Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr.

            Today marks fifty years since Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed. On April 4, 1968, he was murdered at age 39 in Memphis, Tennessee, by James Earl Ray. King preached at the Mason Temple, headquarters of the Church of God in Christ, the night previous to his assassination. He had received numerous death threats and as obviously nervous whenever he heard loud sounds during his talk. However, his “I’ve been to the mountain top” speech is well remembered and seems fairly prophetic. 

I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. So I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

            According to Joseph Rosenbloom, King was well educated as well as being an eloquent and powerful speaker. He could “exhibit the clipped diction of a lofty academic or the earthy vernacular of African American speech.” He seemed to have a photographic memory, and he often spoke without notes. His voice was a rich baritone and “was almost musical in its harmonic rise and fall. It was at once lucid and richly ornate.” Mary McGrory, columnist for the Washington Evening Star wrote that he spoke with “baroque phrases” and “mellifluous, mesmerizing tones.” This writer would add that Reverend King had a memorable and recognizable voice.

J. Reuben Clark, Jr.

                I decided to make Joshua Reuben Clark, Jr. – or J. Reuben Clark, Jr. as he was generally known – my VIP for this week after a long discussion of leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with my son over the weekend.  President Clark was a brilliant man who served at the highest levels of both the Church and the nation.  He was a counselor in the First Presidency of the Church during my childhood and most of my youth.  I heard his name often and even listened to him speak. 

                The boy who would become President Clark was born on September 1, 1871, in Grantsville, Utah, a small farming community located in Tooele Valley, and was named Joshua after his father.  Young Clark was the first of ten children born to his parents, Joshua R. and Mary Louisa Woolley Clark.  His grandfather was a minister in the Church of the Brethren.  His father was a trapper and freighter who met the Mormons in Utah, attended a Sunday meeting, and was baptized a month later.  Soon after he was baptized he was hired to teach school in Grantsville and moved there from Salt Lake City.  Not long after moving to Grantsville, Joshua met Mary Louisa Woolley, a young woman who was born on the plains as her parents traveled with the Mormon Pioneers.

                Education and culture were very important to members of the LDS Church in the pioneer days and still are today.  Even though Joshua could do hard physical labor, he was also very “a knowledgeable, culturally-oriented man.”  He was more than willing to “sleep in a hay loft in order to afford to see a Shakespearean play and would make great sacrifices to afford to buy a good book.  The small library in the Clark home was made up of history books, classics, an encyclopedia, the Bible, plus other religious works of the LDS Church.”

                Young Clark did not have much opportunity for education in his youth because the family needed his help on the farm and lack of resource, and he was home schooled by his mother.  About the time young Clark was ten years old, his father began teaching at a private school and was able to teach his son.  Young Clark missed school in order to help the family, but his father said that his son would “rather miss his meals than to miss a day from school.”  He completed the highest grade offered at the Grantsville school and then repeated it two more times.

                In spite of the fact that his family was financially challenged, young Clark “was able to take music lessons and to play with various bands.  He played the piccolo and then the flute.”  As a youth young Clark “participated in dramatic productions” and “displayed a talent for public speaking, comedy, and humor.  He also participated in other activities of children and youth such as “sledding in the winter and swimming in the summer.”

                In 1890 when young Clark was 19 years old, he went to Salt Lake City to attend the Latter-day Saints’ University.  He lived with his aunt and earned extremely high grades.  James E. Talmage, a LDS scholar and scientist, was the principle at the University and hired Clark as the assistant curator and later as curator for the Deseret Museum.  The position was considered to be a “mission” and thus Clark served his mission while attending college.  Talmage was charged with creating a new college for the Church and took Clark with him as his chemistry lab assistant and clerk; Clark was still working at the museum.  Clark finished “six years of advanced schooling in four” with two of those years meeting high school requirements.  Talmage encouraged Clark to attend an eastern university and called him “the greatest mind ever to leave Utah.”

                Clark entered the University of Utah in 1894 and lived so frugally that he was able to send money to his father who was serving as a missionary and the mission president in the Northern States Mission.  Talmage became president of the University of Utah, and Clark “graduated in 1898 as valedictorian of his graduating class, still serving as clerk to Talmage and on the faculty of the university.

