Lady Willie Forbus
Lady Willie Forbus (August 24, 1892 – April 27, 1993) was an American politician in the state of Washington. A Democrat, she was a member of the Washington State Senate for the 44th district from 1943 to 1947.
Early life and education[edit]
Forbus was born on August 24, 1892, in Zieglerville, Mississippi. Her name came from her father's name, William, with, as was customary for daughters named after their fathers, the addition of "Lady".[1] Her father was the manager of several cotton plantations and her mother, Birdie, worked as a music teacher and raised cattle and sold eggs, butter and lard with her six children. As the second eldest, Forbus and her older brother Sample were sent to a larger town, Laurel, for their education when Forbus was fourteen as their mother was determined that they receive a good education.[1][2] 150 miles away from their hometown, Forbus ran the household on the $25 monthly check sent by their parents, even after their four younger siblings joined them in the two-room house.[1]
Forbus's brothers graduated high school with scholarships to university but the same aid was not available to female students, so Forbus attended the University of Mississippi by working as a stenographer for a local judge. When she had an ear infection her junior year, she was unable to be treated at the university infirmary as a female student and was rendered dead in her left ear. She received her bachelor's degree in 1915. Determined to go to law school, she applied to Columbia, Harvard and Yale but was rejected from each, as none were yet admitting female law students. Instead she attended the University of Michigan as the only female student in their class of 1918. After graduation, she was told by the law school dean, "Goodbye, Lady Willie, someday you'll make a good stenographer for some lawyer".[1]
Legal career[edit]
Forbus believed her legal career would be best placed if she went west and, using her law school's directory, she sent letters to lawyers in Cheyenne, Denver, San Francisco and Seattle asking for a job. Based on a response from a Seattle-based criminal lawyer, Walter Fulton, Forbus moved to Washington in 1918. She was prohibited by state law from practicing in the state prior to spending a year as a law clerk, as she had not graduated from the University of Washington. She opened her own legal practice the following year. Female lawyers were a rarity in Seattle but Forbus would later state that she was treated well and the state was "freer, more open-minded".[1]
In 1922, Forbus began to receive public attention due to her handling of the murder of the police officer Charles O. Legate. He was found dead in his car in his garage on March 17 and the gunshot wound to his head led the coroner's jury to rule the death a suicide. His wife retained Forbus as her lawyer, since a death by suicide would mean she was not entitled to his police pension. Forbus brought the case before a grand jury and proved that the gunshots were inflicted by two different bullets and that the garage had been locked from outside. The grand jury overruled the coroner and declared the death a murder, which granted his widow access to the pension.[1][3]
Forbus campaigned to become prosecuting attorney in 1922, unsuccessfully, but she began to make more speeches and become involved in politics. She testified on behalf of a child labor amendment being debated by the Washington State Legislature and supported an illegitimacy law, retirement benefits for educators and a state department of education. As lawyers could not advertise their practices at the time, these activities raised her profile in the community. In 1932 and 1934, Forbus ran twice to be elected to the King County Superior Court. She ran on a platform "that all laws should be construed liberally to meet the demands of the people who enact them and the purposes the law seeks to serve" and supported establishing one court to handle all family matters, including divorce, custody, adoption and paternity. Although she received the backing of women's groups, Forbus was determined to campaign on the basis of her legal career and humanity, not her gender; in one campaign speech, she said, "the highest qualifications of a judge are human kindliness and common sense in administration of justice. A woman, by nature and a mother, by experience and human contact, is especially fitted for the judiciary; for she brings to the bench not only legal knowledge but human understanding". She was considered a controversial candidate at the time and lost both elections, although the was the first female candidate in King County.[1]
Despite her defeats for public office, Forbus continued to advocate for social programs and she became well known in Seattle and surrounding towns. She joined the Democratic Party and began working with the Women's Legislative Council to promote passage of the Twentieth Amendment and the Child Labor Amendment. Forbus participated in the 1936 Roosevelt Caravan, giving stump speeches at 40 towns in three weeks to speak in support of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. She was chair of the Democratic National Committee's State Speakers' Bureau. By the end of the decade, she was approached by the King County Democratic Central Committee to run for the Washington State Senate. Although her primary interest was in becoming a judge, she agreed to run.[1][2]
Political career[edit]
Forbus was elected to the state senate in the 1942 general election, as senator for the 44th district. While she was in session in Olympia, her daughters travelled with her and worked as a page and in the secretarial pool. Concurrently with her senate service, Forbus was an assistant attorney general for the Washington Department of Labor and Industries in 1943 and the Washington Fisheries Department from 1944 to 1946. The 1943 legislative session began with the allocation of committee assignments. The first and second set of assignments were rejected but the third list passed on a unanimous vote. Forbus was appointed chair of the cities of the first class committee. She became chair of the judiciary committee and a member of the appropriations committee. She sponsored bills on family issues, civil actions, health care, and housing.[1]
After being re-elected to the legislature for her second term, Forbus received the support of a liberal group in Ballard, a neighborhood of Seattle, for supporting equal pay. Her connection to this organization led to her being publicly labelled as a communist and she lost her re-election campaign in 1948.[1][2]
Personal life[edit]
Forbus married Alvaro Shoemaker, a journalist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, in 1921. Forbus retained her maiden name and the couple's two daughters, Alvara and Dale, were given hyphenated surnames, which was unusual for the time. The couple divorced in 1936 but remained close friends.[1][2]
Later life and death[edit]
After leaving the legislature, Forbus continued practicing as a lawyer. She remained active in the Democratic Party and in community activities. She was the party's precinct chair in the 36th legislative district, the first female president of the Magnolia Community Club, and president of the Ballard Business and Professional Women's Club and the Florence Crittenden Home for Unmarried Mothers. She was a board member of the Washington chapter of the American Lawyers Against First Strike Nuclear Arms and the American Civil Liberties Union in the 1980s. Forbus gave speeches on topics including "Educational Development in Colonial America", "Garden Planning" and "An International Bill of Rights." She travelled internationally, including to South America, Mongolia, China, and the Soviet Union.[1]
In 1984, Forbus retired from legal practice. She died on April 27, 1993, in Seattle at the age of 100.[1]