Everett, R. O. (Reuben Oscar), 1879-1971

Lawyer in Durham, N.C.

Kathrine Robinson Everett (1893-1992) and Reuben Oscar Everett (1879-1971), were husband and wife lawyers who shared a practice in Durham, N.C. Kathrine R. Everett, the first woman to win a case before the North Carolina Supreme Court, received her J.D. from the University of North Carolina Law School in 1920, making her one of the school's first women graduates. She began her legal career with the firm of her father, Henry McDiarmid Robinson, mayor of Fayetteville, N.C., 1923-1925. In 1926, she married R. O. Everett, attorney, state legislator, and civic and cultural leader of North Carolina. R. O. Everett, student of law in the first class at Trinity College, became the first Durham city attorney and the first prosecuting attorney in the Durham Recorder's Court, and served five terms in the state House of Representatives, 1921-1933. Their son, Robinson O. Everett (1928- ), Duke University law professor and judge in the United States Court of Military Appeals, joined his mother and father in the firm of Everett, Everett and Everett, 1956-1968. In 1954, the three were the first father, mother, and son to be admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court.

Kathrine R. Everett also was active in Democratic Party politics, serving on the Durham City Council, 1951-1971, and participating in many conventions and campaigns. She also worked for many civic organizations and was active in various women's organizations, including the Colonial Dames, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Business and Professional Woman's Club, the Federation of Women's Club, various organizations in Durham, and the Presbyterian Church. R. O. Everett, long active in political, civic, and religious affairs of the community, was a charter member of the Durham Merchants Association and the American Law Institute, as well as a lifelong member of the American Bar Association, the North Carolina Bar Association, the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association, the North Carolina Society of County and Local Historians, and the St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Durham.