Susie Sharp was a state Supreme Court justice from 1962-79 and was elected Chief Justice in 1974.
RALEIGH — A North Carolina Highway Historical Marker soon will recognize the first woman chief justice of the N.C. Supreme Court.
The marker commemorating the life of Susie Marshall Sharp will be placed in Reidsville, near the site of her residence on Sept. 29.
Sharp, born in Rocky Mount on July 7, 1907, was a trailblazer for women interested in the practice of law in North Carolina. After attending Women’s College (now UNC-Greensboro) for two years, she entered law school at the University of North Carolina in 1926 and was the only woman in her class. Sharp passed the bar exam in 1928 before receiving her LL.B. from UNC the following year. Sharp then joined her father’s Reidsville law firm where she practiced for 20 years. During this time, she became city attorney for Reidsville in 1939, becoming the first woman in state history to be appointed to this role.
Sharp also was an ardent Democrat fueled by her father’s successful campaigns for the state senate. She nurtured her ties with Democratic party leaders on the local and state levels, campaigning ardently for W. Kerr Scott for governor in 1948 and serving as his campaign manager in heavily Democratic (at the time) Rockingham County. After Scott won the governor’s race, he appointed Sharp as a Superior Court judge in 1949.
During her years as a Superior Court judge, Sharp conducted court in two-thirds of North Carolina’s 100 counties. Later, Sharp was a Supreme Court justice from 1962-79 and was elected Chief Justice in 1974, the first woman to be elected chief justice of any state supreme court in the United States. Upon her mandatory retirement in 1979 at age 72, and having received many accolades and honorary degrees over the years, Justice Sharp stepped down from the Supreme Court.
Sharp faded from public view as her health declined, and on March 1, 1996, she died at her Raleigh home at the age of 89. Following a funeral at Main Street Methodist Church in Reidsville, Justice Sharp was buried alongside other family members in nearby Greenview Cemetery.
The marker for Sharp will be dedicated at the corner of Lindsey and Main streets in Reidsville at 3:30 p.m. A panel discussion “Susie Sharp on the Supreme Court,” will follow the ceremony at 4:45 p.m.