Biography

Alice Emma Tomkins Fee was born in Cascade Locks, Oregon, in 1897, and grew up in Portland until the age of 10, when her family returned to Cascade Locks. With few career paths open to women, she chose to attend the Oregon Normal School in Monmouth with the intention of becoming a teacher. She transferred to the University of Oregon and studied music, earning her bachelor’s degree in 1924. She was principal at a school in Malin, Oregon, a third-grade teacher in Hood River, Oregon, and principal in Pine Grove, Oregon. She got a job as a typist and stenographer in the clerk’s office for the U.S. District Court of Oregon in 1927, and in 1931 she became deputy clerk of the court. In 1939, she became secretary for Judge James Alger Fee. They were married in 1943 and they had no children. They moved to San Francisco, California, when Judge Fee was appointed to the Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Fee died in 1959. Alice Tomkins Fee returned to Portland around 1978. She died in 1995.

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