Louise R. Pinnell
Louise Rebecca Pinnell was the first female lawyer in Florida.[1][2][3]
She was born on March 31, 1877 in Cuba, Missouri to Ethan Allan and Frances Collier Pinnell.[4] Her father Ethan was an attorney who was admitted to the Missouri Bar Association in 1873 and eventually became a probate judge. Pinnell received her early education in Crawford County, Missouri before attending Steelville College.[5] During the 1890s, the entire family moved to Bronson, Levy County, Florida. Pinnell was an autodidact, as there were no law schools in Florida before 1900. She thus received her legal tutelage from her father, and five months after completing her oral examination, became the first female to be admitted to the Florida State Bar in October 1898.[6] Pinnell initially practiced law with her father before joining the law practice of Major St. Clair-Abrams, Esq. in Jacksonville, Florida, who specialized in railroad litigation. In 1920, Pinnell began working as an attorney for the Florida East Coast Railway Company in St. Augustine, Florida.[7] She remained at the company for approximately twenty-five years.
Pinnell died on May 22, 1966 in Jacksonville, Florida.
References
- Weatherford, Doris (2004-12-01). Real Women: Of Tampa And Hillsborough County From Prehistory To The Millennium. University of Tampa Press. ISBN 9781879852334.
- Weatherford, Doris (2004). A History of Women in the United States: Alabama-Illinois. Grolier Academic Reference. ISBN 9780717258062.
- B and O Magazine. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. 1938.
- "Louise Rebecca Pinnell". Find a Grave.
- Loquasto, Wendy S. "Louise Rebecca Pinnell: Florida First Woman Lawyer Celebrate 100 Years of Women in the Florida Law" (PDF).
- "Celebrating Florida's first 150 women lawyers". The Florida Bar. Retrieved 2019-08-24.
- Women lawyers' journal. 1938.