Mary Lou Robinson

Mary Lou Robinson (August 26, 1926 January 26, 2019) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Education and career Born on August 26, 1926, in Dodge City, Kansas, Robinson graduated from Amarillo High School in Amarillo, Texas, in 1944. Robinson received an associate degree from Amarillo College in 1946. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Texas at Austin in 1948 and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Texas School of Law in 1950. She met her husband A. J. Robinson at the university and the couple married in 1949. She was in private practice with her husband in Amarillo as Robinson & Robinson from 1950 to 1955. She was a judge of the County Court for Potter County, Texas, from 1955 to 1958. She was a judge of the 108th District Court of Texas in Amarillo from 1961 to 1973. During this time she spoke frequently about women's rights and helped to change a law that prohibited married women from entering into binding contracts. Robinson was a justice of the Court of Civil Appeals for the Seventh Supreme Judicial District of Texas from 1973 to 1979. She was later an associate of the same court and was chief justice from 1977 to 1979.