Yvonne Kauger

Yvonne Kauger, a fourth-generation Oklahoman, grew up on her family's farm. She attended Colony High School and was valedictorian of her class. Kauger then attended Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU) to pursue a degree in biology. After college, she worked at St. Anthony Hospital and began to study law at Oklahoma City University (OCU). She graduated OCU in 1969, once again first in her class.

Following graduation, Kauger worked at a law firm for a few years then, in 1972, became one of the first women on staff as a lawyer at the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Just over a decade later, Governor George Nigh appointed Kauger to the Oklahoma Supreme Court. She was the second woman to ever be appointed to the court and served in various positions from 1984 to 2024, including as Chief Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court from 1997 to 1999 and remains the only woman to serve on the court as vice chief justice and chief justice. Kauger was instrumental in creating the online case tracking system for the state's courts and transforming the old Wiley Post building into the Oklahoma Judicial Center.

A longtime contributor to the arts, Kauger has served on the board for the Oklahoma Lyric Theater, founded the Gallery of the Plains Indian, established a museum in her hometown of Colony, and has collected many Indigenous art forms over the years. Because of her contributions to the native arts and society, Kauger was adopted by the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes in 1984.