WOMEN IN HISTORY - JUDGE FLORENCE ALLEN

First woman to serve as a state Supreme Court Justice (Ohio)

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DATE OF BIRTH

March 23, 1884

PLACE OF BIRTH

Salt Lake City, Utah

DATE OF DEATH

Sept. 12, 1966

PLACE OF DEATH

Mentor, Ohio

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Florence Ellinwood Allen was the first woman to serve on the Ohio State Supreme Court and the first woman to serve as a United States federal judge, having been appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit by President Franklin Roosevelt. An alumna of what was then known as Western Reserve University, she first worked as the music critic for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and as a teacher at the Laurel School, before attending law school and obtaining her law degree from New York University. She returned to Cleveland to begin her legal career as well as her involvement in the Women’s Suffrage movement.