Robert Witherspoon HEMPHILL, Congress, SC (1915-1983)

HEMPHILL, Robert Witherspoon, (great-great-nephew of John Hemphill, great-nephew of John J. Hemphill, great-nephew of William Huggins Brawley, and great-great-grandson of Robert Witherspoon), a Representative from South Carolina; born in Chester, S.C., May 10, 1915; attended the public schools; graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1936 and from the law school of the same university in 1938; was admitted to the bar in 1938 and commenced the practice of law in Chester; volunteered in 1941 as a flying cadet in the United States Air Force and served as a bomber pilot until December 1945; chairman of Chester County Democratic conventions in 1946 and 1947; member of State house of representatives 1947-1948; solicitor of the Sixth South Carolina Judicial Circuit 1951-1956; delegate to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Congress in London in 1959; elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-fifth and to the three succeeding Congresses, serving from January 3, 1957, until his resignation May 1, 1964, when he was sworn in as United States district judge of South Carolina; was a resident of Chester, S.C. until his death there December 25, 1983; interment in Hopewell Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Chester, S.C.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present