Bird, Rose Elizabeth (1936–1999)

Rose Elizabeth Bird, controversial Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, was born in Tucson, Arizona, on November 2, 1936. Raised by her mother, Rose came from humble beginnings and moved with [Page 29]her family to New York City in 1950, where she attended high school. Upon graduating from Long Island University, where she studied English and history, she spent a year as a secretary in New York City before returning to graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley, to study political science. Her studies not only introduced her to California politics and the future governor of the state, Jerry Brown, but they also motivated her to pursue a law degree at Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law. After graduating, she worked as a ...