Lillian Exum Clement Stafford (b. Mar. 12, 1892, Black Mountain, NC-d. Feb 21, 1925, Asheville, NC) was the first woman in North Carolina to establish a law practice of her own in 1917. In 1920, she was the first woman elected to the North Carolina State Legislature and the first female legislator in the American South.
Known to most as Exum, her family moved to Asheville, NC and knew the owners of the Biltmore estate, George and Edith Vanderbilt, and their daughter Cornelia. In 1908, while working in sherriff's office, Exum studied law with James Jefferson Britt and Robert G. Goldstein since women were not able to attend law school. She earned one of the highest scores on the bar exam in 1916 and became the first female attorney in North Carolina without male partners in 1917.
Exum married E. Eller Stafford in March 1921 and gave birth to her daughter, Nancy Lillian Stafford, in 1923. A founding member of the local chapter of the National Business and Professional Women’s Club, Exum served as a director of the State Hospital in Morganton, N.C. She died of pneumonia in 1925.
