Louise Raggio

Louise Raggio (June 15, 1919 – January 23, 2011) was a Texas lawyer for more than fifty years. She was the first female prosecutor in Dallas County, Texas.[1] She spearheaded a coalition to establish the Marital Property Act of 1967 (which went into effect on January 1, 1968[2]), and the Texas Family Code.

Early life

Louise Hilma Ballerstedt[3] was born into a German immigrant family on June 15, 1919 at her grandmother's home in Austin, Texas. She attended the University of Texas, where she earned her bachelor's degree summa cum laude in 1939. She married Grier Raggio, who was then a government lawyer, in 1941.[3] During her years of raising three sons she attended Southern Methodist University at night earning her law degree by 1952.[1]

Career

Louise Raggio found a job working as an assistant district attorney in Dallas County in 1954 and was put in charge of child support, delinquent fathers, juvenile court and family law. While working as a prosecutor, she learned that married women had fewer rights in Texas than single women, i.e. married women in Texas had limited property rights and couldn't take out bank loans or start their own businesses without their husband's approval.[4] One of her quotes in the KERA Texas TrailerBlazer about her sums up the situation of a woman at the altar in Texas: "When a man and woman got married, they were one, and he was the one."

Louise Raggio began to fight for the rights of women and became the first female prosecutor in Dallas County, Texas.

Death

Louise Raggio died on January 23, 2011.[1]

Notes
  1. Abshire, Richard (January 23, 2011). "Louise Raggio, trailblazing Dallas lawyer, dies at 91". The Dallas Morning News.
  2. 🖉"Until 1968, a Married Texas Woman Couldn't Own Property or Start a Business Without Her Husband's Permission. This Dallas Attorney Changed That. – Texas Monthly". www.texasmonthly.com. 5 January 2021.
  3. Collins, Jeanne C. (Fall 2004). "Louise B. Raggio: Handing the Torch to Today's Generation" (PDF). Texas Women Lawyers. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-01-11.
  4. Baker, Debra (November 1998). "A Lone Star". ABA Journal.

References
  • "Texas Tornado" The Life of a Crusader for Women's Rights and Family Justice", by Louise Ballerstedt Raggio and Vivian Anderson Castleberry, Kensington Publishing Corp, New York City: 2003; ISBN 0-8065-2452-9
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