One of the earliest women elected to Indiana’s House of Representatives…

Bess Robbins served three consecutive terms during 1933, 1935, and 1937 sessions - the first woman to do so.

“There is no question but that women are handicapped in the law,” the dean of the Indianapolis Division of the Indiana School of Law noted in 1959. “Very few arrive at judgeships, although several in this city have sat as judges pro tem on many occasions, notably Miss Jessie Levy and Mrs. Bess Robbins.”