Home County: Boone
Term of Service on the Supreme Court of Missouri: January 1989 – January 2001
Judge Ann K. Covington was born March 5, 1942, in Fairmont, West Virginia.[i] She was educated in the area public schools before she attended Duke University, graduating in 1963 with a bachelor of arts in English literature and history.[ii] From 1963 to 1965, she served on the teaching staff of Oxfordshire Schools in Oxford, England.[iii] Covington received her law degree in 1977 from the University of Missouri-Columbia and later attended a post-graduate appellate judge course at New York University’s Institute of Judicial Administration.[iv] She served as an assistant attorney general in Missouri from 1977 to 1979[v] and then was in the private practice of law in Columbia until 1987.[vi]
On September 3, 1987, Governor John Ashcroft appointed Covington as the first woman to serve on the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District.[vii] On December 27, 1988, he appointed her as the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court of Missouri.[viii] She was sworn in the following month[ix] and was retained by voters in November 1990.[x] She was chief justice of the Court from July 1, 1993 to July 1, 1995,[xi] making her the first woman to serve as Missouri’s chief justice.[xii] In December 2000, Judge Covington announced she would step down from the Court to return to private practice.[xiii] After retiring from the Court January 31, 2001, Covington accepted a position as partner at Bryan Cave LLP.[xiv] She retired from the law firm in February 2010.[xv]
Covington has served with several professional boards and has been a member of numerous organizations, including: the Mid-Missouri Legal Services Corporation, Juvenile Justice Advisory Board,[xvi] National Center for State Courts,[xvii] and a member of the American Bar Association. Covington also served on the University of Missouri’s board of curators and for many years as a member of the Truman Scholarship and Mark Twain Fellowship committees at MU, and has mentored numerous law students.[xviii] In 1998, Covington helped establish the Women’s Justice Awards.[xix]
Covington received many awards and honors for her contributions to the legal community. She was honored with Statesman of the Month in May 1994 by The Jefferson City News Tribune,[xx] and Statesman of the Year in 1995.[xxi] The Women Lawyers’ Association awarded Covington the President’s Award in 1995.[xxii] In 1996, she was awarded the Second Annual President’s Award by the Women Legislators of Missouri.[xxiii] Covington has been a member of Honorary Order of the Coif, Council of the State Toll Fellows, the Academy of Missouri Squires, the Advisory Committee on the Rules of Evidence of the Judicial Conference of the United States.[xxiv] Covington also received the Citation of Merit and Faculty-Alumni Award from the University of Missouri.[xxv]
In 2002, she was awarded the Athena Award by the Woman’s Network of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce.[xxvi] Covington was inducted into the Missouri Public Affairs Hall of Fame in 2017, and the American Bar Association has recognized her as one of the Women Trailblazers in the Law.[xxvii]
[i] Mo Lawyers Weekly Staff, “Judge Ann K. Covington,” Missouri Lawyers Weekly, Monday, December 25, 2000.
[ii] Mo Lawyers Weekly Staff, “Judge Ann K. Covington.”
[iii] Mo Lawyers Weekly Staff, “Judge Ann K. Covington.”
[iv] Mo Lawyers Weekly Staff, “Judge Ann K. Covington.”
[v] Mo Lawyers Weekly Staff, “Judge Ann K. Covington.”
[vi] Rebecca McDowell Cook, Secretary of State, and Julius Johnson, ed. Official Manual of the State of Missouri 1999-2000, (Published by the Missouri Secretary of State's Office: Jefferson City, MO, 2000), 195; Martha Brendel, "Legal Pioneer Ready for Next Adventure," Saturday Business Magazine, Columbia Daily Tribune, Saturday, June 16, 2001.
[vii] Bill Bell, Jr. “Ann Covington, 1st woman on the state high court, resigns,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Friday, December 15, 2000. See also: St. Louis Daily Record Staff, “Chief Justice Covington to be honored at WLA dinner,” St. Louis Daily Record, Friday, May 19, 1995. See also: Roy D. Blunt, Secretary of State, Steven N. Ahrens, ed., Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1989-1990, (Jefferson City, MO: Missouri Secretary of State’s Office, 1990), 178.
[viii] Bill Bell, Jr. “Ann Covington, 1st woman on the state high court, resigns,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Friday, December 15, 2000. See also: St. Louis Daily Record Staff, “Chief Justice Covington to be honored at WLA dinner,” St. Louis Daily Record, Friday, May 19, 1995. See also: Roy D. Blunt, Secretary of State, Steven N. Ahrens, ed., Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1989-1990, (Jefferson City, MO: Missouri Secretary of State’s Office, 1990), 178.
[ix] Scott Lauck, “Covington to retire from Bryan Cave,” St. Louis Daily Record, Monday, February 22, 2010.
[x] Roy D. Blunt, Secretary of State, Steven N. Ahrens, ed. "Supreme Court General Election: November 6, 1990 Returns," Official Manual of the State of Missouri, 1991-1992, (Published by the Missouri Secretary of State's Office: Jefferson City, MO, 1992), 513 and 514.
[xi] Lauck, “Covington to retire from Bryan Cave.” See also: The Statesman Staff, “Statesman of the Month: Missouri Chief Justice Ann Covington,” The Statesman, Wednesday, March 8, 1995.
[xii] Elizabeth Gorman, “Former judge Covington wins award,” Columbia Missourian, Friday, March 8, 2002. See also: Chief Justice Covington to be honored at WLA dinner.”
[xiii] Lauck, “Covington to retire from Bryan Cave.” See also: Bill Bell, Jr., “Ann Covington, 1st woman on state high court, resigns.”
[xiv]Missouri State Staff, “Missouri Public Affairs Hall of Fame inductees announced,” Missouri State News, Tuesday, January 24, 2017.
[xv] Lauck, “Covington to retire from Bryan Cave.”
[xvi] Gorman, “Former judge Covington wins award.”
[xvii] Lisa R. Brown, “Judge Covington to leave Missouri high court in January,” St. Louis Daily Record, Friday, December 22, 2000.
[xviii] Missouri State Staff, “Missouri Public Affairs Hall of Fame inductees announced.”
[xix] Allison Retka, “Honorees excel as litigators, leaders, in-house counsel,” Missouri Lawyers Weekly, Volume 24, No. 6, February 8, 2010, 2.
[xx] The Statesman Staff, “Statesman of the Month: Ann Covington.”
[xxi] The Statesman Staff, “Statesman of the Year: Missouri Chief Justice Ann Covington,” The News Tribune, March 1995.
[xxii] Lontai, “Justice wins President’s Award.”
[xxiii] The Countian Staff, “Judge Ann Covington, Frankie Freeman honored by Women Legislators of Missouri,” The St. Louis Countian, Thursday Morning, April 4, 1996.
[xxiv] St. Louis Daily Record Staff, “Chief Justice Covington to be honored at WLA dinner.”
[xxv] St. Louis Daily Record Staff, “Chief Justice Covington to be honored at WLA dinner.”
[xxvi] Elizabeth Gorman, “Former judge Covington wins award.”
[xxvii] Missouri State Staff, “Missouri Public Affairs Hall of Fame inductees announced.”
Biographical information authored by Ms. Megan Vancil, 2018, University of Missouri-Columbia.