You could subtitle Anna Hayes’ brilliant biography of Susie Sharp, “The previously secret lives of judges.”
Not just for its most surprising revelations: that Sharp, a lifelong spinster thought to have no serious romantic interests, maintained intimate relationships with three married lawyers.
More importantly, Hayes gives clear insights into one of North Carolina’s greatest legal minds and provides an open window into the workings of its highest court.
It’s a view few ever gain of the most mysterious branch of government. Even with judicial elections approaching, most North Carolinians know far less about their courts today and the men and women who run them than they can read about Sharp and her court in the pages of Hayes’ richly detailed account.
Sharp, from Reidsville, is remembered most vividly for two reasons:
• breaking glass ceilings in courthouses across North Carolina;
• and her unfortunate connection to the Klenner-Lynch killings described in Jerry Bledsoe’s “Bitter Blood.”
She was aunt to both Fritz Klenner and Susie Lynch. Her sister, Florence Newsom, was one of their victims. The 1984-85 events were devastating to the then-elderly Sharp, the head of her large extended family.
Family members gave Hayes, a former Raleigh attorney who lives in Chapel Hill, full access to a treasure trove of Sharp’s personal journals, diaries, letters and other records. The author has spun gold from these materials, plus information from court papers, newspaper accounts, interviews and countless other sources.
The result, “Without Precedent,” is a stirring portrait of a towering but under-appreciated figure in 20th century North Carolina history.
While Sharp “loved being the first and only,” Hayes told me Monday, those distinctions were just the beginning. The first woman Superior Court judge in 1949, she was good enough at that job to earn appointment as the first woman justice on the N.C. Supreme Court in 1962. And she gained enough respect and statewide appeal in that position to win election as chief justice in 1974 — again a first. On the court, she made significant contributions to the case law of the state and initiated a much-needed reform of the judicial system.
The buzz about the book is news that, from her 20s, Sharp’s single status hid a vibrant love life — largely undiscovered before Hayes’ extensive research. The author admits the disclosures caused her “trepidation,” but honest biographers must be fearless. And, understanding the public life sometimes requires knowledge of private passions.
Sharp’s devotion to Salisbury attorney John Kesler might have kept her from pursuing appointment as the first woman justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, Hayes contends. During the Kennedy administration, Gov. Terry Sanford aimed to use his considerable influence with the president to push for a Sharp nomination, but she insisted she wasn’t interested in moving to Washington. She changed her mind later, after her affair with Kesler cooled, but by then had missed her best chance.
Hayes also documents Sharp’s bigotry, but notes she didn’t let personal prejudices steer her from making fair legal judgments.
Sharp was a woman of apparent contradictions: An advocate for equal opportunities for women, she nevertheless believed married women with children ought to stay home. A stickler for separating politics from her role as a judge, she so strongly opposed the Equal Rights Amendment that she inappropriately lobbied legislators for its defeat.
Hayes fills more than 500 pages with sketches of the prominent people and large events of the day and with endearing little details. For instance, Sharp and fellow Justice William H. Bobbitt, a widower with whom she had a “special friendship,” called each other “Judge,” even in private; Justice Carlisle Higgins chilled his beer by an open window in his chambers in the wintertime; lunching together daily, the justices marched through the cafeteria line in order of seniority.
In letters to friends and lovers, Sharp candidly discussed the court and its cases. Hayes put her hands on it all and shares much in her book. It’s priceless stuff.
If Sharp were alive today, “she’d be tickled to death” at the prospects of women in public life, Hayes said.
Maybe she’d be most interested in the possibility that this election could yield a female majority on the N.C. Supreme Court.
Hayes has done all the justices, men and women, quite a service. Her book sparks the idea that they might be much more interesting than anyone suspects.
