Former Common Pleas judge and civic activist Annette Garner Butler died December 31, 2018.

Butler was appointed by Gov. John Kasich to the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas in November 2011 to succeed Timothy J. McGinty. She lost an election the following year to Steve Gall and her term expired at the end of 2012.

Butler was well known in civic circles. She held numerous leadership and board posts at Cleveland State University, the City Club of Cleveland, the Shaker Heights Library, the Cleveland Heights-University Library, the Federal Bar Association, among many others.

Throughout her career, Butler made herself available to counsel and guide young people in their lives and career choices, often acting as a one-woman employment referral agency.

Butler grew up on Cleveland’s east side where she graduated East High ’62. She earned an undergraduate degree in sociology and psychology from Case Western Reserve University and her law degree from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.

Butler spent the bulk of her legal career with the U.S. Attorney's Office, serving as an assistant U.S. Attorney for Civil Trials and Appeals. She has also worked in the private practice of law and later taught legal courses at the Academy of Court Reporting & Technology and the Justice Department National Advocacy Center.

Butler is survived by her children, Christopher Butler and Kimberly Butler, and several siblings.

A memorial service will be held Wednesday, January 9 at 3p at Amasa Stone Chapel, 10940 Euclid Ave., on the campus of Case Western Reserve University. The family will receive friends on January 8 from 4-6p at Brown Forward Funeral Home, 17022 Chagrin Blvd., Shaker Hts. OH.

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