PROVIDENCE –– The state Senate confirmed Kristin E. Rodgers, daughter of retiring Superior Court Presiding Judge Joseph F. Rodgers Jr., as a Superior Court judge on Friday.

Governor Carcieri on June 17 nominated Rodgers, 41, to replace Judge Vincent A. Ragosta, who retired in May 2008. The Senate’s 31-to-0 vote gave final approval.

In remarks to those gathered in the Senate chamber, Sen. John F. McBurney III, D-Pawtucket, whose father was a state senator, said that some there understood “the honor and responsibility when we carry on in the footsteps of a parent.”

He said Rodgers’ academic, athletic, career and other achievements indicate “she has honored her mother and father well.”

Senators applauded Rodgers, who stood with family members, including her father.

“I’m happy and delighted to serve the State of Rhode Island,” Rodgers said outside of the Senate chamber after being confirmed.

Rodgers was an athlete and honors student at Warwick’s Toll Gate High School. As a lawyer, she has handled First Amendment matters for media companies, including The Providence Journal, defended Sherwin-Williams Co. in the state’s lead-paint lawsuit and represented the Big East when Boston College exited the athletic conference in 2003.

Rodgers and her husband, state police Trooper Scott N. Raynes, live in Warwick’s Cowesett section with their 3-year-old daughter. Rodgers holds a Boston College undergraduate degree and a law degree from Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law. She was a clerk for the late Rhode Island Supreme Court Justice Florence K. Murray, and from 1998 to 2002, she was East Greenwich assistant solicitor. Before joining Blish & Cavanagh in 1996, Rodgers was at Tillinghast Licht & Semenoff Inc.

Her father, as presiding justice, has been administrative leader of the court system for civil and criminal cases.

mmckinne@projo.com