did you think wyeth chandler was a good judge?


Wyeth didn’t get the acclaim that he was entitled to. He was considered by some people to [be a] buffoon, which he absolutely was not.


But he played that role?


I thought he was a good mayor, but he was a better judge. He could get to the heart of the matter quicker than anybody I have ever known.


talking about mayors, of course, your father was city attorney?


My father was city attorney under Mayor Watkins Overton and Attorney General during the Crump administrations.


you are certainly the eldest lawyer to practice at the Memphis Bar.


No, no, there are a couple older than me: Lewis Donelson and Shep Tate. I don’t think there are any others, though. Tose two practice, and I do, too, when I can. A bunch of us old- fogey lawyers used to meet for breakfast Friday mornings at the Barksdale Cafe, and we were talking one morning about retiring, and Roane Waring said that when he was a young lawyer, his senior partner was Mr. Sam Walker, who was a first-rate Memphis lawyer, and Roane said he didn’t think he would ever retire. Mr. Walker said, you don’t have to worry about that, your clients will do it for you. And no truth was better said. I don’t have much to do these days, but I come and try to do it every day.


If you were to do it all over again, hal, what would you be the second time around in life, what profession would you take up?


I don’t think I would change anything. I would be a lawyer. I had a hard time making up my mind to do that, but once I did, I liked the law practice and I liked the people that I met. I’ve made life-long friends that started about the same time I did. I’ve known some great lawyers. I’ve mentioned a few.


how have you seen the city of Memphis change in the last ninety-one years for you?


Well, it has grown a lot, of course, and I think there is still a racial divide here that we need to deal with. I think the city now is about sixty-five or seventy percent black, which doesn’t bother me in the slightest, but apparently it does some people, because there has been a lot of white flight to Fayette County, Collierville, DeSoto County. I see no excuse for that but that has taken place.


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13


what about crump, you knew him personally, Mayor crump?


I did know Mayor Crump very well. He was self-educated. He left school when he was eight years old. He was raised in Holly Springs, Mississippi, and came to Memphis, was in business and got into politics and was a mayor and ex-member of congress. Tis was one of the best cities in the country, Triple-A bond rating, lowest tax rate in the State of Tennessee and the only city in the State of Tennessee which was audited every year because he insisted upon it. It had a low crime rate. Mr. Crump loved football. I played football in high school.


I might add that was without a face mask?


No face mask. No—well, leather helmets, yes, but no substitutions. You played both ways.


you’ve had many law partners over the years. I won’t ask you who your least favorite law partner was, as the list may be long -


Don’t ask me that. interview continued on next page


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