TEXAS SUPREME COURT HISTORICAL SOCIETY

like her contemporary, Sandra Day O’Connor), she opened her own practice and exchanged rent-for-receptionistduties with a small firm. She practiced law in Dallas for thirteen years, during which time was elected to the TexasHouse of Representatives in 1930, 1932, and 1934.In 1935, Governor James V. Allred appointed Hughes to the district court bench in Dallas, which causedquite a stir in the Legislature, with one legislator saying she should “stay home and wash dishes.” To put herappointment in context, Judge Hughes took the bench a full two decades before women were allowed to sit onjuries in Texas, which did not happen until 1954—a cause she personally championed. She was the first femaledistrict court judge in Texas. She held that position for twenty-five years through six elections. It was during JudgeHughes’s first few years on this bench that she met my father, George E. Ray, an attorney in Dallas. Years later,when I was ten, my father introduced me to her.She and President Lyndon Johnson were longtime friends, and it was he who originally pushed for hernomination to the federal bench, an appointment initially blocked by the Kennedy White House because of herage (she was sixty-five). Interestingly, Leon Jaworski was the Texas member of the American Bar Associationcommittee which declined to support her nomination because of her age. When Sam Rayburn, then House Speaker,held up a bill important to Robert Kennedy, Judge Hughes’s nomination moved forward at an accelerated pace,and she was then nominated and confirmed in 1961.Sarah T. Hughes with President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966, White House Photo. Wikimedia Commons, public domain.74