                In 1894 Clark met Luacine “Lute” Annetta Savage, the youngest daughter of Charles Roscoe Savage of Salt Lake City.  Lute taught kindergarten and worked in her father’s store during the four years she dated Clark.  They were married on September 14, 1898, in a Salt Lake Temple ceremony performed by Elder Talmage, the first such marriage he performed.  The couple was feted at a modest reception; this was Lute’s choice even though her family was prosperous.  Clark left a few days after the wedding for Heber, Utah, where he started his career as a teacher and principal at the new Heber City High School; he went to find housing before Lute followed.  Five children blessed their union.

                Clark taught part of the next year at Latter-day Saints’ University, resigning in February to teach at Salt Lake Business College headed by Joseph Nelson.  Clark went to Cedar City, Utah, in the fall of 1900 to be the principal of the Branch Normal School.  In 1901 he was an instructor in Commercial Law, Principal of the Shorthand Department, and Secretary of the Faculty at Salt Lake Business College.  Clark assumed most of the duties of as head of Salt Lake Business College when Nelson became cashier of the Utah National Bank.  Nelson offered to pay for law school for Clark that year, and Clark applied to Columbia University and was accepted; he received his entire education in law at Columbia. 

                In the beginning of his second year at Columbia, Clark was elected to a position on the editorial board of the Columbia Law Review.  By the end of his second year, he was admitted to the New York bar.  He received his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1906.  In 1905 Clark “worked with James Brown Scott on the 772-page book Cases on Quasi Contracts, and Scott recommended him as Assistant Solicitor of the Department of State;” Clark was appointed to the position on September 5, 1906.  Thus, he began his career with the federal government. 

                Clark was Assistant Solicitor and then Solicitor in the State Department and “was often confronted with critical issues of international consequence.”  During the Mexican Revolution, Clark made “crucial decisions and recommended courses of action to the secretary of state and Howard Taft.  Of particular concern to Clark was the plight of the Latter-day Saints who lived in Mexican colonies, who were often caught in the middle of the conflict and whose presence in Mexico was resented by the revolutionaries.”

                Resigning from the State Department in 1913, Clark returned to his law practice.  The Japanese government was “one of his first major clients” seeking help to “combat anti-Japanese discrimination in California.  Clark was offered but declined an offer to become Tokyo’s permanent counsel.  Clark was commissioned as a major in the Judge Advocate General Officer Reserve Corps (Army) when the United States entered World War I.  He also worked in the Attorney General’s office as well as helped to create the regulations for the Selective Service.  The federal government called Clark back into service in 1925 where he used his previous experience in Mexico to help alleviate tensions with Mexico.  A treaty in 1924 avoided war with Mexico.  Clark held other government positions:  Special Counsel for the United States before the American-British Claim Arbitration, Agent for the United States on the US-Mexico General and Special Claims commissions, and personal legal adviser to the US Ambassador to Mexico.

                “In 1928, as Under Secretary of State to Secretary of State Frank Kellogg in the Calvin Coolidge Administration, Clark wrote the `Clark Memorandum on the Monroe Doctrine’, which repudiated the idea that the United States could arbitrarily use military force in Latin America.  The Memorandum was a 238-page treatise exploring every nuance of America’s philosophy of Western Hemispherical guardianship.  The `Clark Memorandum’ was published as an official State Department document and partially reprinted in textbooks for years.

                “When Dwight Morrow resigned as ambassador to serve in the US Senate, Clark was recommended as his replacement.  Herbert Hoover appointed Clark as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States to Mexico on October 3, 1930.  The Mexican ambassadorship was a key post in US foreign relations and earned him instant prestige."  Clark served as US ambassador to Mexico from 1930-1933.  Franklin D. Roosevelt summoned Clark to the White House and asked him to be a delegate to the Pan-American Conference at Montevideo, Uruguay.  Roosevelt “tapped” him again in 1933 to serve on the newly formed Foreign Bondholders Protective Council. 

