Mildred Hermann was a lawyer, an articulate spokesperson on statehood for Alaska, a forceful delegate of the Alaska Constitutional Convention, a wife and mother and a life long advocate for research and treatment of tuberculosis, which was so prevalent in Alaska. She was born in Indiana, taught school for 9 years and came to Juneau, Alaska in 1919, where she began her study of the law with James Wickersham. She was admitted to the AK bar in 1934 and was the first woman to practice law in Juneau. She was a defense attorney for poor clients. From 1949-59 she served as Secretary of the Alaska Statehood Commission, the official organization responsible for organizing statewide support for Alaska’s admittance into the Union. At the Constitutional Convention Mildred was elected the Temporary President on the first day of the convention and was chosen as the delegate to close of the convention, in honor of her long service on behalf of statehood. Mildred was an imposing woman and was most comfortable with a rolling pin in her hands, which she kept on her desk to accentuate her points. The convention lasted 75 days and with the wave of her rolling pin, Mildred reminded her colleagues daily of the volume of work to be accomplished to meet the schedule. After the convention she became a reporter for the Anchorage Times covering the state legislature and the new state government she had helped to launch.

She was an active member of the Alaskan Federation of Women’s Clubs, the National Federation of Women’s Clubs, the National Association of Women Lawyers, the National Association of Press Women, the Soroptimist Club, Republican Women’s Association and served on the board of the Alaska Tuberculosis Society for 18 years.

Sources

Creating Alaska website, University of Alaska
https://www.alaska.edu/creatingalaska/convention/delegates/awes.xml
Kristin Boraas, “Mildred Robinson Hermann: Queen Mother of the Alaskan Statehood”
Women in the Legal Profession, for Professor Barbara Babcock, Fall 2000