Senator from West Virginia; born in Brown, Harrison County, W.Va., January 11, 1893; attended the public schools; graduated from the law department of West Virginia University at Morgantown in 1914 and was admitted to the bar the same year; taught school in Hancock, W.Va., in 1914 and 1915; organized the first high school in Raleigh County, W.Va., in 1915, serving as its principal for one year; commenced the practice of law in Beckley, W.Va., in 1916; during the First World War served in the Infantry from 1917, until discharged as a captain in 1920; organized the West Virginia National Guard in 1921 and retired as a colonel in 1953; judge of
the criminal court of Raleigh County, W.Va., 1933-1940; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1940; reelected in 1946 and again in 1952, and served from January 3, 1941, until his death in the naval hospital at Bethesda, Md., February 28, 1956; chairman, Committee on the Judiciary (Eighty-fourth Congress); interment in Arlington National Cemetery, Fort Myer, Va.

Photos Courtesy of Ron Williams