Justice Lamar was born at Ruckersville, Elbert county, Ga., on October 14, 1857, the son of the Rev. James S. and Mary Rucker Lamar. He attended the University of Georgia. He was graduated from Bethany College, West Virginia, in 1877. After a year in the Washington and Lee University Law School, he was admitted to the bar at Augusta, Ga. There he lived until appointed to the Supreme Court.
He was a cousin of the late Associate Justice L. Q. C. Lamar, of Mississippi, who was a member of the United States Supreme Court from 1888 to 1893.
When Justice Lamar went on the Supreme Court bench he was little known beyond the borders of his own state. Mr. Taft became acquainted with him a short time before his inauguration when the President-elect was playing golf at Augusta. Justice Lamar had been a member of the Supreme Court only a few months, however, when his ability was recognized. His opinions were regarded as masterpieces of logical reasoning and applications for rehearings were made in few cases he helped to decide.
Justice Lamar was selected by President Wilson as the principal commissioner for the United States in the ABC mediation at Niagara Falls in 1914 between this country and Mexico over conditions in the neighboring republic.
Justice Lamar made many notable contributions to the legal literature of his state. Among them were "Georgia's Contribution to Law Reforms," "A History of the Organization of the Supreme Court," "Life of Judge Nesbit" and "A Century's Progress in Law." More than two hundred of his opinions are embraced in six volumes of Georgia Reports.
Justice Lamar married, on January 30, 1879, Miss Clarinda Pendleton, a daughter of Dr. W. K. Pendleton, president of Bethany College. He is survived by his wife and two children, Philip Rucker Lamar and William Pendleton Lamar.[24]
[24] New York Herald, January 3, 1916.
226. Obtaining the Information.—The gaining of information about a man who has just died is not difficult. One should be cautioned, however, against seeking details from members of the family. If the person is of little prominence, one should go first to the undertaker. He will have all the details about the funeral—the names of the pallbearers and of the minister, the time and place of the funeral, the place of burial—and probably all the facts about the person's life that the family wishes made public. If the undertaker does not have this information, he will be able to tell the reporter from whom it may be obtained. Additional facts may sometimes be had from the county and state directories, and even from the city directory. Old residents or close friends, too, often are able to give interesting details about the person's life, his failures and his successes, and in this way a reporter can publish an appreciative account without editorializing on the man's accomplishments. If the one who has died is of decided prominence, the reporter can find accounts of him in the various Who's Who volumes and probably a rather full obituary all ready in the morgue. One must be careful in using the morgue write-up, however, to bridge naturally and easily the gap between the new and the old material, so that the reader shall not suspect he is reading a story partly written years ago. The following is an illustration of poor coherence between the two parts:
Paris, August 12.—Pol Plancon, the opera singer, died to-day. He had been ill since June.