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Saturday, May 27, 2006
Ind. Law - "Virginia McCarty blazed a trail for female attorneys"
The Indianapolis Star reports today, in a story by Rob Schneider headed "Virginia McCarty blazed a trail for female attorneys":
Virginia Dill McCarty, the first female gubernatorial candidate in Indiana and the first woman in the nation to be appointed to a full term as U.S attorney, has died. * * *After earning her law degree, McCarty found that, as a woman, getting a job practicing law could be daunting.
Former congressman Andy Jacobs of Indianapolis recalled when McCarty applied at one of the city's large law firms, she was offered work as a legal secretary.
"As time went along, ability and talent will eventually emerge and come to the attention of others," Beatty said. "It certainly did in her case."
Jacobs described McCarty as a pioneer. "She was a giant on whose shoulders a lot of successful women are standing now."
McCarty was born in Plainfield on Dec. 15, 1924 and graduated first in her class at Plainfield High School in 1942. She attended Indiana University in Bloomington and was graduated as Phi Beta Kappa in 1946.
After completing her Bloomington studies, she married Mendel O. McCarty and moved to Indianapolis. Her husband, who died in March 1973, was a banker and real estate agent.
For a time, she worked as a librarian for a law firm and went to law school at night. In 1950, she was first in her class at the Indiana University School of Law.
Her public service and political involvement included a stint as a deputy and assistant to Indiana Attorney General John J. Dillon from 1964 to 1967. She also served as chief counsel to Marion County Prosecutor James F. Kelley in 1975 and 1976.
McCarty's first statewide race took place in 1976, when she challenged then Attorney General Theodore L. Sendak. She lost in a tight race, getting 49 percent of the vote to Sendak's 51 percent.
Soon after, she was appointed by President Jimmy Carter as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana. She served in that post from 1977 to 1981.
"She absolutely loved that job," Beatty said. "She liked being the boss."
McCarty set her sights even higher but lost a bid to become governor in the Democratic primary in 1984 to then state Sen. Wayne Townsend.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 27, 2006 08:55 AM
Posted to Indiana Law