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The visitation and celebration of life for former Marion Superior Court Judge Cynthia Ayers will be Friday at the Crown Hill Funeral Home & Cemetery in Indianapolis.
Judge Ayers, an Indianapolis native, died on April 19 at the age of 77.
Visitation on Friday will be from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., with funeral services immediately following.
In 1991, Ayers became the first African American woman elected to the Marion Superior Court, where she served six terms before her retirement last year. Ayers assumed senior judge status after 32 years on the bench, making her one of the longest sitting judges in the state’s history.
During her time on the bench, Ayers supervised the Domestic Relations Counseling Bureau, the Family Resource Center, and the Ordinance Violation Court.
She also served as a Marion County Deputy Prosecutor from 1983 to 1985.
Ayers was actively involved with the Indianapolis Bar Association, becoming the first African American to serve as president in 2006. As president, she made several contributions to the bar association, including establishing a diversity and inclusion initiative.
In 2024, the IndyBar Women in the Law Division presented Ayers with the Antionette Dakin Leach Award, recognizing her trailblazing efforts as a female attorney in central Indiana.
When bestowing the award, Southern Indiana district court Chief Judge Tanya Walton Pratt celebrated all that Ayers brought to each of the thousands of cases she presided over.
“Her decisions are sound, her temperament balanced. Her jurisprudence has been described as pragmatic, balanced, and fair. She is highly respected by attorneys and fellow judges for her legal knowledge, fairness, and dedication to the legal community,” Pratt said.
Before her passing, Ayers used her experience in law to support students, serving as an adjunct professor in business law at Indiana Vocational Technical College and an adjunct professor teaching corrections at the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Since 2008, Ayers served as an adjunct professor of law at IU McKinney, teaching ethics.
Ayers’s first career path was in social work before she pivoted to law school at the IU McKinney School of Law, where she graduated in 1982.
In 2020, Ayers was honored by The Indiana Lawyer as a Leadership in Law honoree.
Ayers is survived by her daughter Cecily (Rich) Mount, four grandchildren, two step-grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, and several other family members.
She was preceded in death by her parents and her two brothers.
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