town during the Depression. Her sister class of one hundred students. In the settled in Pauls Valley on the same street and their childhood friends knew she 1940s, only 2.4% of the nation’s lawyers where Wilson grew up. She chose to was destined to fulfill her dream and were women. stay home and raise her daughter until become a career woman. Wilson was a Wilson graduated law school at a she was in high school. Wilson didn’t just straight-A student, described as brilliant, time when the roles of women and men stay at home, it was during this time she industrious, outgoing, and hardworking. began to shift in the United States. The earned a pilot’s license. In addition to her and her sister being country was entering World War I and Georgia Nelson, a writer for The athletes on the school’s tennis team, the increase of labor demands, coupled Oklahoman, penned a 1957 article she played the piano and was often with the departing of soldiers, created titled “Seven Women Judges Win Place selected for the lead role in school plays. opportunities for women in industries in Man’s Profession”. In it she stated, Wilson’s hard work as a young student previously dominated by men. Though the “Oklahoma’s women lawyers could not be was recognized when she was named end of the war would mean employers said to dominate the state judiciary—yet. valedictorian for her graduating class in wanted to give back those positions to But keep an eye on them. Seven have made 1935. At the Pauls Valley High School returning veterans, there was a growing a wedge in what until very recent time graduation, she played the piano as her number of career-oriented women who was considered strictly as a man’s field.” class walked in and as they shuffled out, believed working outside the home, In the 1960s, Wilson returned to delivering her class address in between. combined with being a wife and a practicing law with the goal of earning a Wilson and her sister would go on to mother, fulfilled them. The make-up judicial appointment. She became a Pauls Surrounded by family and friends, Alma Bell married Bill Wilson in 1948. Courtesy Oklahoma Alma Bell Wilson and her twin sister Wilma. Hall of Fame Archives. Courtesy Oklahoma Hall of Fame Archives. study at the University of Oklahoma. of the country’s labor force gradually Valley Municipal Judge in 1967, serving Their father would pass away during began to change. for two years. In 1969 she was appointed their junior year. Their mother, a talented In 1941, Wilson was one of the first Special District Judge for Garvin and seamstress that made most of their clothes women to serve as a federal court law McClain counties, a post she filled for as children, moved to Norman and clerk in Oklahoma. She worked in the six years. In 1974 she received the Guy opened a boarding house to make sure offices of U.S. District Judge Eugene Brown Award for extraordinary service in her daughters finished college. After Rice of Muskogee, thus beginning her recognition of her four years of service as graduation, her sister married, but Wilson dedication to improving the administration a member of the OU Association Board continued on to law school at OU. She of justice. In her early career, Wilson of Directors. Prior to her board term she worked as a secretary on campus during worked at many prominent law firms in served as a member of the Alumnae the school year and spent her summers Oklahoma City and Pauls Valley. This led Council. She was also the recipient of the working at law offices in Oklahoma City. her to meeting Bill Wilson. They married 1974 Outstanding Chi Omega Award. She earned her law degree in 1941 and in 1948 and welcomed their only child, Cleta Deatherage Mitchell, a former was one of six women in the graduating daughter Lee Anne, in 1951. The family member of the Oklahoma House of 35 35