Her hairstyles range from sister curls and French braids to high-up ‘dos and cornrows.
She grew up in the ‘hood, graduated from Beaumont High School and met her beloved husband at The Avenue club in East Boogie.
Some might consider the above facts enough evidence to pass judgement on Renee Hardin-Tammons.
Before rendering a verdict, however, consider this introduction: “Here comes the judge.” That’s how Hardin-Tammons has been introduced since 1999 when she was appointed a municipal judge.
“You can’t come to any judgement about who I am and what I stand for because of how I wear my hair,” Hardin-Tammons said.
She grew up poor in North St. Louis, but by age 10 knew she wanted to be an attorney. She held onto that dream while attending Beaumont High School, but struck down an invitation to attend a County school under the “deseg” program.
“I said no because I never once felt disadvantaged,” she said.
She was the third of five children born to a pastor father who instilled the fear of God in her and ran a strict home.
She later helped to found the Cephas Christian Church in October 2006 and is now a member of the Gospel Symphonic Choir, made of up of singers from various churches.
But it was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who inspired her to become an attorney, though she loved watching Perry Mason.
“Not because he was a lawyer, but his zeal for education and the unifying ideals he put forth,” she said of Dr. King.
Those ideals and values are incorporated into her practice as attorney and judge.
“I get excited about being able to give people a voice in a system where they feel lost, and I’m excited that God has allowed me to use my gift to unify people – to help blacks, whites, Hispanics, Chinese and Jewish people,” she said.
“I can be a voice for all these people, and only in America can you do that. And that’s what Dr. King was about.”
Today she lives out her dream as a criminal defense attorney and in domestic cases including estate planning at Dubail Judge, PPC, not far from her central St. Louis County home.
“It’s amazing how I ended up here, because it’s not too far from home or my son’s school (in the Ladue School District),” she said.
“I love them and they love me and we’ve had a love affair ever since,” she said of her partners.
She believes her son has the makings of an attorney; one day he gathered signature from friends detailing why he should be able to play video games during the week.
After a year at Dubail Judge PPC, she was appointed municipal judge in Berkeley. She seized the appointment, saying, “It was in line with what I aspired to be.”
While serving on the bench in Berkeley, she said she never missed a day in court – not even when her grandfather passed or when she had to be rushed to an emergency room.
Another appointment came in 2003: a seat on the bench as a St. Louis County municipal judge in North County. She said it was a huge honor, since that’s the system where she was a prosecutor in the St. Louis County Counselor’s Office after starting her career as a criminal defense public defender.
“I was really honored, because at that point things had gone full circle,” she said.
She also served for eight years as a member of the Supreme Court Disciplinary Committee, which reviews complaints by laypeople against attorneys.
After Beaumont High School, she enrolled in UM-St. Louis where she majored in administration of justice (now criminology) and minored in psychology, graduating in 1986.
Three years later, she walked away with a Juris Doctorate from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Though she was advised not to work while in law school, she and one of her roommates worked in the university library.
And though she peeped friends in law school driving brand new cars, she said she “understood the concept of delayed gratification.”
The guilty cook
She cashed in on some deferred gratification in December when she published a soul food cookbook, initially inspired by a college professor who admired her writing skills.
She chose a cookbook after people at her law firm starting asking her for the recipes of dishes she bought in.
“It allowed me to unify with the rest of the world, since I gave up my family’s soul,” she said.
Some of her favorites are butter rum bread putting, smothered cabbage, homemade rolls and banana rum ice cream. She may one day bottle her “famous” buffalo wing sauce.
She learned to cook watching her mother, father, grandmother and older women at church. She found time to write it on Saturday and Sunday mornings, when her 10 year-old son, Charles Tammons Jr., and her husband, Charles Tammons Sr., allowed her steal away.
The cookbook is available in local bookstores and at www.guiltycook.com.
The title comes from years of hearing people say they’re not guilty – and the concept of guilty pleasures.
“With this new craze in our society of people not eating bacon, butter and so on, I wanted to stand up and say, ‘I’m guilty of liking good-tasting food,’ and put a good cookbook together for people who eat like this every day.”
She isn’t the only good cook in her new family. Her husband, she said is a good cook who helps her in all her endeavors. He works for a federal contractor in the defense department.
When they met in March 1990, neither wanted to be at the club. To this day, neither likes clubbing. But it was at the club that he bumped her table with his hip and asked her to dance. They danced five songs and, though he was shy, he asked for her phone number.
“I knew within months that we would be married,” she said.