Betty Roberts

Betty Cantrell Roberts (February 5, 1923 – June 25, 2011) was an American politician and judge from the U.S. state of Oregon. She was the 83rd justice of the Oregon Supreme Court. She was the first woman to serve on the Oregon Supreme Court, and had also been the first woman on the Oregon Court of Appeals. Roberts served from 1982 to 1986 on the high court and from 1977 to 1982 on the Court of Appeals.

A native of Kansas and raised in Texas, Roberts had previously been elected to both chambers of the Oregon Legislative Assembly, but lost bids for the governor's office and the United States Senate, both in 1974. She was married three times, including to Frank L. Roberts and Keith Skelton, both of whom she would serve with in the Oregon Legislative Assembly. She was a private mediator and senior judge until her death due to pulmonary fibrosis.

Early life Betty Cantrell was born in Arkansas City, Kansas, on February 5, 1923. When she was six, her father became partially paralyzed and the family moved to Texas to be near her mother's family. She graduated from high school and then attended Texas Wesleyan College in Ft. Worth for one year starting in 1940. In 1942, during WWII, she married John Willard (Bill) Rice, a young soldier from Oregon who was stationed at Sheppard Field. By the 1950s Roberts was the mother of four children, Dian, John Jr., Jo, and Randy. After the family moved to Portland, she enrolled at Portland State College where she graduated in 1958 with a Bachelor of Science degree in education. She and Bill Rice divorced in 1959. She became a member of the Lynch Elementary School District school board, serving from 1960 to 1966. In 1968, she won election to the Oregon Senate representing Multnomah County in District 12, and was the only woman in the Oregon Senate at that time. That same year she married fellow legislator Keith D. Skelton, but retained the Roberts surname.

In 1974, Roberts ran for governor of Oregon (the fifth woman to do so), but lost in the Democratic primary to Robert W. Straub.

On September 1, 1977, Governor Robert W. Straub, a former opponent, appointed Roberts to the Oregon Court of Appeals to a new position, along with W. Michael Gillette, George M. Joseph, and John Buttler, when the court expanded from six to ten positions. Roberts was the first woman on that court, as well as the first on any appellate court in Oregon. The next year, she was up for election to retain her seat on the court, and won the election to a full six-year term. She was appointed to replace the retiring Justice Thomas Tongue, becoming the first woman on the Supreme Court. This requires people to attempt to retreat in most situations before one could use deadly force, even in self-defense.

Roberts was the sole dissenting justice in Bank of Oregon v. Independent News (298 Ore. 434), when the court ruled that banks were not public figures, making it easier for banks and their officials to sue journalists for libel. While on the bench, Roberts was recognized by both the University of Oregon and Portland State University for distinguished service. Roberts left in part due to the heavy workload of the job, in part due to the daily commute between her home in Portland and the Oregon Supreme Court Building in Salem, partly due to the stress of the job, and in part because her husband was retiring and asked her to travel with him. In 1986, Oregon's Mary Leonard Law Society for women attorneys gave Roberts their Distinguished Service Award, with the Oregon American Civil Liberties Union awarding her a Civil Liberties Award. After leaving the Oregon Supreme Court she was asked to help broker a settlement in a case by the Chief Justice, which led to a career in alternative dispute resolution, primarily as a mediator, but also as an arbitrator.

Roberts helped organize opposition in Oregon to Robert Bork's U.S. Supreme Court nomination. From 1988 to 1991, she was a visiting professor in political science at Oregon State University. She also served on the state's Commission on Higher Education in the late 1980s.

In 1992, Roberts was given the award bearing her name from the Oregon Women Lawyers.

In 2006, the American Bar Association awarded her the Margaret Brent Award from its Commission on Women in the Profession.

As of 2008, Roberts served as a private mediator in the Portland area, Her autobiography, With Grit and By Grace, Breaking Trails in Politics and Law, was published in 2008. on June 25, 2011. Representative Earl Blumenauer stated "She was one of a kind.... for over a quarter century, Betty Roberts had as much impact on the political process as anyone in Oregon."