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Term of Service at the Supreme Court of Missouri: January 1933 – February 1955
Judge Ernest Moss Tipton was born January 2, 1889, in Bowling Green, Missouri. He was educated in the public schools of Columbia, Missouri, before attending the University of Missouri Law School, from which he received his law degree (LL.B.).
Tipton was admitted to the bar in 1911 and began a private practice in Fulton, Missouri. He then moved his practice to Kansas City, Missouri, where he acted as a member of the Missouri State Board of Bar Examiners from 1923 to 1930.
On November 8, 1932, Tipton was elected to serve a 10- year term on Division 2 of the Supreme Court of Missouri beginning January 1, 1933. He was reelected in 1942 for another 10-year term and again in 1952 for a 12-year term. Tipton served three terms as chief justice of the Court. His first term was from August 15, 1938, to September 5, 1939; his second term was from September 9, 1946, to February 14, 1948; and his third termwas efrom October 11, 1954, to February 25, 1955.
After 22 years of service on the Court, Chief Justice Ernest Moss Tipton died February 25, 1955, at age 66. He had just returned to the bench in January 1955 from temporary leave after suffering a heart attack the previous April. His death marked the first interruption in the membership of Division 2 since 1933; the other two long-standing members were Judge Caleb A. Leedy Jr. and Judge George Robb Ellison. Leedy succeeded Tipton as chief justice, and Ellison announced his retirement soon after.
Upon Tipton’s death, President Harry S Truman said, in his honor: “He was a very fine man and will be missed by the state.”
Biographical information by Anna Theroff, 2019, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri.
Sources used (please note a copy of each is located on file at the Supreme Court of Missouri Law Library):
Boyd F. Carroll, “Ernest M. Tipton, Chief Justice of Missouri Dies,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, MO), February 25, 1955, article courtesy of Newspapers.com, accessed August 19, 2019.
Dwight H. Brown, Secretary of State, Official Manual of the State of Missouri, 1933-1934, (Jefferson City, MO: Midland Printing Company, 1934), 125.
Jefferson City News and Tribune, “Chief Justice Tipton Dies in Kansas City,” Jefferson City News and Tribune, (Jefferson City, MO), February 25, 1955.
John M. Holmes, reporter, Reports of Cases Determined by the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, Vol. 355, (Columbia, MO: E.W. Stephens Publishing Company, 1947), iii.
John M. Holmes, reporter, Reports of Cases Determined by the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, Vol. 357, (Columbia, MO: E.W. Stephens Publishing Company, 1949), ix.
John M. Holmes, reporter, Reports of Cases Determined by the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, Vol. 364, (Columbia, MO: E.W. Stephens Publishing Company, 1955), iii.
John M. Holmes, reporter, Reports of Cases Determined by the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, Vol. 365, (Columbia, MO: E.W. Stephens Publishing Company, 1957), xxi.
John Turner White, reporter, Reports of Cases Determined by the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, vol. 332, (Columbia, MO: E.W. Stephens Publishing Company, 1934), iii.
John Turner White, reporter, Reports of Cases Determined by the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, Vol. 342, (Columbia, MO: E.W. Stephens Publishing Company, 1939), iii.
John Turner White, reporter, Reports of Cases Determined by the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, vol. 345, (Columbia, MO: E.W. Stephens Publishing Company, 1940), title page and iii.
Walter H. Toberman, Secretary of State, Esther Downs Bishop, ed., Official Manual of the State of Missouri, 1949-1950, (Jefferson City, MO: Mid-State Printing Company, 1950), 213.