Chosen as America’s ‘Mother of the Year’ for 1959, Judge Jennie Loitman Barron of Brookline, Mass. was a Boston-born daughter of Russian immigrants Morris and Fanny (Castleman) Loitman.
She received her B.A. and LL.M. degrees from Boston University, opening her own law practice after graduating in 1914. A suffragist, she was active in the movement and later worked with the League of Women Voters to address unfair marriage and divorce laws in the country and wrote the League’s official argument for women to finally be allowed to serve on juries. In 1918, she organized a campaign to allow women to become notaries in Massachusetts.
In that same year, she married lawyer Samuel Barron, Jr., and they practiced together as the firm of Barron & Barron. While working she had three daughters, all of whom graduated from Wellesley: Erma (Mrs. Phili Wernick); Mrs. Deborah Blazer, who died in 1956; and Mrs. Joy Rachlin, herself a practicing attorney and the wife of surgeon William B. Rachlin.
She was the first woman to present evidence to a Grand Jury in Massachusetts and the first to prosecute major criminal cases in the state. She was the first woman appointed for life to the Municipal Court of Boston (1937), and the first woman appoint to the Superior Court of Massachusetts (1959). She also served as Assistant Attorney General for Massachusetts (1934-1935).
Active in community, state and national organizations throughout her life, she died of a heart condition at Beth Israel Hospital on 28 Mar 1969.
Her papers were donated to Radcliffe’s Schlessinger Library.
She received her B.A. and LL.M. degrees from Boston University, opening her own law practice after graduating in 1914. A suffragist, she was active in the movement and later worked with the League of Women Voters to address unfair marriage and divorce laws in the country and wrote the League’s official argument for women to finally be allowed to serve on juries. In 1918, she organized a campaign to allow women to become notaries in Massachusetts.
In that same year, she married lawyer Samuel Barron, Jr., and they practiced together as the firm of Barron & Barron. While working she had three daughters, all of whom graduated from Wellesley: Erma (Mrs. Phili Wernick); Mrs. Deborah Blazer, who died in 1956; and Mrs. Joy Rachlin, herself a practicing attorney and the wife of surgeon William B. Rachlin.
She was the first woman to present evidence to a Grand Jury in Massachusetts and the first to prosecute major criminal cases in the state. She was the first woman appointed for life to the Municipal Court of Boston (1937), and the first woman appoint to the Superior Court of Massachusetts (1959). She also served as Assistant Attorney General for Massachusetts (1934-1935).
Active in community, state and national organizations throughout her life, she died of a heart condition at Beth Israel Hospital on 28 Mar 1969.
Her papers were donated to Radcliffe’s Schlessinger Library.
Chosen as America’s ‘Mother of the Year’ for 1959, Judge Jennie Loitman Barron of Brookline, Mass. was a Boston-born daughter of Russian immigrants Morris and Fanny (Castleman) Loitman.
She received her B.A. and LL.M. degrees from Boston University, opening her own law practice after graduating in 1914. A suffragist, she was active in the movement and later worked with the League of Women Voters to address unfair marriage and divorce laws in the country and wrote the League’s official argument for women to finally be allowed to serve on juries. In 1918, she organized a campaign to allow women to become notaries in Massachusetts.
In that same year, she married lawyer Samuel Barron, Jr., and they practiced together as the firm of Barron & Barron. While working she had three daughters, all of whom graduated from Wellesley: Erma (Mrs. Phili Wernick); Mrs. Deborah Blazer, who died in 1956; and Mrs. Joy Rachlin, herself a practicing attorney and the wife of surgeon William B. Rachlin.
She was the first woman to present evidence to a Grand Jury in Massachusetts and the first to prosecute major criminal cases in the state. She was the first woman appointed for life to the Municipal Court of Boston (1937), and the first woman appoint to the Superior Court of Massachusetts (1959). She also served as Assistant Attorney General for Massachusetts (1934-1935).
Active in community, state and national organizations throughout her life, she died of a heart condition at Beth Israel Hospital on 28 Mar 1969.
Her papers were donated to Radcliffe’s Schlessinger Library.
She received her B.A. and LL.M. degrees from Boston University, opening her own law practice after graduating in 1914. A suffragist, she was active in the movement and later worked with the League of Women Voters to address unfair marriage and divorce laws in the country and wrote the League’s official argument for women to finally be allowed to serve on juries. In 1918, she organized a campaign to allow women to become notaries in Massachusetts.
In that same year, she married lawyer Samuel Barron, Jr., and they practiced together as the firm of Barron & Barron. While working she had three daughters, all of whom graduated from Wellesley: Erma (Mrs. Phili Wernick); Mrs. Deborah Blazer, who died in 1956; and Mrs. Joy Rachlin, herself a practicing attorney and the wife of surgeon William B. Rachlin.
She was the first woman to present evidence to a Grand Jury in Massachusetts and the first to prosecute major criminal cases in the state. She was the first woman appointed for life to the Municipal Court of Boston (1937), and the first woman appoint to the Superior Court of Massachusetts (1959). She also served as Assistant Attorney General for Massachusetts (1934-1935).
Active in community, state and national organizations throughout her life, she died of a heart condition at Beth Israel Hospital on 28 Mar 1969.
Her papers were donated to Radcliffe’s Schlessinger Library.
Inscription
BELOVED WIFE AND DEVOTED MOTHER
JUDGE JENNIE LOITMAN BARRON
FIRST WOMAN JUSTICE OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SUPERIOR COURT
AMERICAN MOTHER OF THE YEAR – 1959
“SHE LIVES IN THE ACTS OF GOODNESS SHE PERFORMED”
OCTOBER 12, 1891
MARCH 28, 1969
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