Judith Moriarty
American politician (born 1942)

Judith K. Moriarty (born February 2, 1942) is an American politician from Missouri. She was the first woman to serve as Missouri Secretary of State. She was impeached in 1994 for conduct issues, and forced from office. She was a member of the Democratic Party, until 2005, switching to the Libertarian Party.
Early life
Moriarty was born Judith Spry in Fairfield, Missouri, the daughter of Earl and Blanch (McDavitt) Spry. She had four sisters and one brother. She graduated from high school in Warsaw, Missouri, and attended Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg.
Moriarty settled in Sedalia, Missouri, and became active in state and local politics. She was appointed to run the local license fee office by Governor Joe Teasdale in 1977. In 1982, Moriarty was elected county clerk of Pettis County.
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This entry incorporates text from “Judith Moriarty” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.