Elizabeth Tompkins, born in Albemarle County in 1899, earned a bachelor's degree from Westhampton College and a master's degree from Columbia University before she applied to study law at Virginia in 1920. With the encouragement of her father, Tompkins, age twenty-two, became one of the first women admitted to the Law School. These letters indicate that her pioneering experience was not an easy one for her; however, she became Virginia's first female law graduate, finishing near the top of the Class of 1923. She was also the first woman to be admitted to the Virginia State Bar.