Maxine E. Ryer Miller

Ryer enrolled in 1921 as the first female law student at the University of Notre Dame.^[6] She also began serving as a clerk in the law office of former South Bend City Attorney Frank H. Dunnahoo.^[6]

On September 12, 1922, Ryer passed an examination and became the first woman admitted to the St. Joseph County (Indiana) bar for active practice in court.^[7] Bar examinations in Indiana were conducted on a local, rather than state-wide, basis until 1931.^[8] Three women had previously been admitted to the local bar, but did not practice law.^[9] In April 1923 she was admitted to practice before the federal courts and Supreme Court of the State of Indiana.^[10] She is not included in the Student Directory at Notre Dame in 1922–23^[11] and does not appear to have received a degree from the university.

Ryer married Everett Miller in St. Joseph, Berrien County, Michigan on May 25, 1925.^[12] She died on June 12, 1930, in South Bend, Indiana, of heart disease.^[13][14] She did not have any children.