Mary Lathrop

Mary Florence Lathrop
Attorney
1865 - 1951
INDUCTED 1987

Her male peers would not shake her hand, and they called her “That Damned Woman,” but Mary Lathrop kept a stiff upper lip when she appeared in court.

Ill health and a news reporting job brought her to Colorado. In 1896, her Denver University Law School degree brought her a profession, prosperity, and eventual prestige. She was married to her law books, legal briefs, wills, and estates. Delightfully eccentric, Lathrop appeared in court in a flowered hat, and greeted clients in her Equitable Building office in a fancy white lace apron. Success stems from limits, she advised: “I’m not big enough to do a lot of things, so I stick to one thing.”

“I’m either a lawyer or I’m not; and [I] don’t go dragging my being a woman into it!” — Mary Florence Lathrop