James T. Ayers, who started as a justice of the peace holding court in his basement and became the judicial administrator and presiding judge of the Aurora Municipal Court, died April 15 at age 86.
In 1978, the longtime Aurora judge supervised the construction of the first court building there.
Ayers, who died at his Aurora home, was in the 1960s the first lawyer in Colorado to be named a justice of the peace, his wife, Mary Ayers, said.
Justices of the peace — which no longer exist — were often people picked from the citizenry, and were called “kitchen judges,” because they tried cases in their homes, Mary Ayers said.
Ayers served as a justice of the peace in Arapahoe County.
Ayers, who also had a private law practice, liked being in the municipal court “because that was where most people had their first view of a courtroom,” his wife said.
It also meant Ayers could hand out a little free advice.
Years later parents of children who appeared before him “called to thank him for the way he talked to their kids,” said Mary Ayers.
There were no judges’ robes so Mary Ayers made one for her husband.
After serving as justice of the peace, Ayers was named assistant municipal judge for the city of Aurora and became chief judge in 1966.
He established the Aurora Municipal Court in 1970 and was named judicial administrator, in addition to being presiding judge, in 1978.
He retired in 1986.
James T. Ayers was born in Birmingham, Ala., on Oct. 5, 1921, the family believes, although they have found a second birth certificate showing his birth a year earlier.
“He liked celebrating both dates,” said his son, James T. Ayers, who goes by Tom.
The elder James T. Ayers’ father, also James Ayers, died before the boy was seven, so he and his mother, Mattie Ayers, lived with relatives.
It was the Depression, and Mattie Ayers had a hard time supporting the two of them, Tom Ayers said.
Ayers was often separated from his mother and sent to live with relatives, the son said.
James Ayers met Mary Porter in a speech class at the University of Denver, where he was getting his law degree and she was studying library science. They married on March 16, 1947.
Ayers served in World War II and was able to attend DU with the help of the GI Bill and a variety of jobs, including laying concrete to make alleys, selling paint at a hardware store and soldering metal milk cans.
“Everyone in the family knows how to clean a paint brush properly because Dad learned how in a hardware store,” his son said.
In addition to his wife and son, Ayers is survived by five daughters: Kerry Cain of Colorado Springs; Maureen Browne of Parker; Martha Susan Silva and Mariam Frawan, both of Aurora, and Katherine Heron of Denver; 20 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
