THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL 38 | SEPTEMBER 2024 Women in Law Dorothy Young DOROTHY YOUNG WAS BORN IN LINN CREEK, MISSOURI, ON NOV. 8, 1901. She graduated from the Tulsa College of Law and was admitted to the bar in 1928, which paved the way for a diverse legal career. Ms. Young began her legal career as a clerk and assistant to the deputy state umpire in the Tulsa office of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. Her next position was with the Land and Leasing Department of the Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Co. in Bartlesville. Following that, she joined the Barnsdall Oil Co. in Tulsa. Her diverse career culminated in the 1950 opening of her own office in Tulsa. In 1951, an impressive group of women attorneys tested the constitutionality of House Bill No. 145 in the 23rd Legislature in the Supreme Court. The bill eliminated the disqualifications of women to serve on juries. The group included Ms. Young, Mildred Brooks Fitch, Jewell Russell Mann and Norma Wheaton. They faced Attorney General Mac Q. Williamson and First Assistant Attorney General Fred Hansen. The women prevailed, with the court ruling the act was constitutional and that women could serve on juries. In 1952, Ms. Young was again the attorney of record on a reported decision dealing with a descent, distribution and rights of heirs question before the Oklahoma Supreme Court. In 1950, and again in 1954, Ms. Young ran for election as the Democratic candidate in a race for a common pleas court judgeship but was defeated.1 Even with the endorsement of Gov. Johnston Murray, Ms. Young suffered defeat in 1954 in her quest to succeed the late Judge Wallace Marks.2 The county commissioners appointed Whit Y. Mauzy to the position instead. In 1954, Gov. Murray finally obtained a position for Ms. Young that was commensurate with her legal skills and abilities. She was serving as assistant to former Tulsa County attorney Robert Wheeler when she was appointed judge of the juvenile court, making her Tulsa County’s first woman judge.3 It was noted in a Tulsa Tribune article that Judge Young was one of the women in Oklahoma who had invaded the judiciary, an arena that was once strictly masculine.4 The article went on to say that in her position as a juvenile judge, she was well respected and had a good reputation in the legal community. From 1954 until 1966, she served as Tulsa County’s juvenile court judge. Judge Young instituted numerous reforms for punishing juvenile lawbreakers. Opposed to the term punishment, Judge Young preferred to view her work as disciplinary in nature. She said, “There is a difference between punishment and discipline. We try to change a delinquent’s thinking to rehabilitate him as a parent should.”5 She discovered in her work with juveniles that children “love to be properly disciplined.”6 Judge Young thought that 98% of Tulsa County parents were doing a good job, but 2% shirked the responsibility of disciplining their children. She felt that parents wanted the courts “to change their delinquents to normal children in 15 minutes after [they had spent] 15 years ruining them.”7 “One change that starts rather easily is an attitude of parents to let something or someone else rule their children – television, babysitters, picture shows, and sometimes even juvenile courts,” she said.8 Judge Young came to believe that people receive their consciences from their parents.9 Statements or opinions expressed in the Oklahoma Bar Journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Oklahoma Bar Association, its officers, Board of Governors, Board of Editors or staff.
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