At Home With Justice Yvonne Kauger & Her Supreme Art Collection
One of the most remarkable homes in Oklahoma City’s historic Lincoln Terrace neighborhood is also one of its newest. Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Yvonne Kauger calls the style of her home, completed in 2007, “Taos Pueblo Spanish Deco.” The striking home manages to tuck itself harmoniously into the neighborhood, while also jubilantly asserting its presence with its phenomenal, super-sized stainless steel mask by renowned Oklahoma City sculptor and mask maker G. Patrick Riley. The desert sand-colored stucco home is adjacent to the State Capitol complex and across the street from the Oklahoma Judicial Center, which houses the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
Kauger is a fourth-generation Oklahoman from the tiny town of Colony, and an avid collector of art. In fact, she owns and operates an art gallery in Colony, and her home collection rivals that of any gallery you’ll find on Santa Fe’s Canyon Road. She graduated at the top of Colony High School’s class of 1955, serving as co-valedictorian. It entertains her to tell folks that … following it up with the fact that there were seven in her graduating class.
As a teen, she worked during summer break, before cotton picking season began, for a lawyer in Cordell, Oklahoma, who had been a classmate of Kauger’s mother. There, she met the lawyer working down the hall, J.T. Bailey, who became her career advisor and told her to go to law school. She did, but only after earning a degree in biology and chemistry, with the idea that she could pay her way through law school by working as a medical tech — which she also did, at St. Anthony Hospital.
She attended Oklahoma City University School of Law, at night, graduating in 1969, and later made history: She was the first female staff lawyer at the Oklahoma Supreme Court. She was appointed to the position of Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Oklahoma by Gov. George Nigh, and was sworn in in 1984. She’s one of one of three women currently on the bench.
Kauger, an honorary member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, founded the Red Earth Festival and also founded and coordinates the Sovereignty Symposium, an annual conference featuring panels and ceremonies focusing on Oklahoma tribal and state relations. When the Supreme Court moved into its current home in the Oklahoma Judicial Center, formerly the Oklahoma History Center, it was Kauger who worked with the State Arts Council and Historical Society, forming a committee to fill the building with a truly magnificent collection of Indigenous art. There’s even a beautiful coffee table book about the collection. That’s how she rolls.
She was just as hands-on in the creation of her home, which she designed along with Kyle Shifflett, staff attorney for the Oklahoma Supreme Court. They did an impressive job. The home strikes a balance that can be tough to achieve — it’s wonderfully livable and also perfect for entertaining. A low-walled patio on the home’s west side is scattered with café tables and a fireplace; inside, the primary living space can seat as many as 40 guests for dinner.
As Kauger moves from room to room, she casually says things like, “That’s a Jerome Tiger over there. Or, “This is a Jean Richardson.” She’ll tell you the story of each piece, what she knows about it and what she likes about it. Many of her favorites are the creations of her grandsons, now young men, whom she has declared to be “practically perfect.”
The collection is visually breathtaking, so much so that it can be hard to stay focused on the conversation at hand. Kauger has cleverly planned the installation of her pieces: In her primary living areas, art is very much a focus, but it’s balanced by her handsome furnishings and rugs. Along the back hall toward the garage (its walls also filled with art) and upstairs on the landing are spaces treated like galleries, with pieces hung next to one another and floor to ceiling.
The entire composition of this art-filled home is at once lively, sophisticated, interesting and bold. Just like the woman who created it.
