Thomas Clark Trimble III

Thomas Clark Trimble, III (August 27, 1878 – July 6, 1965) was a United States federal judge.

Born in Lonoke, Arkansas, Trimble received an LL.B. in 1902 from the University of Arkansas School of Law at Fayetteville. He was in private practice in Lonoke from 1902 to 1937.

On June 17, 1937, Trimble was nominated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas vacated by John E. Martineau. Trimble was confirmed by the United States Senate, and received his commission, on June 18, 1937. He served as chief judge from 1948 to 1957 and assumed senior status on January 14, 1957. Trimble's served in that capacity until his death in 1965 in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The Republican State Committee recommended Osro Cobb, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas as Trimble's successor. Trimble had sworn in Cobb as U.S. attorney in 1954. A former Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives, Cobb carried the support of Democratic U.S. Senators John Little McClellan and J. William Fulbright. Attorney General of the United States Herbert Brownell, Jr. had also promised to support Cobb for the judicial opening. The Little Rock Integration Crisis, however, ensued, and Cobb continued as U.S. attorney during the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock. Brownell, meanwhile, resigned and was replaced by William P. Rogers. Cobb later said that his oil investments began to multiply and paid far more than he would have earned as a federal judge had he gotten the appointment that he sought.^[1] Instead, the Trimble seat went to Jesse Smith Henley, originally from Searcy County in northern Arkansas.

Family

He married Elsie Jane Walls. The couple had a daughter, Elsijane Trimble Roy, who was appointed in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter to the same seat previously held by her father.

References

1. Osro Cobb, Osro Cobb of Arkansas: Memoirs of Historical Significance, Carol Griffee, ed. (Little Rock, Arkansas: Rose Publishing Company, 1989), pp. 135-136

• Thomas Clark Trimble III at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.