Louise Raggio

Louise Raggio (June 15, 1919 – January 23, 2011) was a Texas lawyer for more than fifty years. She was the first female prosecutor in Dallas County, Texas.[1] She spearheaded a coalition to establish the Marital Property Act of 1967, and the Texas Family Code.

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Biography

Louise Hilma Ballerstedt[2] was born into a German immigrant family on June 15, 1919 at her grandmother's home in Austin, Texas. She attended the University of Texas where she earned her Bachelor's degree summa cum laude in 1939. She married Grier Raggio, who was then a government lawyer, in 1941.[2] During her years of raising three sons she attended Southern Methodist University at night earning her law degree by 1952.[1]

Early career

Louise Raggio found a job working as an assistant district attorney in Dallas County in 1954 and was put in charge of child support, delinquent fathers, juvenile court and family law. While working as a prosecutor, she learned that married women had fewer rights in Texas than single women, i.e. married women in Texas had limited property rights and couldn't take out bank loans or start their own businesses without their husband's approval.[3] One of her quotes in the KERA Texas TrailerBlazer about her sums up the situation of a woman at the alter in Texas: "When a a man and woman got married, they were one, and he was the one." Louise Raggio began to fight for the rights of women and became the first female prosecutor in Dallas County, Texas. Joining her husband, Grier Raggio, in 1956 to form the law firm, Raggio & Raggio, she began to work to change the particularly bad laws in Texas concerning women. The Marital Property Act of 1967 became the foundation for the current Texas Family Code. She was nicknamed "The Texas Tornado".

Marital Property Act

The Marital Property Act of 1967 was Raggio's best-known accomplishment. The Act helped married women to manage their own property, borrow money from banks in their own right, and establish financial discussions without having to have the presence of her husband. Before this act married women in Texas were subject to the most restrictive laws in the United States.

Quotations

Death

Louise Raggio died on January 23, 2011.[1]see www.raggiolaw.com/LouiseRaggioTribute.htm for information and links to videos.

Awards and honors

References

  1. ^ a b c Abshire, Richard (January 23, 2011). "Louise Raggio, trailblazing Dallas lawyer, dies at 91". The Dallas Morning News. http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/dallas/headlines/20110123-louise-raggio-trailblazing-dallas-lawyer-dies-at-91.ece. 
  2. ^ a b Collins, Jeanne C. (Fall 2004). "Louise B. Raggio: Handing the Torch to Today’s Generation". Texas Women Lawyers. http://www.texaswomenlawyers.org/NL-Jan05.pdf. 
  3. ^ Baker, Debra (November 1998). "A Lone Star". ABA Journal. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=pMNfxoTKkd8C&pg=PA58&lpg=PA58&&source=bl&ots=KJqRp4FkwL&sig=P6Aer01hjFNSjp1CUjdRyZDW-Ug&hl=en&ei=vVLoTPm9HdyShAfUl9wP&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBwQ6AEwATgU#v=onepage&q&f=false. 

Sources

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