With flashy hat, Gretchen Pracht was pioneering leader

Gretchen Marple Pracht of Edina broke through a Depression-era glass ceiling more than 70 years ago to become an attorney and a lauded public relations executive.

Pracht, who specialized in adoptions and welfare issues as a lawyer, was known for her elegant hats and for using her skills to advance the business agenda of the old Lutheran Brotherhood, now Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.

Pracht, 99, died on Dec. 6 in Richfield.

"She was assertive, and a great organizer," said her daughter, Pat Meyers of Edina. "It was not easy being a mother and working full time."

She once was told by a Hennepin County judge that he didn't want to see a woman trying a case, because it wouldn't be proper, said her daughter.

After graduating early from high school in Waterville, Minn., she attended business college in the Twin Cities and became a legal secretary.

She decided to take a course at a law school, so she could better do her job, and wound up graduating from what is now the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul in 1930. She worked days and attended law school at night.

According to the March 22, 1956, Minneapolis Star, a juvenile judge once told her that she probably "handles more adoptions of children than any other lawyer in Minnesota."

Pracht was a law associate of Carl Granrud, who became president of Lutheran Brotherhood. There, she was his assistant, and by 1962, she was named vice president of public relations and advertising.

When she started in law, women were required to wear hats in the courtroom, she said in the Sept. 20, 1964, Minneapolis Tribune.

"Now I just plain like hats. I like them big and colorful -- never black. I don't go shopping for a hat. When I see one I like, I buy it," she said.

She was a fine cook and seamstress, who could whip up a tailored outfit. Her recipes were mainstays of the Lutheran Brotherhood's magazine, the Bond, for which she served as editor. And she spun off the recipes into cookbooks.

She closed her law practice around 1970.

Her granddaughter, Patricia Jesperson of Minneapolis, said she was a mentor to young women embarking on their careers.

"Our nickname for her was 'Hot Rod Granny,' because she drove the ski boat and taught us how to water ski," said her granddaughter.

Her husband, Howard Pracht died in 1966.

In addition to her daughter, she is survived by three grandchildren and six great grandchildren.