Justice Catherine Stone was born in the southern Maine mill town of Biddeford, where she and her fours sisters were raised by their mother in a single-parent home.  Hard work, dedication, perseverance, and humility were the building blocks of her childhood.   

Justice Stone attended public schools in Biddeford, and after graduating from high school, Justice Stone attended Assumption College as a scholarship recipient.  She graduated in 1976, magna cum laude, with a degree in Foreign Affairs.  Her first “foreign” assignment was Beaumont, Texas, where she lived in 1976 after marrying Tom Stone, a Dallas native.  After two years in Beaumont, she and her husband moved to San Antonio for Justice Stone to attend law school at St. Mary’s University.    

Following graduation from law school, Justice Stone served as a briefing attorney at the Fourth Court of Appeals for one year, and thus began her dedication to appellate law.  Upon entering the private practice of law at the law firm of Watkins, Mireles, Brock, and Barrientos, Justice Stone represented injured parties and their families.  Her practice focused on pre-trial and appellate matters.  In 1987 Justice Stone became one of the first lawyers to earn the designation of Board Certified specialist in the area of Civil Appellate Law.  Justice Stone continued her practice with emphasis on appellate law in the Law Office of Catherine Stone from 1991 until 1994, when she was appointed to the Fourth Court of Appeals by Governor Ann Richards.  Since March of 1994, Justice Stone has won two contested elections, and most recently, in 2006, she won an uncontested bid for re-election.