had corresponded after their initial meeting, and by the time McFarland was elected, Collins was working at a teacher at Florence's high school. The couple had a son, William Ernest, in 1927 and a daughter, Jean Clair, in February 1929. William became ill and died several days before his sister's birth, and Jean died two days after her birth. McFarland's wife suffered from depression following the loss of their two children. She showed signs of improvement in 1930 as the couple expected a third child. The third child, Juliette, was stillborn, and Clare McFarland developed postpartum complications, which led to her death on December 12, 1930. By February 1930, McFarland represented the state during Eva Dugan's final appeal before her execution, a task that he found very unpleasant. Shortly afterwards, he decided that he was tired of being a prosecutor. Instead, McFarland ran for a seat on the Superior Court in Pinal County but lost the race to the incumbent, Judge E. L. Green, 1464 to 1358. Upon leaving office as county attorney, McFarland joined with his chief assistant, Tom Fulbright, to found the law office of McFarland and Fulbright. The practice gained public recognition when McFarland won an appeal that determined Winnie Ruth Judd to be insane, but its primary area of effort was water law. Despite the success of his legal practice, McFarland still wished to become a judge. He ran a second time in 1934, defeated E. L. Green 2543 to 1542 in the primary, and was unopposed in general election. In 1935, McFarland was sworn in, and he sat on the bench for the next six years. As his workload in Pinal County was light, he accepted cases from other parts of the state, which allowed him to sit on the bench in every county in the state and to gain experience in issues in all parts of the state. As a judge, his rulings were well respected, and he was overturned on appeal only three times. While on the bench, McFarland became romantically involved with a widow, Edna Eveland Smith, who had a young daughter, Jewell. She taught history and mathematics at Florence High School until the couple married in Tucson on June 1, 1939. McFarland also adopted his wife's daughter. US Senator McFarland considered a run for a seat in the US House of Representatives following the resignation of Isabella Greenway and was repeatedly