                Clark was also filling major position in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  In June 1925 he appointed to the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Association board; in April 1933 he was called as Second Counselor to President Heber J. Grant.  The position was vacant for over a year until Clark could resign as ambassador and “resolve necessary government matters.”  Clark was sustained as second counselor to President Grant on April 6, 1933, even though he had never served as bishop, stake president, or in Quorum of Twelve Apostles.  President Clark was able to relieve President Grant of many of his administrative duties.

                With encourage from President Grant, President Clark continued to “take advantage of business and governmental opportunities whenever possible.”  FDR again asked President Clark to serve his nation in October 1933 as the Great Depression ravaged the economies of the world.  That same year President Clark lobbied for some changes in the Church welfare policy and to “adopt many of the innovative techniques instituted by Harold B. Lee in the Salt Lake Pioneer Stake.” 

                President Anthony W. Ivins, first counselor to President Grant, died in September 1934, and President Clark “was ordained an apostle and member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for purposes of seniority.”  He was then set apart as President Grant’s first counselor with David O. McKay as second counselor. 

                President Grant presented a new “Church Security” program in 1935; it was renamed the “Welfare Plan” in 1938.  This new plan “encouraged industry and personal responsibility and enabled the members to turn to the church instead of relying on the `demoralizing system’ of government dependence.  The Welfare Plan would centralize the church’s efforts and grow to include a `Beautification Program,’ church farms, Deseret Industries, and a Bishop’s Central Storehouse.”

                President Clark explained the goal of church welfare to stake presidents in a special meeting held on October 2, 1936:  “The real long term objective of the Welfare Plan is the building of character in the members of the Church, givers and receivers, rescuing all that is finest deep down inside of them, and bring to flower and fruitage the latent richness of the spirit which after all is the mission and purpose and reason for being of this Church.”  His counsel is still “the guiding principle of LDS Church welfare.”

                After the death of President Heber J. Grant, George Albert Smith was ordained as the President of the Church and kept President Clark and President McKay as his first and second counselors, respectively.  Upon the death of President Smith, David O. McKay was ordained as the President of the Church.  He chose Stephen L. Richards to be his first counselor, and J. Reuben Clark, Jr. to be his second counselor.  President Clark made his famous statement at that time:  “In the service of the Lord, it is not where you serve but how.  In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, one takes the place to which one is duly called, which place one neither seeks nor declines.”  After the death of President Richards in 1951, President Clark was made first counselor to President McKay and remained in that position until his death.  He was “involved with most of the administrative innovations of the church while he was in the First Presidency.”

                President Clark died on October 6, 1961, at his residence in Salt Lake City, at the age of 90 years.  He was a counselor in the First Presidency for more than 28 years, longer than any other man who has not been President of the Church.  He was buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

Babe Ruth

                Babe Ruth was born George Herman Ruth, Jr. on February 6, 1895, in the home of his maternal grandparents at 216 Emory Street in the Pigtown section of Baltimore, Maryland – a working class section of the city with recent immigrants from Ireland, Germany, and Italy plus African Americans. 

                Ruth’s parents were George Herman Ruth, Sr. (1871-1918) and Katherine Schamberger, both of whom had German American ancestry but born in Maryland.  His parents had eight children, but only George and his younger sister Mamie lived beyond infancy.  Ruth’s paternal grandfather was from Prussia, and his paternal grandmother was from Hanover.  His maternal grandfather was Pius Schamberger, an immigrant from Germany.

                George Ruth, Sr. worked a series of jobs that included “lightning rod salesman and streetcar operator before becoming a counterman in a family-owned combination grocery and saloon on Frederick Street.”  George, Jr. was only a toddler when his family moved to 339 South Goodyear Street near the rail yards and was six years old when his father moved his family to an apartment above a saloon at 426 West Camden Street. 

                This environment was not good for young George because at the age of seven, he was sent to St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys, a reformatory and orphanage on June 13, 1902, and spent most of the next twelve years there.  His record upon entrance was marked “incorrigible.”  “As an adult, Babe Ruth suggested that not only had he been running the streets and rarely attending school, he was drinking beer when his father was not looking.  Some accounts say that, after a violent incident at his father’s saloon, the city authorities decided this environment was unsuitable for a small child.” 

