Samuel James ERVIN, Jr., Congress, NC (1896-1985)

ERVIN, Samuel James, Jr., (brother of Joseph Wilson Ervin), a Representative and a Senator from North Carolina; born in Morganton, Burke County, N.C., September 27, 1896; attended the public schools; graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1917 and from the law school of Harvard University in 1922; during the First World War served in France with the First Division 1917-1919; admitted to the bar in 1919 and commenced practice in Morganton, N.C., in 1922; member, North Carolina general assembly 1923, 1925, 1931; judge of the Burke County criminal court 1935-1937; judge of the North Carolina superior court 1937-1943; elected on January 22, 1946, as a Democrat to the Seventy-ninth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of his brother, Joseph W. Ervin, and served from January 22, 1946, to January 3, 1947; was not a candidate for renomination in 1946; resumed the practice of law; associate justice of the North Carolina supreme court 1948-1954; appointed on June 5, 1954, and subsequently elected on November 2, 1954, as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Clyde R. Hoey for the term ending January 3, 1957; reelected in 1956, 1962, and again in 1968 and served from June 5, 1954, until his resignation December 31,1974; was not a candidate for reelection in 1974; chairman, Committee on Government Operations (Ninety-second and Ninety-third Congresses), Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities (Ninety-third Congress); resumed the practice of law and engaged in literary pursuits in Morganton, N.C.; died in Winston-Salem, N.C., on April 23, 1985; interment in the Forest Hill Cemetery in Morganton, N.C.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives; The Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law; Clancy, Paul. Just A Country Lawyer: A Biography of Senator Sam Ervin. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1974; Ervin, Sam. Preserving the Constitution: An Autobiography of Senator Sam Ervin. Charlottesville, Va.: Mitchie Co., 1984; Campbell, Karl E. Senator Sam Ervin, Last of the Founding Fathers. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007.

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