Who was the first female Chief Justice of the NC State Supreme Court?

Answer 1

Susie Marshall Sharp (1907-1996) was the first of three female Chief Justices to serve on the North Carolina Supreme Court, and the first woman to be elected by voters in U.S. history (Lorna E. Lockwood, Arizona, 1965, was the first female Chief Justice, but was elected to the position by the other Associate Justices).

Seventy-four percent of voters supported Sharp when she won election to Chief Justice in 1974, at the age of 67. Her term of office should have been the standard eight years, but the state requires jurists retire at the age of 72, so she served just five years.

Sharp was named one of Time Magazine's twelve "Women of the Year" for 1975.

Since Sharp's retirement in 1979, North Carolina has elected two other women to the state's highest judicial seat.

Rhoda Bryan Billings was elected Chief Justice in 1986, and became a law professor at Wake Forest University at the end of her tenure. She is currently titled Professor Emeritus.

Sarah Parker, unlike Sharp and Billings, was appointed Chief Justice in 2006 by NC Governor Mike Easely, to replace the retiring I. Beverly Lake (male). In November 2006, the people elected Parker to a full eight-year term, which she will serve until January 2015.