Yvonne Kauger was born on August 3,1937 and is an American attorney and judge who served as a justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court from 1984 to 2024.
24 Facts About Yvonne Kauger
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Yvonne Kauger is the third longest serving Oklahoma Supreme Court justice and served as chief justice from 1997 to 1998.
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Yvonne Kauger was born in New Cordell, Oklahoma, and grew up in Colony, Oklahoma, and is an honorary member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.
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Yvonne Kauger serves as Symposium Coordinator of the annual Sovereignty Symposium.
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Yvonne Kauger was born in New Cordell, Oklahoma, on August 3,1937, to John and Alice Yvonne Kauger.
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Yvonne Kauger grew up on her family's farm in Colony, Oklahoma.
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Yvonne Kauger's father was close friends with Cheyenne artist Archie Blackowl.
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Yvonne Kauger was the valedictorian of her graduating class at Colony High School in 1955.
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Yvonne Kauger's sister died in a plane crash when she was young.
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Yvonne Kauger attended Southwestern Oklahoma State University where she majored in biology and minored in both chemistry and English.
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Yvonne Kauger graduated in three years and worked as a medical technician at a medical arts lab for five years after graduating from an internship program at Saint Anthony Hospital.
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Yvonne Kauger used this profession to fund her dream of becoming a lawyer.
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Yvonne Kauger received her Juris Doctor degree at Oklahoma City University School of Law in 1969, where she graduated first in her law school class.
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Yvonne Kauger was appointed to the Court by Governor George Nigh in 1984, and was the second woman appointed to the Oklahoma Supreme Court after Alma Wilson.
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Yvonne Kauger served as chief justice from January 1997 to January of 1999.
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Yvonne Kauger was the first justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court to lose a retention election and, including both her service as justice and staff attorney, is the longest serving attorney in the court's history with 52 years of service.
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Yvonne Kauger is the third longest serving Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice after Robert E Lavender and Denver Davison.
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In 1984, Yvonne Kauger was adopted by the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, the first non-Native American adopted by the tribe since statehood.
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In 1986, Chief Justice John B Doolin appointed Kauger to establish and coordinate the Sovereignty Symposium, which has become an annual two-day event sponsored by the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
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Yvonne Kauger received the Herbert Harley Award from the American Judicature Society in 1999 and was inducted into the Washita County Hall of Fame.
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Yvonne Kauger was inducted into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame in 2001, Oklahoma Hall of Fame, and twice received the Governor's Arts Award.
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Yvonne Kauger then collaborated with writer Gayleen Rabakukk and photographer Neil Chapman, while she served as editor herself.
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Yvonne Kauger wrote a concurrence, discussing how women had the right to abortion even when they lacked many other rights such as the right to vote.
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In June 2024, Yvonne Kauger authored a unanimous opinion which struck down a McCurtain County lodging tax election for failing to follow a state statute requiring the county to publish the ballot question "at least four weeks" in a county newspaper.