                Ruth received an education at St. Mary’s and also learned work skills and helped to operate the school.  This was expected of all the “inmates” once they were twelve years old.  “Ruth became a shirtmaker, and was also proficient as a carpenter.  He would adjust his own shirt collars, rather than having a tailor do it, even during his well-paid baseball career.  The boys, aged 5 to 21, did most [of] the work around the facility, from cooking to shoemaking, and renovated St. Mary’s in 1912.  The food was simple, and the Xaverian Brothers who ran the school insisted on strict discipline; corporal punishment was common.  Ruth’s nickname there was `Niggerlip’, as he had large facial features and was darker than most boys at the all-white reformatory.”

                Ruth was allowed to live with his family at times.  He was also placed at a supervised residence called St. James’s Home that had work in the community; however, he was “always returned to St. Mary’s.”  His family rarely visited him.  He was twelve years old when his mother passed away and was allowed to attend the funeral.

                There are uncertainties of how Ruth began playing baseball at St. Mary’s.  One account says that he was placed at St. Mary’s because he “repeatedly” broke windows with his “long hits while playing street ball.”  Another account says “he was told to join a team on his first day at St. Mary’s.”  At any rate, Ruth came under the guidance of the school’s athletic director, Brother Herman, and became a catcher who also played

third base and shortstop.  He was left-handed and was forced to wear right-handed gloves.

                Brother Matthias Boutlier, a native of Nova Scotia and the Prefect of Discipline at St. Mary’s, encouraged Ruth in his pursuits.  Brother Matthias was a strong and fair man who earned the respect of the boys.  “For the rest of his life, Ruth would praise Brother Matthias, and his running and hitting styles closely resembled his teacher’s.  Ruth stated, `I think I was born as a hitter the first day I ever saw him hit a baseball.’  The older man became a mentor and a role model to George.”  Even though Brother Matthias was “in charge of making boys behave” and “Ruth was one of the great natural misbehavers of all time,” something about the big man “struck a spark of response” in the soul of “the young hellraiser from the waterfront.”   

                Ruth carried the influence from St. Mary’s with him in other ways.  He was a Catholic for his entire life and sometimes attended Mass even though he had been out partying all night; he was also a “well-known member of the Knights of Columbus.  “He would visit orphanages, schools, and hospitals throughout his life, often avoiding publicity.  He was generous to St. Mary’s as he became famous and rich, donating money and his presence at fundraisers, and spending $5,000 to buy Brother Matthias a Cadillac in 1926 – subsequently replacing it when it was destroyed in an accident.”

                Apparently, Ruth’s baseball career got a jump start at St. Mary’s as boys from the school “played baseball with organized leagues at different levels of proficiency.”  Ruth “steadily climbed the ladder of success” as he played an estimated 200 games each year.  Even though he was left-handed, he played all positions on the field at one time or another but “gained stardom as a pitcher.  According to Brother Matthias, Ruth was standing to one side laughing at the bumbling pitching efforts of fellow students, and Matthias told him to go in and see if he could do better.  After becoming the best pitcher at St. Mary’s, in 1913, when Ruth was 18, he was allowed to leave the premises to play weekend games on teams drawn from the community.  He was mentioned in several newspaper articles, for both his pitching prowess and ability to hit long home runs.”

                Ruth became a Major League baseball player, and his career spanned 22 seasons (1914-1935).  He was nicknamed “The Bambino” and “The Sultan of Swat.”  He “began his MLB career as a stellar left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, but achieved his greatest fame as a slugging outfielder for the New York Yankees.  Ruth established many MLB batting (and some pitching) records, including career home runs (714), runs batted in (RBIs) (2,213), bases on balls (2,062), slugging percentage (.690); and on-base plus slugging (OPS) (1.164); the latter two still stand today.  Ruth is regarded as one of the greatest sports heroes in American culture and is considered by many to be the greatest baseball play of all time.  He was one of the first five inductees into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936.”

                Ruth began his MLB career in the minor league for the Baltimore Orioles in 1914 but was sold to the Red Sox.  He had a reputation by 1916 of being “an outstanding pitcher who sometimes hit long home runs….”  He won 23 games in a season as a pitcher twice and was on three World Series championship teams with Boston; however, he wanted to play every day and was moved to the outfield.  In 1919 he broke the Major League single-season home run record.

