Appointed by Calvin Coolidge Preceded by Clarence Dill Political party Republican Party Republican Party Resting place Oakesdale | Preceded by Frank H. Rudkin Nationality United States Name J. Webster Succeeded by Samuel B. Hill | |
Full Name John Stanley Webster Born February 22, 1877
Cynthiana, Kentucky ( 1877-02-22 ) Spouse(s) Mary Gertrude Lathrum
(1887–1956)
(m. 1908–1956, her death) Died December 24, 1962, Spokane, Washington, United States Education University of Michigan Law School, University of Michigan | ||
John Stanley Webster (February 22, 1877 - December 24, 1962) was a congressman from eastern Washington, a professor of law at Gonzaga University School of Law, a Washington State Supreme Court justice, and a federal judge.
Born in Cynthiana, Kentucky, Webster attended the public schools and Smith's Classical School for Boys. He studied law at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor 1897-1899. Webster was admitted to the bar in 1899 in Kentucky and commenced practice in Cynthiana, and was elected as prosecuting attorney of Harrison County in 1902 and served until 1906.
Webster moved west for his health to work a small ranch north of Spokane, Washington, near Colbert, in May 1906. He was elected the chief assistant prosecuting attorney for Spokane County in 1907 and then appointed as a judge of the superior court of Spokane County, serving from 1909 to 1916. He was also a lecturer on criminal and elementary law for the first law classes at Gonzaga University School of Law in Spokane. Webster was easily elected to a six-year term as an associate justice of the state supreme court in Olympia in 1916, and appointed early, November 20 by Governor Ernest Lister, to fill the vacancy. He resigned in May 1918 to run for Congress.
In 1918, Webster ran as a Republican in the fifth district and unseated two-term Democratic incumbent Clarence Dill, who had voted against declaring war on Germany in April 1917. Webster was re-elected in 1920 and 1922, then resigned his seat shortly after on May 8, 1923 to become a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington in Spokane. He served on the court for sixteen years until his retirement at age 62 on August 31, 1939, due to ill health. Webster briefly served as the president of the Western International League (WIL) in minor league baseball, a predecessor of the Northwest League, and resigned in February 1941.
In retirement in Spokane, Webster remained a senior member of the court until his death there at age 85 on December 24, 1962. His remains were cremated and the ashes were interred in the Oakesdale Cemetery in Oakdesdale, his wife's hometown in Whitman County, where her father John Lathrum (1853–1902) had been sheriff. Mary Gertrude (Lathrum) Webster (1887–1956), his wife of 48 years, had died six years earlier. His older brother, Richard M. Webster (1869–1953), moved to eastern Washington in 1904 and also served as a judge in Spokane.