Margaret S. Andrews, State Law Librarian 1953-1975

Margaret S. Andrews was the State Law Librarian from 1953-1975

Margaret Susanna Bringgold was born in Pine Island, Minnesota on April 28, 1901. Her parents were Jacob and Mary Bringgold. Her father served as mayor of Pine Island for several years. After high school, she attended Minneapolis Business College and worked as a stenographer in a law office. She even won a typewriting contest during her time at the Minneapolis Business College. She was active in Republican politics early in life, at least as early as 1919.

In 1921, she left for law school at the University of Minnesota, where she was one of four women in the class of 1926. After graduation, she began working at the State Capitol as an assistant clerk to Representative Raymond Andrews. They had a whirlwind romance and married on June 30, 1927. They moved to his hometown, Lindstrom and began their legal practice while starting their family. They had four children, Mary, Susan, Charles, and Virginia who died at the age of 4.

Margaret Andrews remained involved after her marriage, including the Hospital Auxiliary and the Public Library Board in Lindstrom. She was also active in her church. In 1946, she started work as the Republican state secretary for Minnesota and continued in that position until 1953. She worked as a legislative clerk for Governor C. Elmer Anderson in 1952. In 1953, the state law librarian, Josephine Smith, died suddenly and Margaret Andrews was appointed by the governor to replace her.

In 1955, she became the first president of the Minnesota Association of Law Libraries. She was active in the American Association of Law Libraries and was Local Arrangements Chair several times when the national conference came to Minnesota. She also chaired the Publicity Committee for several years and joined other committees as well.

She was active in the Minnesota Bar Association and was on the Centennial Statehood Celebration Committee in 1957.

She oversaw the library while it was in the Capitol building and through the move to the Ford Building in the Fall of 1973. She dealt with less-than-ideal situations such as lack of heat and inadequate lighting in the Capitol. The library also built shelves in the hallways of the Capitol because their space was overfull. She consistently reported on these problems in her annual reports.

She retired from the Law Library in 1975 as the longest serving librarian to date.

She died October 1, 1990 at age 89.

You may read more about the life and work of Margaret S. Andrews in the research resources linked in this guide, which are the sources of this brief biography.