Justice A.h. Ellett 1898-1986
| Publication year | 1988 |
| Pages | 7 |
| Citation | Vol. 1 No. 2 Pg. 7 |
J. Allen Crockett, Retired Justice
Judges ought to be more learned than clever, more reasonable than plausible, more advised than confident; and above all, their essential virtue should be integrity.
—Adapted from Essay on Judicature by Sir Francis Bacon.
Upon his retirement from the Utah Supreme Court in January 1979, Justice A.H. (Albert Hayden) Ellett chose to title his autobiography "Forty-Four Years as a Redneck Judge." That is not by any means a fully accurate characterization, even if it be seen as one aspect of this exceptionally complex person, but it is typical of the Justice's always present and sometimes puckish sense of humor that he accepted that disparaging epithet as applicable to himself.
He was born February 4, 1898, near Hunts-ville, Ala., to Martha Catherine Green and Isaac William Ellett. While he was still a small boy, his parents moved from Alabama to Texas. As to his origins, the judge states:
I was born in Alabama of parents who were impoverished by the Civil War and its after effects... I had been raised on an isolated farm in Texas... my father went to school for three months and my mother never was a student in any school., . [but]. . . both parents were well read and quite intelligent people.
His narrative of his childhood in rural east
Texas is sprinkled with unusual experiences and pranks indicating a bright mind, a vivacious spirit, and a burning ambition. There, and throughout his book above referred to, he tells of many bizarre happenings with such engaging candor, whether they reflect on him favorably or otherwise, as to bring to mind the declaration of
Rousseau in his Confessions: "I hold that I have been as good and as bad as any man." For those interested in further detail, reference is made to Judge Ellett's book.
It is hoped that this memoir will not only include the basic facts about his life and career, but also reflect something of the color and qualities of his personality and of his purpose in life. It is thought that that objective will be aided by quite freely incorporating some of his own expressions.
He had no hesitancy in emphasizing the meagerness in material things in connection with his family's industrious eking their living from the soil. This fact, and his sense of humor, are illustrated, if a bit exaggerated, by one of his half-truth yarns: "I can't really say that I was raised in a log cabin—but my folks moved into one as soon as they could afford it."
At the age of 17, he qualified by examination, became a teacher and taught two years in a multiple grade grammar school; and later by the same process became a teacher in high school, where he taught a variety of subjects for another two years in Texas. In 1916, he followed members of his family in becoming a member of the LDS (Mormon) Church, and later moved to Utah. Here he taught in the small town school of Lake Shore in Utah County for two years.
There he met Florence Rowe, whom he married in 1924. They became the parents of four children: Kenneth, Walter, Jeanne, all now successful adults with their own families, and Ann, who was injured in the birth process and never fully recovered and adjusted therefrom. After an enfeebled childhood of intensive love and care by her parents, she died at age 9.
Florence died in January 1975; and a year later he married Miriam Parker, who became and remained his loyal and caring companion until he passed away November 30, 1986.
Consistent with his desire for learning and his ambition for advancement, while teaching school he studied accounting; and in 1923 he went to work as an accountant for the United States Smelting and Refining Company, where he worked for seven years. During that time, he took correspondence courses in law. He passed the Bar examination and was admitted to practice in 1930. In 1933, he was appointed a deputy Salt Lake County attorney and continued in that office until he was elected a Salt Lake City judge in 1934.
Neither was he shy in telling about the unusual way in which he obtained his education and training. He seemed either to have a sense of self-consciousness about being a correspondence-school lawyer, or to have an inverted pride in that fact. About that he wrote:
You know me inside and out: so write anything you want, but heed Clarence Darrow's request of his wife: "When I pass on, get Judge Watson to talk at my service; he knows all about me, and has sense enough not to tell it." If you...
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