Douglas County District Court Judge Sally Pokorny works in her office.

Despite spending summer days hanging out in a graveyard with other teenagers, no skeletons were found in Sally Pokorny’s closets during the thorough background checks and process leading to her appointment as a Douglas County District Court judge.

“Independence (Kan.) usually has 10,000 residents, and organized activities were few and far between, so I spent my summers at the pool,” she explains. “The cemetery was between the swimming pool and Dairy Queen, an ideal location to hang out with my friends. It was also very shady and very interesting, because I loved history and enjoyed the language used on gravestones like ‘Martha beloved daughter of …’ and so on. Playwright William Inge and the physician who treated the Ingalls (family) during the scarlet fever outbreak are buried there.”

Between “graveyard shifts,” Pokorny, who’d been trained by the Red Cross, worked as a lifeguard and swimming teacher.

“Just seeing people who were at first terrified of water gaining confidence and jumping off the high board by summer’s end was very satisfying,” she recalls.

Buoyed by her success, she decided to be a teacher. She graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in history and education from Washburn University in 1975. A stint as a student teacher in Topeka scuttled her plans.

“Teaching junior high was very different from teaching swimming,” she says with a laugh. “I sat on my front porch weighing my options. I knew I could sell shirts at Penny’s or serve at Denny’s but thought I wanted something more. I looked up and saw Washburn law school sitting kitty-corner to my house and decided to postpone adulthood for another while and go to law school.”

She found her niche. She loves law. She graduated with a J.D. in 1978, and adulthood began in earnest.

She has served as Shawnee County’s assistant district attorney, adjunct professor in trial techniques at Washburn, Cherryvale city attorney, part-time child support enforcement attorney for Social and Rehabilitative Services and worked in private practice in Montgomery County.

She moved to Lawrence in 2006 to live closer to her two sons, who attend Washburn, and she worked at David J. Brown’s law offices until her judicial appointment.

“I was sworn in (Jan. 15, 2009) and thrown into the courtroom after two days of ‘judge school’ in Topeka,” she explains. “It’s a bit of a sink-or-swim system. The Douglas County judges are very supportive of each other and are willing to throw out a lifeline, but you have to let them know you’re drowning. I was surprised at the amount of paperwork I have to review. I’d been warned about it but didn’t believe it.”

Despite her busy schedule, including the ongoing research needed to make balanced judicial decisions, Pokorny still finds time to swim and read.

“I love what I do,” she says. “Every day is a new day, and I get to hear such interesting cases.”