Betty Evans Boone was born October 4, 1928, and married her high school sweetheart, Jim, in 1950. Betty and Jim moved to San Diego in 1959 where she landed a secretarial position with Dutch Higgs’ firm. She enrolled in the USD law school night program in August of 1959, as the lone woman in the school. After being admitted to the Bar in 1965, she looked for work as a lawyer, but the private law firms and public legal offices said, “no women lawyers.” She was able to secure a position as in-house counsel for Title Insurance & Trust, where the local company manager used her initials so that corporate wouldn’t know he had hired a female attorney. In 1967, Betty became the first female deputy with the Office of County Counsel. She was eventually promoted and became the first female Chief Deputy. After 14 years with that office, she left to be an Administrative Hearing Officer.

Betty once said, success was defined by simply getting a job, but that was not enough for her. At the heart of Betty’s story is her undaunted perseverance to push for progress for herself and other women in the legal field. Betty was recognized with the Belva Lockwood Award, Lawyers Club’s Icon Award, and San Diego County Bar Association’s Legends of the Bar. She was also inducted into the San Diego Women’s Hall of Fame with the Women’s Museum of California.