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Obituary of Anne V. Simonett
Star Trubune, Minneapolis, MN

Anne V. Simonett, whose promising legal career was cut short by a brain tumor just as she reached statewide stature as a jurist, died Saturday at Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park. She was 42.
She once aspired to become a concert pianist but then shifted to law, carrying over the discipline that she had applied to six hours of piano practice each day. She was sworn in as chief judge of the Minnesota Court of Appeals in July, only eight weeks before collapsing in her office.
Gov. Arne Carlson ordered state flags flown at half-staff through Tuesday in Simonett's memory. "The state of Minnesota has suffered a great loss," he said. He appointed her a Hennepin County district judge in 1993 and quickly promoted her.
After her cancer was diagnosed, Simonett began chemotherapy and radiation and returned to work. But she stepped down March 31 to concentrate on her family and treatment.
"She exemplified what collegiality should mean in the judiciary. She was a really warm person you liked to talk to," said Kevin Burke, chief judge of the Hennepin County District Court. "People left her courtroom feeling she listened to them."
Edward Toussaint Jr., who succeeded Simonett as chief judge, said: "People would say, 'She's so nice; I don't know how she can be a judge.' She would do the small things to make sure the system could be fair to the people who came into it." That included subbing on the conciliation court, which hears small claims, when it was short of referees.
"I think the state has lost such a talent. She had such great judgment and common sense," said James Loken, who worked in the business litigation group at the Faegre & Benson law firm in Minneapolis with Simonett. He recalled attending an injunction hearing in Chicago with Simonett shortly after she was hired out of law school. "I was struck at how quickly she figured out what was going on. She was obviously a great talent as a new lawyer," said Loken, a federal Appeals Court judge.
Simonett earned a bachelor's degree in music from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., and a master's degree from Yale University. Then she shifted gears, entering Harvard University, where she earned a law degree in 1981, and where she met her husband, Henry J. Shea, now an assistant U.S. attorney.
After graduation, she spent a summer working at a New York City law firm, worked six months at Faegre & Benson in the Twin Cities, clerked for a federal Appeals Court judge in Washington, D.C., and joined a law firm there. She taught for two years at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul before rejoining Faegre & Benson, where she became a partner.
She was sworn in to the Court of Appeals, replacing Paul Anderson, at the same ceremony at which Anderson succeeded her father, John Simonett, who served for 14 years, on the Minnesota Supreme Court. She was the fourth chief judge of the Court of Appeals, which was created in 1983, and the first woman to hold that position.
Anderson said the state's court system is experiencing a loss.
"In a very short time, she had really woven herself into the fabric of the judicial system. People really got to know and like her. She wasn't on the court long, but she was there long enough for us to see how good she was. She was going to take that court and take it up to the next highest level. She was going to be my colleague for a long time. We were going to exchange ideas. We were going to problem-solve together. I feel cheated."
Simonett is survived by her husband; a son, Henry; a daughter, Claire, all of St. Louis Park; her father and mother, Doris, of Little Falls, Minn.; two sisters, Mary, of Shoreview, and Martha, of Rosemount, and three brothers, Paul, of Plymouth; John, of Columbia Heights, and Luke, of Oakdale.
A public memorial service is scheduled for 3 p.m. Tuesday at Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church, 324 Prior Av. S., St. Paul. A private funeral service for family and parishioners is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday at Most Holy Trinity Church in St. Louis Park.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be sent to STEP (St. Louis Park Emergency Program food shelf) or the American Cancer Society Research Division.