Judge Suzanne Bailey, Hamilton County’s longest presiding Juvenile Court Judge since the Court was established in 1945, has announced her retirement from the bench effective April 30th.
Judge Bailey, a native of Columbia, Tenn., is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and the University of Tennessee, where she was the first woman to be elected President of the UT Bar Association.
She practiced law in Chattanooga from 1975 until 1982, when the late Judge Dixie T. Smith appointed her to the bench as a Judicial Referee. Upon his retirement, Judge Bailey was elected Juvenile Court Judge in 1990 becoming Hamilton County’s first woman to be elected judge in any court here.
It has been a great honor and privilege to serve the children, families and citizens of Hamilton County for the past 30 years," Judge Baily said. "As times change for the children of our community as well as our struggle to meet their needs, so has the time come for me to retire and pass the responsibility for the abused, dependent and delinquent coming through our court to the next generation."
