Alice Truman was born December 24, 1922 and died January 28, 2000. As the first woman judge of the Pima County Superior Court and the second State of Arizona woman judge, she began her distinguished career in Waggoner, Illinois, population 200.
In grade school she was inspired to be a lawyer by her brother, Beverly Williamson, who attended the University of Arizona School of Law in the early 1930's. Graduating Valedictorian from Girard Township, Illinois High School, she continued her education at Blackburn College in Carlinsville, IL. She graduated from the University of IL, Champaign/Urbana with a history degree in 1943 and a law degree in 1944.
As a single mother of two pre-school children, she arrived in Tucson in 1953 from Colorado, where she had acted as a justice of the peace, holding court in her living room. Admitted to practice law in Illinois and Colorado, she still had to pass the Arizona bar test. Prior to passing it, she worked as a legal secretary for Clarence Houston with whom she later practiced as a law partner.
In 1958 she defeated five male opponents in her run for Justice of the Peace. In 1962, as a candidate for the Pima County Superior Court, she defeated John Collins in the Democratic primary and Mary Anne Reiman Richey in the general election. Both later became her colleagues on the Superior Court bench. At the time of her retirement in 1992 she was the longest serving Superior Court Judge in Arizona.
Her honors and accomplishments include Woman of the Year award from the Tucson Business and Professional Women's Club, past President of the Arizona Judges Association, charter member of the National Association of Women Judges, and founding member of the Arizona Women Lawyers Association. In December 1999, the Southern Arizona chapter of Arizona Women Lawyers Association honored her by awarding her the first annual Alice Truman Award for Excellence in Leadership. She served as a long-time member of the Soroptimist Club, on the Board of Directors of the Tucson Community Foundation, on the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona, and the Board of the Pima Council on Aging. She actively participated in a Spectra Dynamics Group. Alice was an amazing jurist and a trail-blazer for women.