MUIRHEAD, JEAN DENMAN, was born May 12, 1929 in Tallahatchie County, MS and died in Knoxville, TN on July 15, 2011. Her cremains will be interred alongside those of her parents, in Charleston, MS. Private memorial services will be held there and in Memphis and Knoxville and in Falls Church, VA at later dates.
As one of Mississippi’s first female senators (1968-1972) Jean Muirhead authored legislation that first allowed women in her state to serve on state court juries. Once in her campaign for the Senate, she was condescendingly told by her male opponent that women had no place in the smoky motel rooms where much legislation was conducted. She responded that if she were elected, she’d do her legislating at the State Capitol instead of in smoke-filled motel rooms. In 1968, to the consternation of the secretary of the Senate, Muirhead appointed the first girl pages to serve at times other than the one special week set aside for that purpose. Girls today are likely unaware that they were once barred from such service. Muirhead was active in women’s rights issues throughout most of her professional career.
Muirhead practiced law in Jackson, MS from 1968-1980 when she became an administrative judge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Birmingham, AL and later in Charlotte, NC. She was appointed administrative law judge (ALJ) by the Social Security Administration in September of 1991 and served as Hearing Office Chief ALJ in Memphis, TN. In 1997, she became ALJ in charge of the Division of Medicare in Falls Church, VA. At her request in July, 2001,she was assigned to the Nashville Office of Hearings and Appeals, where she retired in 2003. In 2006, she relocated to Knoxville to be nearer family and friends in the area.
Judge Muirhead requested that memorial gifts be sent to the charity of the donor’s choice. She had actively supported the Family Justice Center in Knoxville and was a long distance volunteer for the Nashville Room at the Nashville Public Library, 615 Church St., Nashville, TN 37219, where the “Muirhead Collection”, a large number of books concerning women’s issues, is housed.
Jean Muirhead is survived by her three children and four step-children by her marriage to Charles A. Haycraft, who died in 1991. She is remembered by them and by her many friends as a tireless advocate for what is right and just and as a person bound by love, loyalty and devotion. Judge Muirhead personified the ideals of good citizenship and proved herself over and again to be a valuable asset to her community and her country. She will be missed by many. Arrangements by Lynnhurst-Greenwood Chapel, 2300 W. Adair Dr. Friends may leave their condolences at www.lynnhurstchapel.com
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