A portrait of former North Carolina Associate Justice Pat Timmons-Goodson of Fayetteville will be displayed in the corridors of the North Carolina Supreme Court building in Raleigh, where she sat on the state’s high court bench from 2006 to 2012. The painting was unveiled in a ceremony before the Supreme Court justices on Nov. 18 in the courtroom of the Supreme Court. Timmons-Goodson estimated about 140 people attended.
Timmons-Goodson, who was the first Black woman to serve on the state Supreme Court, is now the dean of the North Carolina Central University School of Law in Durham. She still lives in Fayetteville, which has been her home since she moved here in the 1960s when her father, an Army soldier, was stationed at Fort Bragg (now Fort Liberty).
She spoke with CityView in early January about the tradition, the symbols in her portrait and about the ceremony.
How was the portrait arranged?
The North Carolina Supreme Court Historical Society, which promotes knowledge and history of the state’s judicial branch of government, seeks to have portraits of all the state’s Supreme Court justices made and placed in the court’s building, Timmons-Goodson said.
It can come about in different ways. Some former justices arrange this themselves, sometimes their law firms or former law clerks do it, she said.
Timmons-Goodson commissioned artist Robin Wellner to paint her portrait. Wellner visited Timmons-Goodson’s home and made sketches and photographs of her, she said and then the painting process took about six months. Timmons-Goodson will donate the painting to the historical society.
“It was quite an experience,” Timmons-Goodson said. “She explained to me that there was indeed a difference between a portrait and a photograph. That a portrait, if it’s well done, should present the subject in such a way that the person viewing the portrait gets a feel, or at least believes that they understand the personality, something about the person.”
In the portrait, Timmons-Goodson is sitting in a wingback chair in her home, in her judicial robes. Her face portrays her age as it was during her time on the Supreme Court. She has a bold pink ascot. Behind her is a drum table with a vase of flowers.
The chair was a gift from a family friend, Mary Hannah, who helped Timmons-Goodson and her husband, Ernest Goodson, raise their children. The flowers and table are things that Timmons-Goodson keeps in her home.
The pink ascot symbolizes Timmons-Goodson’s college sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha.
The ascot’s color also symbolizes her time on the Supreme Court, where the justices were assigned a particular color of construction paper to attach to the drafts of their written opinions, she said. This was so when printed copies of proposed court opinions were shared among the justices, the justices could identify at a glance which of their brethren wrote each document.
Timmons-Goodson’s opinions were marked with pink construction paper.
A special ceremony
Timmons-Goodson’s mother, Beulah Tindal Timmons, turned 90 in the fall and is having health issues and Timmons-Goodson arranged for the unveiling ceremony to be held while her mother could still attend.
Some special moments from the ceremony:
Timmons-Goodson was the first member of her family to become a lawyer. She said that wouldn’t be possible without the efforts of African-American soldiers, like her father Edward Timmons (who died in 1975), who served their country despite segregation. The widow of a soldier who served with her father and the wife of another attended. These men supported Timmons-Goodson as a child and “I was able to serve because they served,” she said.
Her nephew and niece, Samuel Timmons and Alicia Dawson, who plan to become lawyers, addressed the court. “And what they essentially said was, ‘Aunt Pat was the first in our family to become a lawyer. But she won’t be the last.’” Samuel Timmons is attending Harvard and Dawson said she plans to go.
Other justices from Cumberland County
At least three other North Carolina Supreme Court justices have come from Cumberland County over the centuries.
Former Chief Justice Cheri Beasley was on the high court from 2013 to 2020. Her painting has not been done yet, court spokesman Roger Winstead told CityView. Beasley began her legal career in Fayetteville.
Former Associate Justice Ed Brady first came to Fayetteville as a soldier and later returned as a lawyer. He was on the Supreme Court from 2003 through 2010 and then returned to private practice. North Carolina Court of Appeals Judge John Tyson of Fayetteville said he has contacted Brady’s former clerks to arrange to get Brady’s portrait painted.
James Cameron MacRae, who was born and raised in Fayetteville, was a justice for several years in the late 1800s.
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Paul,
This was a good article. All three justices treated lawyers with respect and good to work with.