Matthews, Annabel, 1883-1960

Annabel Matthews, lawyer and government tax expert, was born in Culloden, Georgia on December 31, 1883, the daughter of Alphonso Houghton and Augusta Louisa (Vaughan) Matthews. Her schooling prior to college was begun at home and continued in the ungraded public schools in the small towns of Barnesville and Culloden. At the age of fourteen (1898) she entered Brenau College, Gainesville, Georgia and graduated with an AB degree in 1901. She taught first, fourth, and seventh grades in Gainesville and Thomasville public schools (1901-1914) before becoming a technical clerk in the income tax division of the Bureau of Internal Revenue in Washington, D. C.

She advanced steadily within the Bureau. In 1918, realizing a full legal background would allow her a broader field of work and more rapid promotion, she began studying law at night at Washington College of Law. In 1921, at the age of 35, she graduated with honors and was admitted to the Washington bar. She was assigned to the general counsel's office of the Bureau as an attorney in 1925, the second woman to be so honored. As "the expert in the United States service who knew the most about the taxation of non-residents, aliens, and foreign corporations under the Federal tax laws," she was sent as the assistant to the American delegate to two League of Nations Conferences on double taxation (London, 1927; Geneva, 1928).

In 1930 President Hoover appointed her to fill an unexpired term on the U. S. Board of Tax Appeals. She was the first woman to serve on the Board, which heard the appeals of taxpayers who owed additional income or estate taxes and determined whether the deficiency had to be paid. These hearings were held throughout the United States and AM presided over many of them, earning her the title of "Judge" Matthews. President Roosevelt did not reappoint AM to the Board in 1936 and she returned to the chief counsel's office of the Bureau of Internal Revenue. In 1944 she retired from government work and entered private practice.

President Truman appointed her to the Fair Employment Board of the Civil Service Commission in 1948 where she served until 1954. Her appointment was opposed by the American Council on Human Rights, the National Council of Negro Women, and the CIO United Public Workers Union because of her prominent role in preventing blacks from becoming members of the Washington chapter of the American Association of University Women.

During her lifetime AM was a trustee of Brenau College and held active memberships in the American Bar Association, the Women's Bar Association (D.C. chapter, President 1937-1939), League of Women Voters (D.C.), American Association of University Women, Phi Mu sorority, and the Phi Delta Delta legal fraternity. She was active and vocal throughout her lifetime about the role and position of women in the work force, especially in the federal government.

Annabel Matthews died March 24, 1960 in Washington, D. C.