Portal:Oregon/Selected biography/6
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Betty R. Roberts (b. February 5, 1923) was the first woman on the Oregon Supreme Court as the 90th Associate Justice. She was also the first woman on the Oregon Court of Appeals, and served in both chambers of the Oregon Legislature. During the 1975 legislature, Betty served in the Senate where both her step-daughter Mary Wendy Roberts and then-husband Frank L. Roberts also served. Roberts was born in Texas in 1923, growing-up in that state during the Great Depression of the 1930s. After attending Texas Wesleyan College for one year starting in 1941, she married and left school, eventually moving to Oregon. In 1958, Roberts earned a bachelor of science degree from Portland State University, followed by a masters degree at the University of Oregon, and in 1966, a JD from Lewis & Clark Law School. In 1964, Roberts the Democrat won elecetion to the Oregon House of Representatives, serving until 1968 when she was elected to the Oregon Senate. Roberts lost her bid to become Oregon's governor in 1974, losing in the primary election, and then lost a campaign to become a United States Senator in the fall election. Then in 1977, Oregon Governor Robert W. Straub appointed Betty Roberts as the first woman to the Oregon Court of Appeals. In 1982, Governor Victor G. Atiyeh appointed her as the first woman to the Oregon Supreme Court. Roberts left the state's high court in 1986 and remains a senior judge for the state. She currently works as a private mediator in Portland.
