Carol Conner was a legal trailblazer who served as an icon to many young women in South Carolina.
A third-generation attorney, Connor served as a public defender in Richland County during the late-1970s. She spent five years as a Family Court judge, and became the state's first female Circuit Court judge in 1988. Five years later, she was elected to the Appeals Court bench, another first for a woman in South Carolina.
Conner died on Feb. 20 from cancer. She was 54.