Retired Supreme Court of Alabama justice  and Butler County native Janie Shores has been featured in a book.

Author Carol Nunnelley has written a biography of Shores, the first woman to ever serve on the Supreme Court, detailing her trials and tribulations of growing up in a time of great prejudice toward women.

“The book tells the life story of Janie Shores, the first woman to become a justice on the Alabama Supreme Court,” Nunnelley said.

“The book emphasizes her growing up years in Butler and Baldwin counties and her hard work to succeed against the odds.”

Shores was elected onto the Supreme Court in 1974 after becoming the first full-time female faculty member in Alabama as a law professor at Cumberland School of Law. The book is targeted for students and children between third grade and eighth grade to help them learn more about the history of the State of Alabama.

“Janie’s story is one of overcoming odds,” Nunnelley said. “One important moment is when the attorney who had hired her as a young high school graduate realized she ‘thought like a lawyer.’ No one before Janie in her family had finished high school, much less college. But with the encouragement of her lawyer boss, Janie, a secretary, set out to graduate from college and go to law school.”

After beginning the book in 2010 and finishing it in late 2011, Nunnelley said she wanted Alabama students to know what men and women make up the history of the state.

This book is published by the Seacoast Publishing in partnership with Will Publishing and is  part of the Alabama Roots Biography Series that is designed for young readers.

“I was especially glad to work with the Alabama Roots Biography Series, because it requires historical accuracy as well as good storytelling,” Nunnelley said.

Nunnelley said she would like to see this book in classrooms across the state to give children an opportunity to learn.

“I hope people will see in Janie how important it is to do any job well and be determined to pursue their goals, even when the goals may seem hard to reach,” Nunnelley said.

“I also hope they’ll learn about how the lives of women changed in Janie’s lifetime and what it took to push for those changes.”