Rosemary Shaw Sackett, former Chief Judge of the Iowa Court of Appeals, died Sept. 2 in Okoboji. A graveside service is scheduled for Sept. 24 in Spirit Lake.

Sackett was appointed to the Iowa Court of Appeals by Gov. Terry Branstad in 1983 and was selected by her colleagues to be chief judge in 1999. She retired from the court in 2012 upon reaching the mandatory retirement age, though remaining on the court for five years as a Senior Judge.

Sackett was born in Fort Dodge in 1940 and raised in Pocahontas. After graduating from Buena Vista College she attended Drake Law School, the only woman in her class and the only woman to take and pass the Iowa bar exam in 1963. She worked with her father in his law firm in Pocahontas, later joining her husband Bill Sackett to practice in Spencer.

Sackett earned a master of laws degree from the University of Virginia in 1990 and she received an Honorary Doctorate in Public Service from Buena Vista.