Mary Ellen TalbottAGE: 95 • MoorestownRetired Superior Court Judge, Mary Ellen Talbott, born on November 23, 1921 in Aurora, Illinois, the first of three children of Lucille Miller Weiss and John F. Weiss, passed away on September 16, 2017 at the age of 95.Judge Talbott was first and foremost a reader - a reader of books, newspapers, magazines and journals. She loved books. In an essay for a course she once took, she wrote that, as a child, "I dreamed of the day when my life would be my own to direct. I imagined great positions I would attain and fascinating places I would visit. My escape was in books. I lost myself in my study, skipping grades, attending summer school. I remember no one book which was more important to me than any others. All books were wonderful." She spent numerous hours, even skipping family vacations, to read the beautiful leather-bound classics in her grandmother's library having to cut the pages as she went since no one else had ever been through them before.Her love of literature and learning led her to attain the honor of valedictorian at her high school, graduating at the age of 16. She attended the University of Illinois, graduating with honors and a BS in Economics in 1942. After college, she worked as a statistician for the Peoples Gas Light & Coke in Chicago and in 1943 received a Commission as lieutenant in the US Naval Reserve Supply Corps in which she served as Purchasing Officer for the 4th Naval District at the Philadelphia Navy Yard until 1948. During her Naval service, she met her future husband, Lt. James Talbott, and they were married in 1948, moving to Haddonfield, NJ where her four children were born. During the 1950's she was a housewife and mother to her children in their newly built post-WWII neighborhood and there she developed a love of gardening, planting pansies and fruit trees in the beds around the house. In 1959, her husband unexpectedly died, leaving her a widow at the age of 38. Two years later, she entered law school at the University of Pennsylvania on the GI bill. At that time, she was one of only two women in her law school class. After being admitted to the Bar in 1963, she went into the practice of law and served as a municipal court judge for three municipalities. In 1973, she was appointed to the Superior Court of New Jersey by Governor Cahill, becoming Camden County's first female judge and only the 7th woman appointed to the bench in New Jersey. While on the bench, Judge Talbott wrote several published opinions, including one of the first opinions in the country to rule on the admissibility of thermographic diagnostic techniques with respect to New Jersey's No-Fault Insurance Act, which was affirmed by the NJ Appellate and Supreme Courts and remains the law today. Judge Talbott retired from the bench in 1988, but continued to be active in the legal profession, handling superior court arbitrations, and serving on the NJ Supreme Court Task Force on Women and as a commissioner on the Camden County Board of Taxation.Among Judge Talbott's many other interests, one of her most passionate was baseball. She was a fan of the Chicago Cubs during her youth when she and her father would listen to games on the radio. After moving to Philadelphia and then New Jersey, she became an avid Phillies fan and the season tickets that she purchased in 1970, when she attended almost every home game with her son, are still used by her family today. She also owned and operated for a time a coffeehouse in Cherry Hill during the 1960's called "The Trend." In addition, she was a long-time supporter of the Camden County Children's Garden and on the Board of the Camden County Mental Health Association.In 1970, she hosted the only local radio talk show on WCAM, in which interviewed local personalities at lunchtime behind the street level show room window of the Lit's Department Store on Market Street in Camden. She is also the former owner and president of Katahdin Communications, operator of WSYY, in Millinocket, Maine, a radio station now owned by her son, Jim.In addition, Judge Talbott, a diehard Democrat, who once said all Republicans looked alike, was active in the Camden County Democratic Party for many years. She ran for public office three times, vying for State Assembly in 1967 and 1989, and nearly capturing a County Freeholder seat in 1970. Judge Talbott is survived by her daughters, Jane Thorndike (Peter), Kitty Talbott, Barbara Talbott Irwin (Garth), and her son, James Talbott Jr. She is also survived by her sister, Louise Jouard, eight grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren and step-grandchildren. She is predeceased in death by her brother, John Weiss.All are invited to her viewing at Kain-Murphy Funeral Services, 15 West End Ave., Haddonfield, NJ 08033, Thursday, Sept. 28th from 6:00-8:00 PM. Funeral Service and Interment are private. In lieu of flowers donations may be made in Judge Talbott's memory to The Camden Children's Garden, 3 Riverside Drive, Camden, NJ 08103, Attn: Donations.