Home County: Cole
Term of Service at the Supreme Court of Missouri: December 1954 – June 1963
Judge Henry J. Westhues was born June 5, 1888, in Westphalen, Germany, but moved with his family to Glasgow, Missouri, in Howard County in 1892.[i] He attended Catholic schools there and then attended Saint Louis University.[ii] He was admitted to The Missouri Bar in 1911 before earning his law degree, a LL.B., from SLU, in 1912.[iii]
Westhues was appointed the city attorney of Jefferson City in February 1913 and was elected that April to a two-year term.[iv] He was then elected the Cole County prosecuting attorney in 1918 and reelected in 1920.[v] In 1922, he was elected judge of the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit and reelected in 1928.[vi] He resigned November 15, 1930, to enter the private practice of law.[vii]
On December 1, 1930, Judge Westhues was appointed commissioner of the Supreme Court of Missouri to fill the unexpired term of Berryman Henwood.[viii] He was reappointed to four-year terms six consecutive times, for four year terms, in 1931, 1935, 1939, 1943, 1947 and 1951.[ix] Saint Louis University made him an honorary member of its Phi Alpha Delta legal fraternity on March 31, 1951.[x]
Missouri Governor Phil M. Donnelly appointed Westhues as judge of the Supreme Court of Missouri under the nonpartisan court plan to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge Roscoe P. Conkling on December 17, 1954.[xi] He was retained during the November 1956 election to a 12-year term that expired December 31, 1968.[xii] Judge Westhues served as Chief Justice of the Court from January 9, 1962[xiii] to June 3, 1963.[xiv] He retired June 5, 1963, on his 75th birthday due to the state constitution’s mandatory retirement age.[xv]
Westhues died April 19, 1969, at the age of 80.[xvi]
[i] Walter H. Toberman, Secretary of State, Walter H. Toberman, ed., Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1955-1956, (Jefferson City, MO: Von Hoffmann Press, Inc., 1956), 205.
[ii]Walter H. Toberman, Secretary of State, Walter H. Toberman, ed., Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1955-1956, (Jefferson City, MO: Von Hoffmann Press, Inc., 1956), 205.
[iii] Walter H. Toberman, Secretary of State, Walter H. Toberman, ed., Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1955-1956, (Jefferson City, MO: Von Hoffmann Press, Inc., 1956), 205.
[iv] Warren E. Hearnes, Secretary of State, Thelma P. Goodwin, ed., Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1961-1962, (Jefferson City, MO: Von Hoffmann Press, Inc., 1962), 213.
[v] Warren E. Hearnes, Secretary of State, Thelma P. Goodwin, ed., Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1961-1962, (Jefferson City, MO: Von Hoffmann Press, Inc., 1962), 213.
[vi] Warren E. Hearnes, Secretary of State, Thelma P. Goodwin, ed., Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1961-1962, (Jefferson City, MO: Von Hoffmann Press, Inc., 1962), 213.
[vii] Warren E. Hearnes, Secretary of State, Thelma P. Goodwin, ed., Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1961-1962, (Jefferson City, MO: Von Hoffmann Press, Inc., 1962), 213.
[viii] Walter H. Toberman, Secretary of State, Thelma P. Goodwin, ed., Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1959-1960, (Jefferson City, MO, Von Hoffmann Press, Inc., 1960), 205.
[ix] Walter H. Toberman, Secretary of State, Thelma P. Goodwin, ed., Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1959-1960, (Jefferson City, MO: Von Hoffmann Press, Inc., 1960), 205.
[x] Warren E. Hearnes, Secretary of State, Thelma P. Goodwin, ed., Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1961-1962, (Jefferson City, MO: Von Hoffmann Press, Inc., 1962), 213.
[xi] Walter H. Toberman, Secretary of State, Thelma P. Goodwin, ed., Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1959-1960, (Jefferson City, MO: Von Hoffmann Press, Inc., 1960), 205.
[xii] Warren E. Hearnes, Secretary of State, Thelma P. Goodwin, ed., Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1961-1962, (Jefferson City, MO: Von Hoffmann Press, Inc., 1962), 213.
[xiii] South Western Reporter, Volume 351, 2nd series, (St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Company, 1962), v.
[xiv] South Western Reporter, Volume 367, 2nd series, (St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Company, 1963), v.
[xv] Journal of the Missouri Bar Staff, “Judge Westhues Retires from Bench, Journal of the Missouri Bar, vol. 19 (1963), 307.
[xvi] Journal of Missouri Bar Staff, “Henry J. Westhues, 1888-1969,” Journal of Missouri Bar, vol. 25 (1969): 327.
Biographical information authored by Ms. Chloe Shoemaker, 2019, University of Missouri-Columbia, Missouri.