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Recent Honorees
Each year, the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois honors women who have demonstrated visionary approaches in their professional endeavors and who have made a contribution to the well-being and empowerment of women while freely giving back to other women and members of the legal profession. The WBAI recognizes these women by conferring upon them its distinguished Women with Vision, Esther Rothstein, and Mary Heftel Hooton Awards.
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The Women's Bar Association of Illinois is honored to announce the establishment of the Mary Bartelme Park. Mary Bartelme (1866-1954), past President of the WBAI (1927-1928), was a pioneering woman lawyer in Illinois. Ms. Bartelme became the first woman judge in Illinois in 1923 and the second woman judge in the U.S. Ms. Bartelme was born at Fulton and Halsted Streets. She became a teacher and then decided to practice law at a time when this was a rare occupation for women. Ms. Bartelme graduated from Northwestern Law School in 1894, the only woman in her class. Ms. Bartelme was appointed as the first woman Public Guardian in Cook County in 1897 and served for 16 years, taking care of minors without guardians. Ms. Bartelme helped to draft and to lobby for legislation creating the first Juvenile Court in Cook County in 1899. The first Juvenile Detention home was located in the 1600 block of West Adams in 1906. In 1913, Ms. Bartelme was chosen to assist the Cook County presiding judge, holding closed sessions for juvenile cases and creating a "girls' court." To create an alternative to jail, she founded three group homes for delinquent adolescent girls called "Mary Bartelme Clubs." The "Marty Bartelme Clubs" is now the Women's Bar Foundation. Mary Bartelme was elected judge in 1923, serving as a judge in Juvenile Court for ten years and hearing over 50,000 cases. Mary Bartelme made important contributions as a symbol of the feminist movement, an agent for procedural change, and as a tireless reformer and fundraiser who made a difference in the lives of many young girls. Sponsors of the Mary Bartelme Park are: Alderman Robert W. Fioretti; Chicago Park District; University of Illinois at Chicago and Hull House Museum; Women's Bar Association of Illinois; Northwestern University Law School; Judges of the Cook County Juvenile Court; Scott Maesel Family; Leslie Recht; West Loop Community Organization.
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