                For whatever reason, Ruth was sold to the New York Yankees where he helped the Yankees win seven American League (AL) championships and four World Series championships.  Boston went into a “championship drought” that was popularized as the “Curse of the Bambino.” 

                Ruth’s “big swing led to escalating home run totals that not only drew fans to the ballpark and boosted the sport’s popularity but also helped usher in the live-ball era of baseball, in which it evolved from a low-scoring game of strategy to a sport where the home run was a major factor.  As part of the Yankees’ vaunted `Murderer’s Row’ lineup of 1927, Ruth hit 60 home runs, extending his MLB single-season record.  He retired in 1935 after a short stint with the Boston Braves.  During his career, Ruth led the AL in home runs during a season twelve times.”

                Babe Ruth was a “larger-than-life figure” during the “Roaring Twenties” due to his “legendary power and charismatic personality.”  He drew “intense press and public attention for his baseball exploits and off-field penchants for drinking and womanizing.  His often reckless lifestyle was tempered by his willingness to do good by visiting children at hospitals and orphanages….”

                The “Great Bambino” was not allowed to work in baseball after his retirement; this was probably caused by his “poor behavior during parts of his playing career.”  He did however make “many public appearances, especially in support of American efforts in World War II.   

                Ruth met a Boston coffee shop waitress named Helen Woodford, and they were married on October 17, 1914.  They adopted a daughter, Dorothy, in 1921, but they separated around 1925 – apparently because of his infidelities.  They appeared together during the 1926 World Series.  “Helen died in a fire in Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1929, in a house owned by Edward Kinder, a dentist with whom she had been living as `Mrs. Kinder’.  In her book, My Dad, the Babe, Dorothy claimed that she was Ruth’s biological child by a girlfriend named Juanita Jennings.  She died in 1989.”  Ruth married actress and model Claire Merritt Hodgson (1897-1976) on April 17, 1929, and adopted her daughter Julia.

                In 1946 Ruth began having severe pain over his left eye and also had difficulty swallowing.  He entered French Hospital in New York for tests in November 1946.  The tests revealed that he had an inoperable malignant tumor at the base of his skull and in his neck.  Because of his name and fame, Ruth had access to experimental treatments.  He was one of the first patients to receive drugs and radiation treatment at the same time.  He later received some hope from chemotherapy but was never told that he had cancer because his family was afraid he might harm himself.  He was in and out of the hospital in New York for the next couple of years.

                By 1947 Ruth was unable to assist with the writing of his autobiography, The Babe Ruth Story.  He did attend a book-signing party in New York and went to California to watch his story filmed.

                Ruth was “gaunt and hollowed out” on June 5, 1948, when he went to the library at Yale University to donate a manuscript of The Babe Ruth Story.  A week later on June 13, he went to Yankee Stadium for the 25^th anniversary celebration of “The House that Ruth Built.”  Because of his loss of so much weight and his difficulty in walking, he used a bat as a cane when his and his teammates from 1923 were introduced.  He made one final trip on behalf of American Legion Baseball before going back to Memorial Hospital. 

                Allowed to leave the hospital for short trips, Ruth made a final trip to Baltimore and also attended the premiere of the film The Babe Ruth Story on June 26, 1948.  By this time he could barely speak, and his condition gradually worsened.  He had few visitors and one of them described him as being “just skinny little bones” with a “haggard” face.

                “Thousands of New Yorkers, including many children, stood vigil outside the hospital in Ruth’s final days.”  He died in his sleep at 8:01 p.m. on August 16, 1948, at the age of 53.  His casket was taken to Yankee Stadium for two days, and 77,000 people filed past to pay tribute to him.  A crowd estimated to be about 75,000 stood outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral during his funeral."  He was buried on a hillside in Section 25 at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York, next to his second wife, Claire.

