First Texan On Supreme Court Hard To Peg

Texans were as surprised as everybody else on Aug. 28, 1949, when President Truman revealed his choice for the next Supreme Court justice, but took satisfaction in the fact they finally would have one of their own on the highest court in the land.

Thomas Campbell Clark was born at Dallas in the last year of the 19th century. “Lawyering,” his quaint nickname for the legal profession, ran in the family. None other than George Washington appointed his great-great-grandfather the first federal judge in Kentucky, and his dad once served as president of the Texas Bar Association.

After two years at Virginia Military Institute and a couple more as an infantry officer in the Great War, Clark earned undergraduate and law degrees at the University of Texas. He married the daughter of a state supreme court justice and hung out his shingle in his hometown.

The skinny six-footer was likable and laid-back with a fondness for bright bow ties and big cigars. “How ya doin