By the Associated Press
Raleigh, N.C., May 19—Citizens of North Carolina tomorrow will be given an opportunity to pay homage to the late Chief Justice Walter Clark of the supreme court who died this morning after an illness with apoplexy of 20 hours. From 11 o’clock until 3 o’clock in the afternoon the body of the distinguished jurist will lie in state in the rotunda of the capitol. the funeral services will be held at the Central Methodist church at 4 o’clock tomorrow afternoon and interment will follow in Oakwood cemetery in the family plot.
Today, the capitol was closed in respect to the deceased jurist. Governor Morrison tonight issued a statement declaring that a leading figure in the state had passed away and one who would be sorely missed. The supreme court met and as quickly adjourned when news was received of the chief justice’s death, which occurred shortly before 9 o’clock. All today, messages of condolence poured into the Clark home, where the sons and daughters of the deceased and close relatives were assembled. Mrs. Clark had preceded her husband to the grave, her death taking place in 1909.
Chief Justice Clark never rallied after the attack which smote him down yesterday shortly before midday. Sinking into unconsciousness almost immediately he continued to sink slowly during the day and last night was reported close to extremis. Then shortly after midnight, he was reported as holding his own in a last rally, as it proved, against death, for he began to sink again as daylight came. Death came without his having ever recovered consciousness.
The chief justice was in his 78th year and was completing his 39th year as a judge, then associate justice, then chief justice of the state.
Honorary pall-bearers announced tonight for the funeral are as follows:
Associate Justices of the supreme court W.A. Hoke, Heriot Clarkson, W.J. Adams and W.P. Stacy, Governor Cameron Morrison and all head of departments of the state government; E.C. Seawell, clerk supreme court, and Edward Murray, assistant supreme court librarian; Judge H.G. Connor, Geo. H. Brown, E. Yates Webb, H.F. Long, O.H. Allen, Henry Grady, N.A. Sinclair; Mayor E.E. Culbreth of Raleigh and Josephus Daniels, J. Crawford Biggs, W.N. Jones, W.A. Erwin, Q.K. Nimocks, A.L. Brooks, E.R. Preston, J.A. Lockhart, J.Y. Joyner, General W.A. Smith, D.H. Hill, Bennehan Cameron and John G. Dawson.
Active pall-bearers will be the five sons of the deceased, two sons-in-law and one nephew, as follows:
David Clark, W.A. Graham Clark, Walter Clark Jr., John W. Clark, Thorne Clark, J.E. Erwin, Rev. J.A. McLean, and D.M. Clark.
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The chief justice served North Carolina up until the time of his death. There was no period of illness for Judge Clark had been a remarkably active man for his years. Last Wednesday, he sat with the court when the regular batch of decisions was handed down and he had taken part in deliberations and hearings on cases during the last three days of the week.
On Saturday, though he complained of feeling a little unwell, Judge Clark attended the Ramsgate memorial tablet services and later in the day consulted physicians who found nothing materially wrong.
Walter Clark had presided over the supreme court of North Carolina for nearly 23 years. For 13 years prior to his elevation to the chief justiceship he sat as an associate justice and before that time had served as a superior court judge for four years.
Walter Clark was the son of General David Clark, a foremost citizen in his day of Halifax county. As a boy his early education was obtained at Tew Military academy at Hillsboro, this being interrupted by the Civil war. Returning to North Carolina after serving with the Confederate forces for two years, the boy entered the University of North Carolina, graduating there in 1864. At the close of the war he attended the Columbia law school, Washington City, from which he graduated in 1867.
The young attorney took up his residence in Scotland Neck, N.C., and for several years practiced his profession there. Later he removed to Raleigh where he, in addition to his legal business, engaged in newspaper work, directing the editorial policy of the News. In January, 1874, he married Miss Susan Graham, daughter of Governor William A. Graham, and a sister of the late Major W.A. Graham.
In April, 1885, Governor Scales appointed the attorney as a superior court judge and the next year he was nominated and elected to that position. In 1889, Governor Fowle appointed Judge Clark to the supreme court to succeed Judge Merrimon, who had become chief justice. In the following year, Justice Clark was elected and continued to sit as a member of the court until his death.
In 1896, Justice Clark refused the Democratic nomination by the convention as governor, preferring to remain on the bench. In that same year his name was presented by the North Carolina delegation to the national Democratic convention as a candidate for the vice-presidency.
In 1903, Justice Clark became chief justice of the supreme court, continuing in this position for 22 years.
The late chief justice had found time, through indefatigable in the performance of his court duties, to do considerable writing. Besides the preparation of his judicial opinions, he edited and annotated 43 volumes of North Carolina supreme court reports. He was the author of an “annotated code of civil procedure” which at the time of his death had had three editions. Apart from these and other legal works, he translated Constant’s “Private Memoirs of Napoleon.”
the late chief justice also did considerable writing for newspapers and articles of historical nature. He was a well known orator of the state and was very much in demand as a public speaker.
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“Every customary mark of official respect will be shown the remains of the great chief justice,” said Governor Morrison tonight.
“I only desire to say now that the state has lost one of the most distinguished men it ever produced. He was a great lawyer, a great student of history and the law and he has been for 40 years one of the great influences of the state. He was a man of most pleasing personality and even to those with whom he was in sharpest disagreement he was always the perfect type of southern gentleman. On some other occasion I will discuss with greater fullness his life and public service.”
From the front page of the Durham Morning Herald, May 20, 1924
