Will County’s first female judge Kathleen Kallan dies

Kathleen Glenney Kallan, the first female judge in Will County, has died.

Kallan was the first woman to serve in the Will County judiciary when she became an associate judge in 1990. She was a judge in the Will County courts for 16 years.

She died Saturday at her home in Joliet at the age of 75.

Kallan grew up in Wilmington and graduated from St. Francis Academy in Joliet before studying law at Loyola University in Chicago and getting her law degree in 1975, according to her obituary.

She worked as an assistant public defender in Will County and was a partner in the Kallan and McSherry Law Firm in Joliet from 1981 to 1990.

Kallan was honored for her professional achievements in 2009 by the Zonta Club of Joliet with its Advancement of Women Award. At the award ceremony, it was noted she also was the first woman judge to preside over a felony case and a murder trial in Will County.

“She was devoted to the law,” said Margaret Rodeghero, Kallan’s sister. “She had a very sold moral compass, and she held the law in very high esteem. She always felt that her mission and goal was that no matter who you were that you were treated fairly.”

In 1997, Kallan became the first female judge assigned full-time to the county’s family court, which includes divorce cases. An article in The Herald-News at the time noted that female litigants at times referred to the court as an “old boys network.”

But Kallan dismissed any characterization that family court needed a female judge.

“I hope that I’m going to bring assets to the call, but I don’t think it’s going to be because I’m a female,” Kallan told The Herald-News. ”I think it’s misleading to say because I’m a woman I’m going to be throwing in an entirely different factor.”

Before studying law, Kallan obtained her bachelor’s degree from Mundelein College in Chicago and taught at St. Francis Academy

“She got her degree in two years, and she was teaching,” Rodeghero said. “She was barely older than some of the kids she was teaching.”

Kallan “liked teaching,” Rodeghero said, but, “I think she had the urge to go a little bit further.”

Her sister led “a well rounded life” with her professional career, family and outside interests, Rodeghero said.

Kallan’s obituary states that she also was a painter and musician. She held memberships in the Art Institute of Chicago and the Field Museum.

Survivors include a son, Adam Kallan and his wife Tricia McKay, two grandchildren, and Kallan’s former husband, Dan Kallan, a Joliet attorney.

Visitation will be 4 to 9 p.m. Friday at Baskerville Funeral Home, 700 E. Kahler Road in Wilmington. A celebration of life will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at the funeral home. Burial will be at a family lot in Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery in Wilmington.