John Malcolm Patterson was born in Goldville on Sept. 27, 1921, considered one of six kids (two of whom would die in childhood) of Albert and Agnes
John Malcolm Patterson was born in Goldville on Sept. 27, 1921, considered one of six kids (two of whom would die in childhood) of Albert and Agnes (Benson) Patterson. His mother and father have been schoolteachers, however his father turned a lawyer in Phenix Metropolis, the place John graduated from Central Excessive Faculty in 1939. He quickly joined the Military as a personal, attended Officer Candidate Faculty, turned an artillery lieutenant and fought in World Struggle II in North Africa, Sicily, mainland Italy, France and Germany. He was discharged as a significant in 1945.
His marriage to Gladys Broadwater in 1942 resulted in divorce in 1945. In 1947, he married Mary Joe McGowin. They’d two kids, Albert and Barbara, and have been divorced. In 1975, he married Florentina Brachert, who is named Tina. Full info on his survivors was not instantly accessible.
Mr. Patterson earned a legislation diploma in 1949 from the College of Alabama. He joined his father’s agency however was recalled to energetic responsibility through the Korean Struggle and was an Military lawyer from 1951 to 1953. He then returned to legislation follow in Phenix Metropolis, a city infamous for brothels, playing joints and different vices run by racketeers who managed native politicians and catered to G.I.s from Fort Benning, Ga.
Pledging to scrub up the vice, Albert Patterson gained the Democratic nomination for state lawyer common in 1954. He was quickly shot useless by an murderer. (A deputy sheriff was convicted of the homicide.) Vowing to hold out his father’s guarantees, John Patterson, who had proven little curiosity in politics, took his father’s place on the poll, gained a particular election and have become lawyer common.
With the muscle of the Nationwide Guard, he drove the racketeers out of Phenix Metropolis in his first yr in workplace. He additionally attacked widespread corruption within the administration of Gov. James E. Folsom. Planning to run for governor, Mr. Patterson catered to the citizens by successful a court docket order to ban the N.A.A.C.P. from working within the state.
By the 1958 election, Mr. Patterson was Alabama’s hardest defender of segregation. Klansmen papered the state along with his marketing campaign posters, and within the major he simply defeated Mr. Wallace, who supported segregation however not vehemently, and was seen by many white voters as a racial average. After shedding the election, Mr. Wallace, utilizing a broadly quoted racist slur, mentioned that he had been outmaneuvered, and vowed to by no means let it occur once more.
After leaving the governorship, Mr. Patterson misplaced races for governor in 1966 and for chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Courtroom in 1970. Later within the ’70s he taught at Troy State College (now Troy College). Governor Wallace appointed him to the Alabama Courtroom of Felony Appeals in 1984, and he gained two elections and served till 1997, when he retired to his farm in Goldville.