Appellate judge, author dies of cancer at age 49

As her body became weakened by the cancer that would take her life Wednesday at age 49, colleagues noted Kansas Court of Appeals Judge M. Kay Royse's inner strength remained.

"Having seen her struggles for the last several months just demonstrated to all of us again what a courageous individual she was," Court of Appeals Chief Judge J. Patrick Brazil said Wednesday.

"Her courage showed through in these last months dealing with the illness, the pain and the eventual realization of the terminal nature of the illness."

Royse's battle with cancer ended Wednesday morning when she died at a Topeka hospital.

"She will be missed terribly in the Topeka legal community and throughout the state," said Mary Feighny, an assistant Kansas attorney general who worked with Royse and others to publish a book last year about female lawyers in Kansas.

Royse became a lawyer in 1978 after graduating from the University of Kansas School of Law. She practiced law in Wichita until being appointed in 1986 as district judge for the state's 18th Judicial District in Sedgwick County.

In 1993, she was appointed to the Kansas Court of Appeals, based in Topeka. That court consists of 10 judges who hear cases in panels of three. They travel throughout the state to hear arguments in appeals from the state's district courts and administrative agencies.

Royse was well-respected as a lawyer and a judge, Brazil said.

"She enjoyed a very good reputation among the legal community as a whole," he said.

Royse was an adjunct instructor at the KU School of Law and a frequent presenter at seminars and other educational opportunities for lawyers. She was active in the Kansas Bar Association and the Women Attorneys Association of Topeka.

Members of the latter group will remember Royse for her help with the book "Journeys on the Road Less Traveled: Kansas Women Attorneys."

Feighny, the project's coordinator, said Royse wrote a biography for the book of Jennie Mitchell Kellogg, the first woman admitted to practice before the Kansas Supreme Court.

Royse also played a role in the book's planning and development.

"She's always had an interest in women's history and specifically women attorneys in Kansas," Feighny said. "That will be a big part of her legacy."

Brazil said Royse seemed "quite proud" of her work with the book.

He said even as her death neared, Royse continued to stay abreast of developments with the Court of Appeals.

"We tried to take things to her from her office," he said. "She tried to work from home when she could."

Royse is survived by her parents and a sister.

"Our prayers are with her parents and with her family who have been with her through all of this," Brazil said.

Her obituary appears on page 6-A.

Copyright 1999
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.