Justice Mildred L. Lillie
1915-2002

Mildred L. Lillie was born on January 25, 1915, the daughter of a well-to-do Iowa farmer and his wife. But while Mildred was still a small child, the marriage failed and she moved with her mother to Oakdale, California, a small town in the Central Valley. They lived with Mildred’s aunt and uncle who owned a small fruit farm that lacked electricity, plumbing or running hot water. As a divorced woman without means, Mildred’s mother was forced to work in the fields, picking fruit at farms around the area. While still in childhood and while most of her schoolmates were engaged in carefree play, Mildred started working part-time during the school year and full time during summers – sorting and packing fruit, and cooking for the family. At the age of 12, she passed herself off as 16 and got a job in the local cannery, and in the off season worked in the cutting sheds, saving money to attend college. Mildred’s economic struggles did not end when she went away to university, however. Fortunately, her mother had taught her to be a skilled baker and cook. So while attending college and then law school at the University of California, Berkeley, Mildred was able to earn her room and board by working as a live-in cook and part-time nanny for wealthy families.

These early years were difficult, but Mildred later said she never felt deprived. And that exposure to hard menial labor forged a steely resolve and unmatched work ethic that served her well as she faced many challenges and disappointments while moving up in a profession that did not exactly welcome women in the later 1930’s.

One can only imagine the contract Mildred must have felt between the poverty, menial labor, and anonymity of her early years and the accomplishments, acclaim, and sometimes glamorous lifestyle she experienced during her record-setting career on the trial and appellate bench. In 1942, she became on of the first – if not the first – woman to serve as an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles. In 1947, at the age of 32, she received an appointment to the Municipal Court and two years later was elevated to the Superior Court. At 37, she became the youngest judge and the first woman ever assigned to sit in criminal court in Los Angeles County. In 1958, she was the first woman appointed to the Court of Appeal in the Second Appellate District, and only the second in the entire state. And for two decades she remained the only female justice in this District.

Mildred’s first husband, Cameron Lillie, had many clients from the entertainment industry. So the two of them socialized with some of the stars, moguls, and politicians of the 1950s and 1960s – among them, leading man Clark Gable, songwriter and playwright Meredith Wilson, and aircraft manufacturer Donald Douglas. Some, such as Meredith Wilson’s widow, remained close friends through the rest of Mildred’s life. Although her husband was a leader in the Democratic party and Mildred herself a lifelong member of that party, ironically all of her judicial appointments came from Republican Governors – Earl Warren, Goodwin Knight, and George Deukmejian – a tribute to her, and to them.

Justice Lillie also made her mark in community activities. She was very active with the Soroptimists, where she conceived an award for young women professionals, and where an annual graduate scholarship bears her name. In the 1970’s she became the second woman to be elected to the Board of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. Along with her second husband, A.V. Falcone, Mildred Lillie also was a leading figure in the local Catholic Church and especially its charitable endeavors. She earned appointment as a Papal Dame and was one of the first five recipients of the annual “Cardinal’s Award” for this Archdiocese.

By the time of her death, Justice Mildred Lillie had established the statewide record for longevity as an appellate judge, 44 years, and for total service as a judicial officer, 66 years. It is not the length of her tenure, however, but the consistent quality of her opinions and the force of her leadership that her fellow justices – and many others in the bench and bar – most remember and admire. The virtues of hard work and determination she acquired during her difficult early years not only served her well, but also gave California a remarkable judge and justice. It is an honor for her, but also for the Los Angeles County Law Library, that the main building of this outstanding institution now bears her name.