                Ruth’s number 3 uniform was retired by the Yankees, and he is one of five Yankees players or managers to have a granite monument within the stadium.  His grandfather’s home at 216 Emory Street in Baltimore is now the Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum.  It was restored and opened to the public in 1973 by the non-profit Babe Ruth Birthplace Foundation. Inc.  Exhibits for the museum were selected with the help of Ruth’s widow Claire, his two daughters, Dorothy and Julia, and his sister, Mamie.  The most familiar reminder of the great baseball player is probably the Babe Ruth candy bar.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

                Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was born on March 8, 1841, in Boston, Massachusetts.  He was the son of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. and Amelia Lee Jackson.  His father was a prominent writer and physician as well as “a leading figure in Boston intellectual and literary circles.”  His mother was an abolitionist who was “connected to the leading families” such as Henry James Sr. and Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Young Holmes was known as “Wendell” in his youth, and he was lifelong friends with Henry James Jr. and William James.  Young Holmes was reared “in an atmosphere of intellectual achievement, and early formed the ambition to be a man of letters like Emerson.

                Holmes supported the Abolitionist movement.  He attended Harvard and followed in his father’s footsteps as a member of the Hasty Pudding and the Porcellian Club.  He left school briefly in the spring of 1861 when President Abraham Lincoln called for volunteers after rebels fired on Fort Sumter, but he returned to school briefly to participate in commencement exercises.  That summer Holmes was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.

                Holmes “saw much action, from the Peninsula Campaign to the Wilderness, suffering wounds at the Battle of Ball’s Bluff, Antietam, and Chancellorsville, and suffered from a near-fatal case of dysentery.  Holmes particularly admired and was close to his fellow officer in the 20^th Mass., Henry Livermore Abbott.  Holmes rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel, but eschewed promotion in his regiment and served on the staff of the VI Corps during the Wilderness campaign.  Abbott took command of the regiment in his place, and was killed.  Holmes is said to have shouted at Lincoln to take cover during the Battle of Fort Stevens, although this is commonly regarded as apocryphal.  Although Holmes himself made this claim, he likely was not present on the day Lincoln visited Fort Stevens.  Holmes received a brevet (honorary) promotion to colonel in recognition of his services during the war.  He retired to his home in Boston after his three-year enlistment ended in 1864, weary and ill, his regiment disbanded.”

                Colonel Holmes returned to Boston during the summer 1864; there he “wrote poetry and debated philosophy with his friend William James.”  He considered reenlisting in the military; when he realized the war was about to end, he enrolled in the Harvard Law School in the fall of 1864.  There he spent a year attending lectures and “reading extensively in theoretical works.”  He spent the next year clerking in the law office of his cousin Robert Morse. 

                Holmes was admitted to the bar in 1866 but went to London to complete his education before joining a small law firm in Boston.  He practiced admiralty law and commercial law for fifteen years.  He visited London whenever he could during the social season of spring and summer and formed romantic friendships with English noble women.  He also enjoyed intellectual friendships with British men.

                In 1872 Holmes married Fanny Bowditch Dixwell, who had been a friend since childhood.  The couple was not blessed with children of their own, but they adopted Dorothy Upham, an orphaned cousin.  Fanny did not like Beacon Hill society but did enjoy embroidery.  “She was described as devoted, witty, wise, tactful, and perceptive.”  She died on April 30, 1929.

                Holmes served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1902-1932) and as Acting Chief Justice of the United States (January-February 1930).  He was “noted for his long service, his concise and pithy opinions and his deference to the decisions of elected legislatures;” he was also “one of the most widely cited United States Supreme Court justices in history, particularly for his `clear and present danger’ opinion for a unanimous Court in the 1919 case of Schenck v. United States, and is one of the most influential American common law judges, honored during his lifetime in Great Britain as well as the United States.  Holmes retired from the Court at the age of 90 years, 309 days, making him the oldest Justice in the Supreme Court’s history.  He also served as an Associate Justice and as Chief Justice on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and was Weld Professor of Law at the Harvard Law School, of which he was an alumnus.”

                Justice Holmes died of pneumonia on March 6, 1835, in Washington, D.C., just two days short of his 94^th birthday.  He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

                Believing that “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society,” he left his residuary estate to the United States government.  “His personal effects included his Civil War Officer’s uniform still stained with his blood and `torn with shot’ as well as the carefully wrapped Minie balls that had wounded him three times in separate battles.“  His papers were donated to Harvard Law School.

