who is not the Chief Justice in some jurisdictions. The title "Associate Justice" is used for members of the United States Supreme Court and some state supreme courts, and for some other courts in Commonwealth...
. In 1965,
Lorna E. LockwoodLorna Elizabeth Lockwood was a Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court. She was the first female Chief Justice of a state supreme court in the United States. In the 1960s she was almost nominated by President Lyndon Johnson to be the first female justice on the United States Supreme Court...
became the first chief justice of a state supreme court, but in Arizona, the
Supreme CourtThe Arizona Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Arizona. It consists of a Chief Justice, a Vice Chief Justice, and three Associate Justices. Each Justice is appointed by the Governor of Arizona from a list recommended by a bipartisan commission. Justices stand for retention in...
justices elect their chief justice.
Early years
Sharp was born in 1907 in
Rocky Mount, North CarolinaRocky Mount is an All-America City Award-winning city in Edgecombe and Nash counties in the coastal plains of the state of North Carolina. Although it was not formally incorporated until February 28, 1867, the North Carolina community that became the city of Rocky Mount dates from the beginning of...
but spent most of her life in
Rockingham County, North CarolinaRockingham County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of 2000, the population was 91,928. Its county seat is Wentworth.- History :The county was formed in 1785 from Guilford County...
. In 1926 she entered law school at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel HillThe University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. The university is the oldest in, and flagship of, the University of North Carolina system...
as the only woman in her class. In 1929, Sharp went into private practice with her father, James, in the firm of Sharp & Sharp.
Career
In 1949, Governor Kerr Scott appointed her a state
Superior CourtIn common law systems, a superior court is a court of general competence which typically has unlimited jurisdiction with regard to civil and criminal legal cases...
judge, making her the first female judge in the history of the state. After Sharp became a Superior Court judge, Tom Bost of the
Greensboro Daily News questioned "what would happen if Sharp was faced with trying a case of rape? Wouldn't that be too much for a woman?" Judge Sharp wrote back that "In the first place, there could have been no rape had not a woman been present, and I consider it eminently fitting that one be in on the 'pay-off'."
While holding court as a Superior Court judge in
Burke County, North CarolinaBurke County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of 2000, the population was 89,148. Its county seat is Morganton. The symbol of Burke County is Table Rock....
, county commissioners refused, upon learning of her assignment to their county, to modify the only bathroom facilities in the judge's chambers; a sink and a urinal that hung on the wall. Judge Sharp opened court on Monday morning at 10:00 a.m. and ordered the sheriff to "invite" the county commissioners over to the courthouse. By 11:00, the courthouse was aflutter with the scurrying about of plumbers, carpenters, and electricians, while the county commissioners narrowly avoided a few nights' repose in the county jail.
Judge Sharp was re-appointed by successive governors, and in 1962, Governor
Terry SanfordJames Terry Sanford was a United States politician and educator from North Carolina. A member of the Democratic Party, Sanford was the Governor of North Carolina , a two-time U.S. Presidential candidate in the 1970s and a U.S. Senator...
made Sharp the first female Associate Justice of the
North Carolina Supreme CourtThe Supreme Court of North Carolina is the state's highest appellate court. Until the creation of the North Carolina Court of Appeals in the 1960s, it was the state's only appellate court. The Supreme Court consists of six associate justices and one chief justice, although the number of justices...
. Justice Sharp was elected by the people that November and again in November 1966 to a full eight-year term. In 1974, voters gave her 74 percent of the vote to elect her Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, succeeding her close friend, Chief Justice
William H. BobbittWilliam Haywood Bobbitt , was an American jurist and Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. Bobbitt was born in 1900 in Raleigh, North Carolina and earned his law degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.Bobbitt was elected a Superior Court judge and served with...
.
TimeTime is an American newsmagazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong. As of 2009, Time no longer publishes a Canadian advertiser edition...
, in its January 6, 1976 cover story, named Sharp one of the 12 "women of the year" for 1975. In so doing, Time called her a "trail blazer" with a "reputation as both a compassionate jurist and an incisive legal scholar".
Senator
Sam ErvinSamuel James Ervin Jr. was a Democratic United States Senator from North Carolina from 1954 until 1974. A native of Morganton, Burke County, North Carolina, he liked to call himself a "country lawyer"...
, a fellow Democrat, recommended to President
Richard NixonRichard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States and is the only president to resign the office. He was also the 36th Vice President of the United States ....
that he appoint her to the United States Supreme Court. Nixon declined the advice, obviously, and there would not be a woman appointed to the Court until 1981.
During Justice Sharp's 17-year tenure on the Supreme Court, she wrote 459 majority opinions, 124 concurring opinions, and 45 dissenting opinions.
Retirement
By law, Justice Sharp had to retire at age 72, which came in 1979. After retiring, she successfully pushed for a constitutional amendment in 1980 that required all judges to be lawyers after her 1974 opponent was a fire extinguisher salesman. Sharp died at age 88, in 1996.
Justice Sharp was also the aunt of Susie Sharp Newsom Lynch, subject of the book "Bitter Blood" by
Jerry BledsoeJerry Bledsoe is an American author and journalist known for several true crime titles based on murders in his native state of North Carolina....
. The book details the bitter child custody dispute between Lynch and her ex-husband, which preceded the brutal murders of Lynch's mother-in-law, sister-in-law, mother, father, and grandmother. It has been proven that Fritz Klenner Lynch's first cousin, lover, and nephew of Justice Sharp, murdered Lynch's in-laws in Kentucky. It is also highly suspected that he murdered Lynch's parents and grandmother. Lynch's participation in the murders was suspected by many but never proven. She and her cousin blew themselves up during a police chase when authorities began closing in on them as suspects.