Tyler C. Lockett

Who is Tyler C. Lockett?

Tyler C. Lockett is an attorney, judge and former Kansas Supreme Court justice.

Lockett was born in Corpus Christi, Texas to Rebecca and Tyler Lockett. His father, Tyler "Ty" C. Lockett, Sr., was the Sheriff of Sedgwick County, Kansas from 1951 to 1955. His brother Hal Lockett is a prominent Wichita, Kansas attorney. Sue Lockett, the former justice’s wife, was the executive director of the Court Appointed Special Advocate in Shawnee County, Kansas for more than a decade.

Lockett graduated from Wichita North High School in 1951. From there, he attended Washburn law school receiving an AB degree and an LLB. While at Washburn, Lockett was a member of the Kansas Beta Chapter of Phi Delta Theta.

As a Naval aviator, Locket spent four years on active duty in the West Pacific. He continued to fly in the Naval Reserve in the late 1960s. In 1967 he was reported to be serving as a co-pilot on a Navy Neptune patrol plane stationed at the Naval Air Station in Olathe, Kansas.

After being admitted to the bar in 1962, Lockett practiced law before being appointed a common pleas judge in 1971. In 1977, he was appointed as a Kansas district court judge. In 1983 fellow Democrat Governor John W. Carlin appointed him to the Kansas Supreme Court. Lockett served on the high court until his retirement in 2002. Governor Bill Graves appointed Robert L. Gernon to the seat he vacated. In retirement, he continues to hear cases as a senior judge.