                “The United States Postal Service honored Holmes with a Prominent Americans series (1965-1978) 15 cent postage stamp.  In 1972 his summer house in Beverly, Massachusetts, became a National Historic Landmark.               

John Blair, Jr.

                    John Blair, Jr. was a "famous legal scholar" who preferred "to work behind the scenes" rather than participating in "the tumult of state politics."  He believed strongly that there should be a "permanent union of the newly independent states," and he supported this idea at the Constitutional Convention where he became one of the signers.  He was "one of the best-trained jurists of his day."  Although he contributed much as a Founding Father and as an attendee at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, his greatest contributions came later while serving as a judge on the Virginia court of appeals and in the U.S. Supreme Court.  He "influenced the interpretation of the Constitution" in numerous important decisions.  Blair was praised by his contemporaries for his "personal strengths" such as "gentleness and benevolence" as well as for "his ability to penetrate immediately to the heart of a legal career."

                    Blair was born in 1732 in Williamsburg, Virginia, into "a prominent Virginia family."  His father, John Blair, was acting Royal governor as well as served on the McDonalds Council.  His granduncle was James Blair, the founder and first president of the College of William and Mary.

                    John Blair attended William and Mary, graduating with an A.B. in 1754.  He went to London in 1755 to study law at the Middle Temple.  Upon his return back to America, he immediately became active in politics.  When the French and Indian War ended, he was elected to the House of Burgesses (1766-70) where he represented the College of William and Mary.  He later became the clerk of the upper house of the colonial legislature known as the Royal Governor's Council (1770-75).

                    Blair was at first a "moderate" Patriot, and he "opposed Patrick Henry's extremist resolutions in protest of the Stamp Act."  Blair's views were altered when Parliament dissolved the House of Burgesses.  He fought against "a series of Parliamentary taxes on the colonies" by joining George Washington and others (1770 and 1774) in drafting "nonimportation agreements."  These agreements contained pledges to "cease importing British goods until the taxes were repealed."  When Parliament passed the Intolerable Acts in 1774, Blair joined others calling for a Continental Congress; he also joined in a pledge to support the people of Boston when they were enduring "economic hardship" caused by acts of Parliament.

                    John Blair became active in the Virginia government at the beginning of the American Revolution.  He attended the convention that framed the constitution of Virginia (1776) and served on several committees.  He was a member of the committee that drafted Virginia's Declaration of Rights and its "plan of government."  He was part of Governor Patrick Henry's major advisory group known as the Privy Council (1776-1778). 

                    He was appointed by the legislature to a position on the general court in 1778 and soon became the chief justice.  In 1780 he was elected to serve on the high court of chancery where he worked with George Wythe; Blair and Wythe later served together in the Constitutional Convention.  Blair was 55 years old during the Constitutional Convention.  He attended the Convention faithfully but never spoke or even served on a committee there.  He was a "staunch ally" of James Madison and usually agreed with the position of other Virginia delegates.  He was active in his commonwealth to encourage his fellow Virginians to ratify the new Constitution.

Blair was automatically a member of Virginia's first court of appeals because of his court positions.  He was recognized as a great jurist by the Virginia legislature who appointed him to succeed Thomas Jefferson on a committee charged with revising the laws of Virginia.

                    President George Washington appointed Blair to the United States Supreme Court on September 24, 1789.  The United States Senate confirmed his appointment on September 26, 1789.  He was commissioned on September 30, 1789, and resigned on October 25, 1795.

                    Blair was a Freemason and was named Grand Master of Freemasons in Virginia.  He was honored by Blair Street in Madison, Wisconsin, being named after him.  Blair's wife (born Jean Balfour) died in 1792.  There are two dates for his death - August 31, 1800, and September 12, 1800.  He died in Williamsburg at age 68 and was buried in the Bruton Parish Church graveyard.

Jane B. Parker Bedford

                    I did not find much information about Jane B. Parker, the wife of Gunning Bedford, Jr., signer of the United States Constitution.  The couple apparently married while he was attending the College of New Jersey (later Princeton, University) and became parents of at least one daughter.  I found one source that described her as "beautiful" but decided the entire site was questionable.

