Washington Supreme Court Chief Justice Barbara Durham died Dec. 30 in Seattle.

She was born in Anacortes Oct. 6, 1942, to O.M. and Celia Durham.

When her father died in 1954, she moved to Vashon with her mother and her sister Mary Jo.

Her mother taught for 34 years at the Burton Elementary School, and Mrs. Durham graduated from Vashon High School in 1960.

After leaving Vashon, Mrs. Durham went to Gonzaga on scholarship and then transferred to Georgetown, where she graduated with a degree in finance in 1964. She then worked for a year as a financial analyst for Merrill Lynch and then left for Stanford University Law School, where she completed her studies in 1968.

While she was finishing law school, the prosecuting attorney of Seattle offered her a job, and she worked there for two years.

IN 1970 she and another attorney opened a law firm for three years on their own, and in 1973 she was appointed to Mercer Island District Court.

Four years later she was elected to King County Superior Court, and not long afterwards Governor Dixie Lee Raye appointed her to the Court of Appeals.

In 1984 she was elected as Chief Judge of Division One and a year later she was appointed to the state Supreme Court Jan. 1985. Ten years later, in 1995, she became the first woman chief justice of Washington.

When she retired in 1998, President Clinton was in the process of appointing her to the federal court of appeals, but she had to turn it down because of her illness, Alzheimer’s Disease.

Mrs. Durham is survived by her husband Charles Divelbiss of Oak Harbor and her sister Mary Jo Durham of Mt. Vernon. Celia Durham died in Dec., 1992.

Mrs. Durham was buried Jan 2 on Vashon Cemetery with the guidance of Island Funeral Service.

A memorial in downtown Seattle will be from 5 to 7 p.m Friday, Feb. 14, at the Washington Athletic Club. The public is invited.

Contributions are invited to the Barbara D. Memorial Fund For Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of Washington, Box 356465, Seattle 98195.