Warren County Circuit Family Court Judge Margaret Mary Ryan Huddleston passed away Friday at the age of 64 following a battle with cancer.
Judge Huddleston presided over the Warren County Circuit Family Court, Division III since her appointment by Governor Paul Patton in 1998, her subsequent election in 1999, and re-election in 2007.
Huddleston also served as Chief Judge from 2003 to 2005. She was the first female to serve as a circuit judge in the over two hundred year existence of the Warren Circuit Court.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
Huddleston took medical leave from the bench in November after being diagnosed with a reoccurrence of cancer. She was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer in 2003. Following ten years of remission, doctors determined that the cancer had metastasized in her lungs.
A release issued by Huddleston’s family said that after graduating from WKU with a business administration degree, Huddleston joined the national Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) program and served in the Appalachian region (Bell County) of Kentucky. After her time in VISTA, Huddleston earned her nursing degree and practiced as a registered nurse in critical care at Norton Hospital in Louisville.
After earning her Juris Doctorate from Salmon P. Chase College of Law she opened a private practice in Covington, Ky. In 1985, she returned to her home in Bowling Green, where she worked as an attorney for the Cumberland Trace Legal Services for 13 years until her advancement to the Warren Circuit Court in 1998.