                    I feel badly that there is so little information about Mrs. Bedford on the present information highway.  I hope that her descendents know more about her because I feel certain that she was as outstanding as was her husband.  

Gunning Bedford, Jr.

                    Gunning Bedford, Jr. was born on April 13, 1747, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  He was the fifth of seven children born into a "distinguished family that originally settled in Jamestown,VA.   He received his education at the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University), where he was a classmate of James Madison and graduated in 1771 with honors.

                    Bedford apparently married Jane B. Parker while he was still in school, and the couple became parents of at least one daughter.  He "read" law with Joseph Read in Philadelphia, passed the bar, and opened a law office.  He later moved to Dover and then Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware.  He is sometimes confused with his cousin, Col. Gunning Bedford, Sr., who was an officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolution and Governor of Delaware.

                    Gunning Bedford, Jr. "apparently served in the Continental Army" and was "possibly as an aide to General Washington."

His first political position was serving in the Legislative Council of the Delaware General Assembly, later known as the Delaware House of Representatives, where he served four terms (1783/84 until 1786/87).   His next public service was one three-year term (1788/89 through 1790/91) in the Legislative Council, later known as the State Senate.  Bedford also served as a Continental Congressman from Delaware, as the first Attorney General of Delaware (1778-1790), and as a Delaware delegate to Constitutional Convention in 1787.

At the Constitutional Convention, Bedford "was the most vocal supporter of giving small states equal power in the federal government to large states.  His experience in local politics, along with his service in the Continental Congress, taught him much about the political and economic vulnerabilities of states like Delaware.  Unlike some other small-state representatives who looked to the creation of a strong central government to protect their interests against more powerful neighbors, Bedford sought to limit the powers of the new government.  But when the conflict over representation threatened to wreck the Constitutional Convention, he laid regional interests aside and, for the good of the country, sought to compromise." 

Bedford even went so far as to "warn" the other delegates that the small states might seek protection with alliances with foreign governments.  He at first was aligned with the delegates "who sought merely to amend the Articles of Confederation" but later "supported the New Jersey Plan, a scheme that provided equal representation for the states in the national legislature, a point on which the Delaware legislature had instructed its delegates not to compromise."  He sat on "the committee that drafted the Great Compromise, which settled the thorny question of representation and made possible the Convention's acceptance of the new plan of government."

Gunning Bedford, Jr. was also a delegate to the convention in 1787 when Delaware ratified the Constitution.  Bedford, John Dickinson, Richard Bassett, and others assisted Delaware to become "the first state to approve the Constitution."

Bedford was so "respected for his knowledge of the law" that he was "asked by Delaware's senators and fellow signers George Read and Richard Bassett to review a bill, then under consideration, on the organization of the federal judiciary system."  He considered the document (later the Judiciary Act of 1789 and "one of the most important pieces of legislation of the period) to be a "noble work."  He did, however, have some concerns with it and "admitted that the common law of the United States was difficult to define."  He claimed, "Yet the dignity of America requires that it [a definition] be ascertained, and that where we refer to laws they should be laws of our own country.  If the principles of the laws of any other country are good and worthy of adoption, incorporate them into your own."  He considered the ratification of the Constitution to be "legal emancipation" and declared that "as the foundation is laid so must the superstructure be built."

President George Washington nominated Bedford on September 24, 1789, to be the first judge for the United States Court for the District of Delaware.  The U.S. Senate confirmed the appointment on September 26, 1789, and Bedford received his commission that same day.  He continued in that position until his death but resigned the office of attorney general for Delaware in 1790.

Bedford had a continuing interest in local education and believed that establishing schools "is, on all hands, justly acknowledged to be an object of first importance."  He worked at improving the education system in Wilmington and was president of the Board of Trustees of Wilmington Academy.  After the academy became Wilmington College, he became its first president.  In addition, he was also the first Grand Master of the Delaware Masonic Lodge.

Gunning Bedford, Jr. died at age 64 on March 30, 1812, in Wilmington and was buried in the Presbyterian Cemetery there.  When the Wilmington Institute Library was located where the cemetery stood, his remains were moved to the Masonic Home Cemetery at Christiana, Delaware.  His legacy includes Bedford Street in Madison, Wisconsin, being named in his honor.