Lary Bloom
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Sunday, October 02, 2005
A Picture of Dignity
A few weeks before she died (and was eulogized in the New York Times and Washington Post), Judge Constance Motley had lunch with her old friend, Barbara Delaney. The two of them had met 35 years ago when the judge found a weekend home in Chester, Connecticut -- it was just the sort of tiny community that would offer a sense of solace and peace, after a week's worth of addressing legal enormities on the federal bench in New York City. Indeed, Constance Motley also became a part of ordinary small town life. After Barbara Delaney's beloved husband, Edmund, died she offered great measures of comfort and care.Barbara always looked forward to seeing her friend. She was in awe of Judge Motley's dignity, and of her record. The judge had been the only woman on the legal team led by Thurgood Marshall that successfully argued Brown vs. Board of Education before the U.S. Supreme Court. She later also made history when President Lyndon Baines Johnson made her the first black woman to be appointed a federal judge.
Barbara says, "I wish she were around to be appointed the next Supreme Court justice. She had a brilliant mind, and carried herself with such grace." Barbara has always made it a point to introduce her accomplished friends to new generations. So, at the last lunch she hosted for Judge Motley, she invited the sisters Judy and Becca Joslow, teenagers who had studied about the jurist's triumphs in school. They were in awe, sitting at the table with a legendary figure.
A few weeks later, after spending a few hours at her work, Constance Motley died in a New York hospital from heart failure. "We have no one around with that stature anymore," Barbara laments.
Posted by:Lary Bloom at 10:09 AM
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