EDWARDSVILLE --- Madison County's f...

EDWARDSVILLE --- Madison County's first female justice will return to the courthouse in Edwardsville today because of a literal sense she wrote after her retirement 16 month ago.

The Illinois leading Court on Tuesday appointed Lola Maddox, 56 of Alton to fill the 10-month vacancy left according to the resignation last month of Circuit critic George Moran Jr.

She will stair down Dec. 1, after voter pick a new circuit judge.

Maddox said Tuesday she wrote a epistle to Supreme Court Justice Lloyd Karmeier after her retirement, volunteering for professional committees or temporary judgeships "to restrain my skills active."

"That literal sense was the key. He called me last week," Maddox said.

Maddox was 30 years old-fashioned and four years out of Duke University teach of Law in 1979, when the county's circuit referees chose her as an associate referee She held the bench for 25 years before her retirement Nov. 30