Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Kay McFarland, shown earlier this month in her Topeka office, is celebrating three decades on the court.

Topeka ? In her first day on the job, Kay McFarland made history but lost some of her office furniture.

Thirty years later, McFarland, the Kansas Supreme Court’s chief justice and its first woman, chuckles about the tradition then of allowing justices to claim items from a newly retired colleague’s old office that became her office. McFarland recalled that whenever she took a break from hearing cases that first day, something else had gone missing. She had to scramble to replace it.

She’s faced far more serious issues since then, particularly since becoming chief justice in 1995. They included financial problems that once threatened to shorten hours at county courthouses and ordering legislators to spend more money for public schools.

McFarland was also the first female district court judge.

“This didn’t all happen as some wonderful plan that I had,” she said during a recent interview. “It’s just sort of being in the right place at the right time.”

Only three justices have served longer than McFarland out of the 67 since 1861. For more than 26 years, McFarland remained the only woman on the court, but in 2003, Justices Marla Luckert and Carol Beier joined her.

“She was a great role model for many other women,” said Pat Ranson, who as a top aide in 1977 to Gov. Robert Bennett pushed strongly for McFarland’s appointment. “We see more women on the courts at all levels. I think we see lots more women in law school.”

Equestrian background

Now 72, McFarland grew up in Topeka, where her father was school superintendent and later became a nationally known motivational speaker. In the late 1940s, her parents purchased a ranch, and the city grew up around its 139 acres.

McFarland grew up around Tennessee walking horses, a breed known for its graceful movements, a favorite among equine aficionados. She competed regularly and in 1957 she was world amateur champion. In 1963, she won two major events at the National Celebration in Shelbyville, Tenn., the breed’s equivalent of the World Series.

She delayed her entry into law school at Washburn University in Topeka for more than four years to compete in horse shows. She’d graduated from Washburn with degrees in English and political science but didn’t think she could make a living.

‘I’ll try it and see’

“I thought, ‘I ought to have some salable skill here, a profession.’ The law sounded interesting,” she said. “I started it with just, ‘I’ll try it and see.”‘

She graduated in 1964 and spent a half-dozen years in private practice. In 1970, voters elected McFarland a juvenile and probate judge in Shawnee County.

McFarland gained a reputation both for cracking down on young offenders and for returning part of her annual budget unspent. She won her district judgeship two years later, running as a Republican.

In 1977, with an opening on the Supreme Court, McFarland’s father and another judge persuaded her to put her name in nomination. A commission named her one of three finalists. Ranson said some of Bennett’s fellow attorneys opposed McFarland’s appointment, questioning whether she had enough experience.

“He was strong enough to buck his peers,” she said.

Former Justice Donald Allegrucci, who joined the court in 1987 and retired in January, said he heard similar questions when seniority elevated McFarland to chief justice in 1995. But, he said, she focused on the court’s real business and jettisoned less important traditions.

For example, one tradition dictated that justices be seated in order of seniority at some public events. Another tradition was special sessions after justices retired to hear what Allegrucci said amounted to funeral eulogies.

Her down-to-earth personality comes through in court opinions, too.

One memorable example was in 1994, when a 4-3 court majority said the term “lottery” in a state constitutional amendment allowing a state lottery was broad enough to cover slot machines and other casino games. The majority cited a long line of precedents involving the technicalities of past antigambling laws.

In her dissent, McFarland said the court should have stuck with the common understanding of a lottery: “If someone walked into a room full of people and yelled he had just won $100 in the lottery, no one would interpret this to mean the speaker had just had a lucky day at the dog track, a great night playing poker or blackjack or a luck streak playing slot machines.”

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Mike O’Neal, a Hutchinson attorney, said he appreciates McFarland’s opinions because she’s a “straight-talker.”

Her long career will end by January 2009 because the law prevents justices who are past 70 from asking voters to retain them for another six years. She said she hasn’t thought about retirement.