With Justice — now Dean — Gary Wade on our cover this month, it seemed like a good time to add up all the times the Tennessee Bar Journal has connected to its judicial roots by reporting on the moves of the members of our Supreme Court. The Journal started out with Tennessee’s Supreme Court Justice Hamilton S. Burnett giving it his congratulations in 1965 and has included much news of the court for 50 years, as new justices have joined and left it.

The Hon. Joe Henry died in 1980 while serving on the court and was honored within these pages with a tribute by Ray L. Brock Jr. and several others.

In 1990, the Hon. William J. Harbison became the first justice to have his picture on the Journal’s cover, along with a story on the occasion of his retirement from the court and his return to private practice.

Download a PDF of this article.

A Tradition Was Born … Eventually

We didn’t start out to profile all retiring justices. It happened little by little until one day we looked up and realized we had a tradition. It’s a good tradition except that because it didn’t start with an actual plan, we missed a few early on the new process. We only wish now the tradition had been solidified sooner.

The justices who have graced the cover are Harbison, Martha Craig “Cissy” Daughtrey (who left the Supreme Court in 1993 for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, although she was not featured in the Journal until 2003 when she was awarded with the American Bar Association’s Margaret Brent Award); Frank Drowota (2005), Mickey Barker (2008), A.A. Birch (2006), E. Riley Anderson (2006), Bill Koch (2014), Janice Holder (2014) and Gary Wade (2015).

Sharon Lee, who is the current chief justice, appeared on last month’s cover to promote the state’s new Business Court. Hopefully our tradition is not so ingrained that lawyers don’t think she has retired — because she has not. That issue serves to point out that over the years the Journal has also covered many important court initiatives, not just retirements.

Many members of the Tennessee Bar Association staff — Allan Ramsaur, Barry Kolar, Landry Butler, Jenny Jones, Liz Todaro, Julie Swearingen, Gina Jones, David Duke and I — have contributed: interviewing, writing and shooting/orchestrating many of these covers.

I recall the quiet demeanor of Justice Harbison, peering over the disheveled stacks of papers on his Supreme Court desk and then, a few weeks later meeting him in the beautiful high-rise conference room at O’Hare, Sherrard & Roe (now Sherrard & Roe). Still the same gentle smile, he greeted us as old friends.

And how lucky was I to be there to take that picture of Chief Justice Lyle Reid dancing with his wife! (He is a really good dancer AND a Supreme Court justice. I was starstruck.)

Before I interviewed Justice Daughtrey for her cover article I had included her in a news item when she was appointed to the Supreme Court. In giving her bio I had incorrectly written that she had been on the “Criminal Court of Appeals.” I soon received a hand-written note from her saying something like “Suzanne, we may not always make a decision everyone agrees with, but we are not criminal. It’s the Court of Criminal Appeals!” 

On the day we shot the cover for Justices Anderson and Birch, Julie Swearingen was asking follow-up questions. What sticks in my mind most is that there were two executions scheduled for that day and they told us they were in town in case the court needed to make a last-minute ruling. It was a difficult circumstance, and I recall it was hard to make them smile.

My laptop battery appeared to be dead when I arrived for Justice Koch’s interview — a reporter’s nightmare. The Supreme Court building is old with very few outlets and the usable one turned out to be through a bookshelf packed full. Not blinking an eye and before I could object, Justice Koch was down on his hands and knees, smiling and moving books, unplugging a lamp — I was dying of embarrassment but it seemed to be all in a day’s work for him. I sure did appreciate the grace he showed me that day.

These are the things I think of when I consider the Tennessee judiciary: judges who are thoughtful and kind, smart and eloquent, yes. But also real people with real stories just like the rest of us. We are proud that this magazine has been able to highlight some of them.