Donna K. Hyatt, a single mother who made strides for women on the way to becoming a top lawyer in the California Department of Health Services, has died at age 70.
Mrs. Hyatt died Nov. 12 of Alzheimer's disease, said her daughter, Kiri.
Mrs. Hyatt had three children and little work experience when her marriage fell apart by 1967. She got a work-study job while earning a bachelor's degree in social science at California State University, Sacramento, where a legal class inspired her to become a lawyer.
She enrolled at McGeorge School of Law as one of only eight women in the night program. Besides juggling the needs of family, full-time work and school, she struggled against self-doubt to keep up with male classmates.
"There were very few women in law school at that time, and only two of us were single mothers with teenagers – Donna and I," said Catherine Hughes, a McGeorge classmate and Sacramento lawyer. "It was very hard, but it was heady and fun, too."
Mrs. Hyatt gained confidence by studying hard and doing well in moot court. She earned a law degree and passed the California bar exam on her first attempt in 1976.
She spent her career in the Medi-Cal program at the Department of Health Services. She started as an entry-level attorney and helped negotiate computer system contracts.
She rose to assistant chief counsel and supervised a staff of lawyers. She took early retirement by 1997, when memory loss foreshadowed the onset of Alzheimer's disease.
Her professional success was a far climb for a child of the Great Depression. Donna Kathleen Weber was born in 1937 in Chicago, where her parents split and her mother struggled to support two daughters as a nurse's aide.
"My mother had two skirts and two blouses, and that was it," Kiri Hyatt said. "She had to go live with relatives for a year or two sometimes, because her mother couldn't afford to buy basic necessities."
She married Peter Hyatt in 1956 and lived in Oregon and Sacramento. They had three children, including a son, Casey, who died in 1984. The marriage ended in divorce.
Mrs. Hyatt taught her children the importance of education and hard work. She also influenced social attitudes as part of the vanguard of women in the law.
"When we graduated, McGeorge had an award for putting hubby through school that they always gave to wives," Hughes recalled.
"One of the things Donna and I and another single mother in the day program did was write a letter to the dean saying, 'Hey, our kids also sacrificed so we could do this. They deserve a putting-mother-through-school award.' The school agreed and gave it to our kids."
Call The Bee's Robert D. Dávila, (916) 321-1077.
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