Jeanne Sederberg, first woman to serve as judge in Minnesota's Sixth District, dies at 96

DULUTH — The first woman to be named judge in northern Minnesota's Sixth Judicial District — despite her father initially forbidding her to go to law school — died Oct. 30 at St. Luke's Hospital.

Jeanne H. Sederberg, 96, had been a judicial officer for 18 years when she was appointed by Gov. Arne Carlson in 1992. It got a brief mention in the Star Tribune, "Duluth woman gets judgeship," along with her background: Sederberg had been in private practice for 16 years, followed two years as a public defender.

Her judgeship was short-lived. Sederberg hit the mandatory retirement age of 70 after just four years. She told a Duluth News Tribune reporter at the time that she always enjoyed her jobs, which centered on family law — even though she might've made some enemies.

"All these years I pumped out the decisions, and I've lived with them," she said in 1996. "It was problem-solving. It's challenging and stimulating and you were doing something worthwhile, especially in helping and taking care of children."

According to family lore, Sederberg was in eighth grade when a teacher said to her, "It's too bad you're a girl because you could be a lawyer." She graduated from Duluth Central and Duluth Junior College — but her father nixed her longtime plans for law school. She vowed she wouldn't do it without his blessing. Instead, Sederberg spent two years in Chicago working as a graphic designer, where she showed great potential with her charcoal drawings.

Her father finally changed his mind and supported her when she enrolled in law school at the University of Minnesota. But when she graduated, no local firms would hire her. Sederberg worked out of her home on real estate, wills and probate cases.

Audrey Sederberg, her oldest grandchild, said there was a shared theme among the lawyers and judges who attended her funeral.

"She was one of the fairest people they ever worked with," she said.

The judge was born in Seton, Minn., on the shores of Lake Minnetonka in July 1926 and later moved to Duluth. Sederberg and her husband, Robert Sederberg, were married exactly 68 years — she died on their anniversary. The couple raised three kids, Bruce, Cynthia and Clayton, and the close-knit family often spent time at their cabin in Iron River, Wis.

Audrey Sederberg said she would sit alongside her grandmother with a bowl of popcorn or potato chips "solving the problems of the world together."

"She taught us how to keep a conversation going; she taught us grammar and long division," Audrey Sederberg said. "She was formidable."

"Their house was full of books," granddaughter Kathryn Sederberg said. "She encouraged us to memorize poetry and definitely passed on a love for learning."

Kimberly Maki, who was appointed St. Louis County Attorney in 2021 and is running unopposed for the position in the upcoming election, said Sederberg had been retired for about eight years by the time she returned to St. Louis County. Her legacy loomed large, though, Maki said in an email.

She was "proof that with hard work and perseverance, we could attain leadership positions in our profession, despite it being largely male-dominated at that time," Maki said.