A piece of Jefferson County’s judicial history is on display daily in Circuit Judge Joe Rathert’s courtroom.
If a visitor to Div. 1 at the County Courthouse in Hillsboro is lucky, that piece of history might be displayed by Rathert himself.
He recently was gifted a judicial robe, gavel and nameplate that belonged to the late Circuit Judge Irvin Emerson, who held court in the county from 1962 to 1986. Emerson died in an auto accident in 2013 at the age of 92.
Rathert said he was honored that Emerson’s five children entrusted him with the robe and other items.
“A judge’s robe represents the judicial branch of government,” he said. “As I see it, when you wear that robe, you’re representing the judiciary. And a gavel represents the administration of justice. When you hit that gavel, court begins and with it starts the administration of justice. When you hit it at the end, it represents that justice has indeed been administered. It’s an honor for me to take possession of those items.”
Rathert said he considers the gift a loan of sorts.
“When they gave them to me, I took them with the understanding that I would be the caretaker of this robe. If they ever want it back, I’ll give it back to them. When I retire in 10 or 15 years, if they want some other judge to wear it, I’ll make sure that happens.”
Rathert said he’ll don the robe for special occasions, such as when he presides over significant civil and criminal cases and ceremonies, like when judges are sworn in.
“When I’m not wearing it, it will be displayed in a case in my jury room with Judge Emerson’s nameplate so the people of Jefferson County can appreciate it,” he said.
The gavel, he said, will be used regularly.
“It looks like it was handmade. It’s definitely not made of pressed wood or something like that. It’s beautiful,” Rathert said.
Family members said the gavel was handed down to Emerson from his predecessor, Sam McKay.
Finding the robe
Karen Emerson, 64, of Fort Pierce, Fla., one of Emerson’s children, said she found the robe and gavel while she was sorting through items in her parents’ home in Hillsboro after the death of her mother, Betty (Reed) Emerson, last year.
“It turns out he still had his robe,” she said. “I think he held onto it because he was doing substitute work for the courts after he retired. Mom kept it in the closet, zipped it up in a bag and hung it in the back. I just had no idea Mom had saved it.
“When I found the robe, I was very surprised. But what do you do with a judicial robe? It’s not like you can just give it to Goodwill or something.”
“As far as I know, it was the only robe he ever had,” said her brother, Steve Emerson, 74, of Philadelphia, Miss.
“It’s the same robe Dad wears on his portrait that’s in the Courthouse, so that’s pretty impressive,” Karen said.
Huskey gets involved
After finding the robe, Karen and two of her other siblings, Janet Moore and Doug Emerson, put their heads together and came up with one solution: Call Mike Huskey, who retired after a 29-year career with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, mostly as a bailiff in the county courts.
“I guess I’m the one who put it together,” said Huskey, 73, of Hillsboro. “I grew up with Steve and (Dr. Dennis Emerson, another of the five children), and after their mom died, they got a hold of me and told me they found their dad’s robe and asked whether I knew anyone who might want it. A few days later, I was talking with (longtime attorney) Dave Senkel, and I mentioned it to him, and he said he believed the only judge in Hillsboro who might have known Judge Emerson was Joe Rathert. I called Joe, and he was very enthusiastic about the idea.”
Rathert said he and Irvin Emerson’s paths crossed often when Rathert was working as an attorney.
“Judge Emerson left the bench in 1986, and I became a judge in 1988, but he would always come back to the Courthouse and we’d talk,” Rathert said. “He was truly a wonderful person. He and Judge (Timothy) Patterson, Judge (John) Anderson, Judge (Dennis) Kehm and Judge (Bob) Wilkins were all role models for me. Judge Emerson had a good heart. He was a good person.”
With a new home for the robe and gavel lined up, Karen said she figured all was well.
“I just figured it would be a matter of delivering it to the judge and that would be it, that he would maybe just put it on for us and it would go into a display case,” she said. “But he had a very nice ceremony that was caught on video by Mike. He said some very kind things about Dad and it was obvious that getting the robe and the gavel meant something to him. None of us expected what he did.”
Steve also attended the March 13 ceremony.
“We really appreciated it as the family, knowing that Dad served a lot of his life in that building,” he said.
Huskey also was part of the ceremony.
“It was small – only Joe’s staff was there – but his bailiff wasn’t, so he asked me to bring the courtroom to attention. I wasn’t even in uniform or anything, but it wasn’t as if I hadn’t done that before. It was a nice little ceremony. Joe did a lot of research on Judge Emerson and read it to the courtroom that day.”
In addition, Presiding Judge Brenda Stacey proclaimed March 13 as Judge Irvin Emerson Day.
The family historian
Karen said over the last few years, she has assumed the role of family historian.
“My dad was a storyteller, which interested me in the history,” she said.
Karen said the tale of her parents’ first date is an interesting one.
“Mom was a nursing student at Missouri Baptist and she and her friends needed dates,” she said. “My dad, who was taking law classes at Mizzou, ended up hitchhiking from Columbia and back to meet her for a blind date,” she said. “My dad was going to college on the G.I. Bill (he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a mechanic shortly after the U.S. entered World War II), so he didn’t have any money. Hitchhiking, my dad said, was just a common way to get around back then.”
Irvin and Betty hit it off. So much so that she convinced him to leave Columbia, Karen said.
“Dad proposed but she was not agreeable to move, so he had to apply to law school (at St. Louis University). No credits were accepted (by SLU) and he simply had to start law school over,” she said. “He worked and went to what was common back then, ‘night law school,’ as he had a family to support.”
She said her father was admitted to the Missouri Bar in September 1951 and her parents moved to Jefferson County, where Betty’s family lived, and her father started work in the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office before he was elected to the bench as a probate judge. In a reorganization of the state’s court system, he became a circuit judge in 1979.
Steve said he’s glad his father’s robe ended up in the right place.
“It’s now a part of the history of the court system in Jefferson County,” he said. “We all thought it was the best benefit for everyone concerned to share it.”
Rathert said he recently wore the robe for a jury trial.
“The robe feels great. I’m a little heavier than he was, but I think it looks great and it feels great,” he said. “It does have some age on it, but then again, so do I. Just because a classic car has some wear doesn’t mean it’s not a classic.”