The Oklahoma Bar Journal September 2024

W omen in L aw

Bernice Beckham

B ERNICE DONA BERRY BECKHAM WAS BORN IN ENID IN 1910. She attended schools in Enid, skipping several grades in high school and combining her last year of college at Phillips University with her first year of law school at the OU College of Law. In addition to her academic achievements, Ms. Beckham was a member of the debate and swim teams throughout high school and college. She was also a competitive bridge player in college, a hobby that continued while she was in law school. As one of only two female students in her class at the OU College of Law, she was made a member of the Order of the Coif thanks to her academic achievements. 1 She graduated from law school in 1931 and was admitted to the bar on July 7, 1931.

the secretary of the War Production Board and resided in Washington, D.C. His extensive travel schedule allowed Ms. Beckham the oppor tunity to return to Oklahoma City, where she practiced law part time out of her home in Nichols Hills during the war. Her prac tice involved divorces, trusts

Like several other female lawyers at the time, Ms. Beckham was active in politics, supporting the Democratic Party in Enid and Oklahoma City. According to her daughter, Joan Whitmore, Ms. Beckham was unable to find a job in the male-dominated legal profession despite her academic credentials and her community and political involvement. Determined to practice law, she opened her own office in Enid’s Broadway Tower in 1931, where she practiced until moving to Oklahoma City in 1940. 2 It is said that she took every case that walked through her door. Ms. Beckham and Attorney General Mac Q. Williamson were attorneys of record for the respondents in a reported decision against the State Industrial Commission in an accidental personal injury. 3 After moving to Oklahoma City, Ms. Beckham worked for the U.S. Department of Justice and, after Pearl Harbor, for the Department

of Defense in California. She met her future husband, John Leslie Beckham, in Enid. After Mr. Beckham proposed, she quit her job with the Department of Defense, and the couple married on Aug. 4, 1944, in Dallas. 4 During World War II, Mr. Beckham was assistant to

After her friend and former law school classmate, Curtis P. Harris, offered her a job in the district attorney’s office, Ms. Beckham became Oklahoma City’s first female assistant district attorney in 1966.

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.

44 | SEPTEMBER 2024

THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL