Plenty of trial judges have come and gone from Dallas County’s George Allen Courts Building, but few have a courtroom named after them. Yet former 192nd District Judge Merrill Hartman does. Hartman, who was popular with lawyers because of his kindness, died on Oct. 15 at age 71. “He just loved everybody. He had a genuine love for mankind. And he always had this respect for the system, faith in the system, faith in people, a respect for people,” says Dallas County Court-at-Law No. 2 Judge King Fifer , who interned for Hartman when he was in law school and was inspired to become a judge because of Hartman’s influence. Hartman was an early advocate of pro bono work. While he was in private practice in the early 1980s, Hartman created a created a legal clinic in South Dallas that handled uncontested divorces and child-support enforcement for people who could not afford attorneys. “Every time I had lunch with him, he always encouraged me to love everyone,” Fifer says. Frank Finn , senior counsel in Dallas’ Thompson & Knight who was close friends with Hartman, recommended him as a candidate for a U.S. District Court bench in the 1990s, but a U.S. senator from Texas objected to Hartman. “And you know why he didn’t make it? He was too liberal and too dedicated to offbeat causes, the senator thought,” Finn says. “But we kept him, so that was a blessing. I trust he’s happy where he is. And if there are any objections to him being there, they are overruled. Amen.” Services for Hartman will be held at 3 p.m. on Oct. 26 at Lake Highlands United Methodist Church in Dallas.
Cowgirl Up
On Oct. 28, Hortense Ward , the first woman admitted to the State Bar of Texas , will be inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame in Fort Worth. Diana Vela, director of exhibits and education at the museum, wants to dispel the misconception that her institution doles out such honors only to saddle riders. “Our notion of a cowgirl is broadly construed [to include] any female that has some impact on shaping the West,” Vela says. After Ward was admitted to the bar, she became the first woman from Texas — as well as from below the Mason-Dixon Line — to be admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court. As president of the Houston Equal Suffrage Association, she was the first woman registered to vote in Harris County and in the 1920s helped elect the first woman Texas governor, Miriam A. “Ma” Ferguson. Ward led the charge to pass the Married Women’s Property Act, which allowed married Texas women to control their own property and earnings. She overcame hurdles women lawyers don’t face today, Vela says. Ward did not attend law school; instead, she studied with lawyers. She established a practice, but never appeared in court, partly because the male judges didn’t like women to do so, Vela says. Ward will be the second lawyer inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame. The first was retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor . O’Connor, the high court’s first female justice, earned her cowgirl credibility by growing up on a ranch, known as The Lazy B, on the Arizona-New Mexico border. In the fall of 2011, Vela says the museum plans to present an exhibit about O’Connor’s ranch days to commemorate the 30th anniversary of her appointment to the high court. “She had to find practical solutions to problems on the ranch, and she had to find practical solutions to problems on the court,” Vela says, adding that will be the theme of the museum’s exhibit.
