State Supreme Court Justice. She received recognition as the first woman state Supreme Court Chief Justice in the United States and the first woman Superior Court Judge in North Carolina. She was the oldest of eleven children that survived to adulthood. Born Susie Marshall Sharp, she attended Reidsville public schools graduating as class salutatorian, North Carolina College for Women majoring in chemistry and law, and as the only woman in her class, the University of North Carolina Law School. While in law school, she became the editor of the North Carolina Law Review. In 1928 she became licensed to practice law and joined her father, James Sharp, in the law firm of Sharp and Sharp, where she practiced for twenty years. In the 1930s, she mainly did research, as female lawyers were rare and not easily accepted in a male-dominated profession. In the State of North Carolina, women were not allowed to serve on juries until 1946, much less accepted as a trial lawyer in the courtroom. Appointed in 1939, she was the City Attorney of Reidsville, North Carolina, for ten years. She served as Special Judge for the Superior Court of North Carolina from 1949 to 1962. She had a keen interest in prison conditions all her professional life. She was appointed Associate Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court on March 14, 1962, and was re-elected to that position for another eight-year-term. She was elected Chief Justice on November 5, 1974, where she served until her mandatory retirement on July 31, 1979. Though the years, she received numerous honorary college degrees and other awards. In 1952, the February issue of the "Ladies Home Journal" recognized her as one of the thirteen outstanding women in public office throughout the United States. Twenty-four years later, she was selected by "Time" magazine in its January 6, 1976 issue as one of twelve women of the year for 1975.