SEARS, MARIANN (1957 ~ ). The following is a biography for Mariann Sears, spouse Associate Justice of the 14th Court of Appeals Ross Sears. The biography was provided by Mariann Sears.
Mariann Sears was born on August 16, 1957, in Akron, Ohio, to John and Linda Neidert. She was the second of three children and the first-born daughter. She and her siblings were first-generation citizens of the United States, their father and mother having emigrated from German-speaking villages in Hungary and Yugoslavia, respectively, after World War II. Her parents arrived separately at Ellis Island in 1951, meeting in Akron and marrying in 1954. Mariann grew up in Stow, Ohio, and was proud to celebrate her German heritage as a member of the German-American Family Society Youth Group.
After graduating summa cum laude from Ohio University in 1979, she and her spouse moved to Houston, where Mariann attended law school at the University of Houston Law Center. She graduated from the University of Houston Law Center in 1983, and, about a year after the birth of her daughter, Jessica, she served as Briefing Attorney for the Fourteenth Court of Appeals from 1985 to 1986. Thereafter, she began her career in law, notably practicing at Andrews & Kurth in Houston. She married Justice Ross A. Sears in 1987, to whom she remained loyal and true for nearly 35 years, until his death in 2022.
After Justice Sears retired from the bench in the mid-1990s, Mariann returned to school. She graduated from the University of North Texas in 1997 with a master’s degree in library science and begin a career as a law librarian. For 15 years, she served in private law firms as a law librarian at Brown, Parker & Leahy, LLP, Thompson & Knight, LLP, and Greenberg Traurig, LLP. In 2012, she embarked on a career in public law librarianship in Houston as the first female director of the Harris County Robert W. Hainsworth Law Library. She especially treasured her service as a public law librarian, assisting those who could not afford to pay for legal representation and guiding them in their attempts to access the civil justice system without the assistance of an attorney. She was most grateful for the years she spent as a public servant at the Harris County Robert W. Hainsworth Law Library, and was humbled to have made a difference in the lives of those most in need. She retired in 2024.
