Charles Evans Whittaker: Difference between revisions

Whittaker was born on a farm near [[Troy, Kansas|Troy]], [[Kansas]] to Charles Edward Whittaker, a farmer, and Ida Eve Miller, a schoolteacher from [[Hagerstown, Maryland|Hagerstown]], [[Maryland]]. He attended the nearby one-room Brush Creek School, and then the [[Troy High School (Kansas)|Troy High School]] until he dropped out in the ninth grade after his mother died on his sixteenth birthday. He spent the next three years working on a family farm, and also hunting and trapping. Whittaker developed an interest in law by reading newspaper articles about criminal trials. In the summer of 1920, he applied to the part-time evening program at the Kansas City School of Law (currently the [[University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law]]) and gained admission with the condition that he would finish his high school education after personally pleading with Oliver Dean, a president of the law school. Immediately, he enrolled at Manual High School in [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]], [[Missouri]]. He spent the next four years working during the day to support himself, and in the evenings was taking high school courses as well as classes at the Kansas City School of Law. While Whittaker was a student at the school, future President [[Harry S. Truman]] was a classmate. Whittaker graduated in the class of 1924 with a [[Bachelor of Laws]] having been admitted to the Missouri bar during his senior year.<ref name="Smith">Smith, Craig A. [https://books.google.com/books?id=tjhMk0tEMxkC&lpg=PA269&ots=x4Hkf-jxou&dq=Watson%2C%20Gage%2C%20Ess%2C%20Groner%20%26%20Barnett&pg=PA15#v=onepage&q=Watson,%20Gage,%20Ess,%20Groner%20&f=false ''Failing Justice: Charles Evans Whittaker on the Supreme Court.''] Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Company, 2005.</ref><ref name='fedjudcenter'>{{Cite web |url=https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/whittaker-charles-evans |title=ArchivedWhittaker, copyCharles Evans &#124; Federal Judicial Center |access-date=November 9, 2018 |archive-date=November 9, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181109111935/https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/whittaker-charles-evans |url-status=live }}</ref> Whittaker joined the law firm of Watson, Ess, Marshall & Enggas in Kansas City, Missouri, where he previously worked full-time as an office boy, and built up a practice in [[corporate law]] with the [[Union Pacific Railroad]], [[Montgomery Ward]], and the City National Bank and Trust Company among his clients. He developed close ties to the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]].