About
Jack Farrington White was born in August 1898 in Jackson, Tennessee. He was the youngest son of Albert C. (AC) and Nancy Ellen White. He attended public schools in Jackson graduating when he was just 16. He then attended university in both Colorado Springs, CO and Jackson, TN earning a teaching certificate. He was a teacher and principal in Pinson, TN before leaving for New Orleans to join his older brother Sid in his cotton brokerage firm.
In his U.S. Marine Corps uniform, 1918.
Jack enlisted in the Marine Corps in August 1918 and served time in France during WWI. Upon honorable discharge in 1919, he then attended the University of Virginia Law School and graduated in 1922. He practiced law in Jackson and continued to work in the family cotton brokerages in New York, New Orleans, and Jackson.
The 1920's Florida land boom was in full swing and rife with opportunities so Jack and his friend Tom Curtin, a Tennessean he'd befriended at the University of Virginia, decided to move to Clearwater together in 1924. They shortly passed the bar exam and then joined a local law firm.
At the 1962 UVA law school class reunion, with his friend Tom Curtin, with whom he moved to Clearwater.
Jack met and married Mary Carr Westbrook after a brief but intense courtship in the spring of 1925. They were married for over 40 years.
After practicing law for almost a decade, Jack won the Democratic seat for Pinellas county in the Florida State Legislature in 1934. He served the legislative term in Tallahassee with distinction.
His 1934 campaign card for the Florida Legislature, House of Representatives, Group 2, Pinellas County — Democratic Primary, June 5, 1934.
Jack set his sights on running for County Judge and won that election in 1936.
His 1936 campaign card for County Judge of Pinellas County — Democratic Primary, Tuesday, June 23, 1936.
Judge White then began a long and distinguished career, serving as County Judge, then as Circuit Judge — he ran for and was elected to circuit judge in 1958 — and later, by appointment, as an Appellate Judge on the Second District Court of Appeals in Lakeland, Florida. Known throughout the state for his depth of expertise on probate matters, Judge White was often called upon to sit in on cases by the Florida State Supreme Court Justices.
He was appointed to the Second District Court of Appeals in Lakeland in 1962. In his second year there, his fellow judges elected him head judge, and he served until his untimely death in May 1964 at the age of only 65.
Portrait of Judge White, which hangs in the Second District Court of Appeals in Lakeland, Florida.
Judge White was universally respected by his peers, attorneys, friends, and even individuals who he had sentenced to terms in jail. He had a keen sense of humor, ready smile, and a genuine love and concern for others. He had a way of making each person he spoke with feel special. He will always be remembered as a kind-hearted, giving individual who put service to his country, state, and community first among his priorities.