Oklahoma Bar Journal
The Back Page | Southern Lady in the Queen of Three Valleys[1]
By Mark A. Morrison
Recently, the Oklahoma Bar Journal highlighted “Women in Law.” I wish to remember Priscilla Wooten Utterback, who was a very prominent woman in the legal profession in early southern Oklahoma.
Priscilla Wooten Utterback was born Dec. 10, 1902, in Holly Springs, Mississippi; she was the daughter of William Elbert Utterback and Valerie Burton Utterback. Her parents brought her to Durant when she was 6 years old, and she lived in Durant all of her life. She graduated from the then-Southeastern Oklahoma State Teachers College in Durant in 1924 and was named a distinguished alumna.
Miss Utterback, as she preferred to be addressed, began law school but returned to Durant to care for her ailing mother. She “read for the law” in her father’s office after the law books came in the mail. She passed the Oklahoma Bar Examination and was admitted to the Oklahoma Bar in December 1929. She became associated with her father's firm of Utterback and Stinson in January 1930, which later became Utterback, Stinson and Utterback. In 1938, the firm became Utterback and Utterback and remained a partnership until Priscilla's father died in 1950. After her father’s death, Miss Utterback continued to practice in Durant until her death in 1989.
She served as president of the Bryan County Bar Association and as vice president of the Oklahoma Association of Women Lawyers. In 1936, she became vice president of the League of Young Democrats for Oklahoma. She was a member of the Board of Trustees for the Oklahoma Presbyterian College, the Robert Lee Williams Library board, Oklahoma Heritage Association Board of Directors, the American College of Probate Counsel and Business and Professional Women, where she was woman of the year. She was a board member of the Highland Cemetery in Durant, a life member of the Oklahoma Historical Society and the American Judicature Society, a charter member of the American Legion Auxiliary and an honorary state member of Delta Kappa Gamma. In her early years, Miss Utterback took a great interest in Democratic politics. In 1936, she attended the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia, carrying the proxy of Sen. T. P. Gore. She was elected secretary of the Oklahoma delegation.
Miss Utterback was a trailblazer for women in law in southeastern Oklahoma. She recounted that in her earlier years, she was the only woman present in most of the convention meetings that she attended. She received the full attention of everyone, including the judge, at any hearing or meeting that she participated in. She possessed an impeccable wit and, with her signature Southern drawl, was unmatched in her oratory skills and legal knowledge. Miss Utterback had a front row seat as a young lady to the developing Oklahoma politics of the day. Judge Robert L. Williams, first chief justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, third governor of Oklahoma, U.S. district judge of the Eastern District of Oklahoma and judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals, was a close friend of the Utterback family and a frequent visitor to the Utterback home in Durant when he traveled to Bryan County to check on his ranch property.
Author’s Note: The information presented herein was garnered from an obituary, various news articles published in the Durant Daily Democrat and from my personal and professional knowledge.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark A. Morrison is a district judge for the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, former special judge for Bryan County and a long-time general practitioner in Durant.
ENDNOTES
[1] The Queen of Three Valleys has long beena moniker/nickname for the city of Durant beinggeographically situated within the Red, Blue andWashita River Valleys
Originally published in the Oklahoma Bar Journal – OBJ 95 No. 9 (November 2024)
Statements or opinions expressed in the Oklahoma Bar Journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Oklahoma Bar Association, its officers, Board of Governors, Board of Editors or staff.