Funeral services announced for retired judge Sara J. Harper of Cleveland, Harper the 1st Black woman elected to a state appellate court in Ohio...By Clevelandurbannews.com, Ohio's Black digital news leader
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The Honorable Sara J. Harper Clevelandurbannews .com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor, associate publisher CLEVELAND, Ohio -Retired judge Sara J. Harper, the first Black woman elected to a state appellate court in Ohio, has died. She was 98. Services are entrusted to E.F. Boyd & Son Funeral Home, with visitation on Thursday, July 17 from 4-7pm at E.F. Boyd, and funeral services Friday, July 18 at Mt Olive Missionary Baptist Church with a 10am wake and an 11am funeral. Harper was raised in a public housing project in Cleveland, Ohio , one of five siblings, all of them girls. She grew-up with the Stokes brothers. The late Louis Stokes was the first Black congressperson from Ohio, and his younger brother the late Carl B. Stokes was the first Black mayor of Cleveland and of a major American city. Harper earned her undergraduate and law degrees from Case Western Reserve University . A Republican who had friends, associates and suppo...