TEXAS SUPREME COURT HISTORICAL SOCIETY

1919 and moved to Houston as a single woman with no contacts and no friends here. A year later, she wrote thefamily and said that ‘Houston is the place to be.’ Her parents and five siblings all moved here shortly thereafter.”The lawyers on the case were Shirley Helm, then with the law firm of Helm & Jones, for the plaintiff, andJohn F. Heard, with the law firm then known as Baker, Botts, Andrews & Shepherd, for the defendant. For reasonsnow unknown, neither side chose to strike Mrs. Summers, and thus she became the first woman on a jury in Texashistory. Her fellow jurors even selected her as their foreperson.A newspaper article commemorating the historic event had interesting commentary from her fellow jurors: “Itwas decidedly different having a woman in there,” said R.M. Templeton. “We couldn’t do any cussin.’” “I don’t arguewith women,” added Charlie Burton. “It was mighty nice,” said Vernon Bosley, “but my wife doesn’t like the idea.” 2Miss Summers commented, “I enjoyed the case. Women won’t have any trouble on juries unless theycause it.” 3 James Summers indicated that Miss Summers was very proud of being the first woman juror in Texas,although at the time she just thought she was doing her civic duty.The jury rendered a verdict in favor of the plaintiff in this personal injury case involving an employee ofthe railroad defendant. The case was appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Third District (Austin), where thejudgment was affirmed on November 30, 1955. 4 The Texas Supreme Court affirmed it on July 11, 1954, 5 less thantwo years from the date of the verdict.The court’s case file was recently discovered and restored as part of the Historic Document Preservation projectstarted by then-District Clerk Charles Bacarrisse and continued by his successor, Theresa Chang. It is available forviewing, along with hundreds of other historic Harris County court records, in the Harris County Historical Documentsreading room in the Civil Courthouse located in downtown Houston. Thousands of other records await funding to berestored. For more information about sponsoring the preservation of historic court records, please contact:Mr. Francisco HerediaHarris County Assistant District Clerk for Historical RecordsHistorical Documents Records Centerc/o Chris Daniel, District Clerk, Harris County, Texas201 Caroline, Ste. 200Houston, Texas 77002(713) 755-1034Francisco.Heredia@hcdistrictclerk.com2Houston Press, December 1, 19543Id.4Tex. & New Orleans R.R. Co. v. Hayes, 284 S.W.2d 776 (Tex. Civ. App.—Austin 1955), aff’d 156 Tex. 148 (1956).5Tex. & New Orleans R.R. Co. v. Hayes, 156 Tex. 148 (1956).SARAH A. DUCKERS is a partner with Sechrist Duckers LLP in Houston. Her practice focuseson general civil litigation, with particular emphasis on federal income tax litigation, stateproperty tax litigation, probate litigation, tort litigation, and mediations.Return to Journal Index90