Biography:

Attorney. Born– June 26, 1887, Mountain Spring, Ala. Parents– Richard Bussey and Leona (Bledsoe) Kelly. Education– Noble Institute, Anniston, graduated 1904; worked as a stenographer in her father’s law practice; University of Alabama School of Law, graduated 1908. Admitted to the bar. 1908; became the first woman to practice law in Alabama; admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Alabama, 1909; admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, 1914, the first Southern woman so admitted. Practiced law, Birmingham, 1908-1918 and 1924-1931; legal staff of the U.S. Interior Dept., 1918-1924. Retired from the practice of law in 1931;  inspector of county records and acquisitions agent for Alabama Department of Archives and History, 1943-56. Active in the Democratic Party, and spoke at rallies and in campaigns; appointed, 1930, to organize the women Democrats of Alabama; represented Alabama as official hostess at the 1932 Democratic National Convention. Member; Alabama Division, United Daughters of the Confederacy; Daughters of the American Revolution; Alabama Society of the United States Daughters of 1812; Alabama Equal Suffrage Association; American Legion Auxiliary; and other cultural, patriotic and historical organizations. Named to Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame, 1990, and Alabama Lawyers’ Hall of Fame, 2014. Died April 2, 1973.

Source:

Owen’s The Story of Alabama, Vol. V. Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame website.

Publication(s):

Descent from Richard Pace of Pace’s Pains and Samuel Macock. S.l.; s.n. (typescript), 1947.

Compiler;

Lineage Book of the Alabama Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Birmingham, Ala.; Works Progress Administration, 1937.

Papers;

The papers of Maud McLure Kelly are held by the library at Samford University.