Home County: Audrain
Term of service at the Supreme Court of Missouri: August 1950 - March 1964
Judge Frank Hollingsworth was born March 16, 1892, in Pike County, Missouri.[i] After attending public schools in Vandalia, Missouri, he graduated from the Chattanooga College of Law in 1915 with his LL. B degree.[ii] While there, he became a member of Delta Theta Phi, a legal fraternity.[iii] Upon completion of law school, Judge Hollingsworth was admitted to the Bar of Tennessee in 1915, and then to the Bar of Missouri in 1916.[iv] In addition to his admittance to the Tennessee Bar and Missouri Bar, he was admitted to practice in all of the federal courts.[v]
From 1916 to 1921, Hollingsworth served as City Attorney of Vandalia, Missouri.[vi] He served as a prosecuting attorney in Audrain County from 1921 to 1924.[vii] On October 11, 1939, Governor Lloyd C. Stark appointed Judge Hollingsworth as a Circuit Court Judge for the then Eleventh Judicial Circuit.[viii] He was elected for his first full term in 1940, and was re-elected in 1946.[ix] In August of 1950,[x] Judge Hollingsworth accepted Governor Forrest Smith’s appointment to serve on the Supreme Court of Missouri.[xi] He was retained in office, for a twelve year term, during the November 1952 election.[xii] On April 30, 1955, Judge Hollingsworth was named an Honorary Member of the Order of the Coif at the University of Missouri.[xiii]
The Honorable Hollingsworth served from July 1958 to April 1960[xiv] as Chief Justice of the Court. He unexpectedly passed away on March 18, 1964,[xv] only months before his planned retirement date of December 31, 1964.[xvi]
Judge Hollingsworth was a member of; the Audrain County Bar Association, the Cole County Bar Association, the Missouri Bar Association, and the American Bar Association.[xvii] In recognition of his judicial work in Freedoms Foundation’s National Awards Jury, Judge Hollingsworth was awarded the George Washington Honor Medal.[xviii]
[i] Walter Toberman, compiler, Walter Toberman, Secretary of State, 1955-1956 Official Manual, (Jefferson City, MO: Von Hoffman Press Incorporated, 1956) 203, information courtesy of the Missouri Digital Heritage website, Missouri State Archives, accessed on January 17, 2021, available from https://mdh.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/bluebook/id/29565/rec/40
[ii] Walter Toberman, compiler, Walter Toberman, Secretary of State, 1955-1956 Official Manual, (Jefferson City, MO: Von Hoffman Press Incorporated, 1956) 203, information courtesy of the Missouri Digital Heritage website, Missouri State Archives, accessed on January 17, 2021, available from https://mdh.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/bluebook/id/29565/rec/40
[iii] Supreme Court of Missouri, Presentation of Portrait of Honorable Frank Hollingsworth, (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri), December 20, 1965, 6. Document located in file in the Supreme Court of Missouri Law Library.
[iv] Walter Toberman, compiler, Walter Toberman, Secretary of State, 1955-1956 Official Manual, (Jefferson City, MO: Von Hoffman Press Incorporated, 1956) 203, information courtesy of the Missouri Digital Heritage website, Missouri State Archives, accessed on January 17, 2021, available from https://mdh.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/bluebook/id/29565/rec/40
[v] Supreme Court of Missouri, Presentation of Portrait of Honorable Frank Hollingsworth, (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri), December 20, 1965, 6. Document located in file in the Supreme Court of Missouri Law Library.
[vi] Dwight H. Brown, compiler, Dwight H. Brown, Secretary of State, State of Missouri, Official Manual For Years Nineteen Forty-one and Nineteen Forty-two, (Jefferson City, MO: Missouri State Printing, 1942), 171, information courtesy of the Missouri Judicial Heritage website, Missouri State Archives, accessed on August 19, 2021, available from https://mdh.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/bluebook/id/21932/rec/33
[vii] Esther Downs Bishop, editor, Walter Toberman, Secretary of State, State of Missouri, Official Directory of Missouri for the Years 1949-1950, (Jefferson City, MO: Mid-State Printing, Company, 1950) 253, information courtesy of the Missouri Digital Heritage website, Missouri State Archives, accessed on January 17, 2021, available from https://mdh.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/bluebook/id/25481/rec/37 See also: Supreme Court of Missouri, Presentation of Portrait of Honorable Frank Hollingsworth, (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri), December 20, 1965, 6. Document located in file in the Supreme Court of Missouri Law Library. See also: Centralia Fireside Guard (Centralia, MO) March 9, 1928, information courtesy of The State Historical Society of Missouri Newspaper Database, accessed on January 17, 2021, available from https://shsmo.newspapers.com/image/581441862/?terms=Frank%20Hollingsworth&match=1
[viii] Dwight H. Brown, compiler, Dwight H. Brown, Secretary of State, State of Missouri, Official Manual For Years Nineteen Forty-one and Nineteen Forty-Two, (Jefferson City, MO: Missouri State Printing, 1942), 171, information courtesy of the Missouri Digital Heritage website, Missouri State Archives, accessed January 17, 2021, available from https://mdh.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/bluebook/id/21932/rec/33
[ix] Thelma P. Goodwin, editor, Warren E. Hearnes, Secretary of State, State of Missouri, Official Manual for the Years 1963-1964, (Jefferson City, MO: Von Hoffmann Press, Inc., 1964), 217, information courtesy of the Missouri Digital Heritage website, Missouri State Archives, accessed August 19, 2021, available from https://mdh.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/bluebook/id/35537/rec/44
[x] John M. Holmes, reporter, Reports of Cases Determined by the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, vol. 360, (Columbia, MO: E.W. Stephens Publishing Company, 1951), iii. Publication located in the Supreme Court of Missouri Law Library.
[xi] Thelma P. Goodwin, editor, Warren E. Hearnes, Secretary of State, State of Missouri, Official Manual for the Years 1963-1964, (Jefferson City, MO: Von Hoffmann Press, Inc., 1964), 217, information courtesy of the Missouri Digital Heritage website, Missouri State Archives, accessed August 19, 2021, available from https://mdh.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/bluebook/id/35537/rec/44 See also: “Weekly Digest,” St. Joseph Journal (St. Joseph, Missouri) August 3, 1950, information courtesy of The State Historical Society of Missouri Newspaper Database, accessed on January 21, 2021, available from https://shsmo.newspapers.com/image/350657202/?terms=frank%20hollingsworth&match=1
[xii] Walter H. Toberman, compiler, Walter H. Toberman, Secretary of State, compiler, 1955-1956 Official Manual, (Jefferson City, MO: Von Hoffman Press Incorporated, 1956) 203, information courtesy of the Missouri Digital Heritage website, Missouri State Archives, accessed on January 17, 2021, available from https://mdh.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/bluebook/id/29565/rec/40
[xiii] Walter H. Toberman, compiler, Walter H. Toberman, Secretary of State, 1955-1956 Official Manual, (Jefferson City, MO: Von Hoffman Press Incorporated, 1956) 203, information courtesy of the Missouri Digital Heritage website, Missouri State Archives, accessed on January 17, 2021, available from https://mdh.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/bluebook/id/29565/rec/40 See also: Supreme Court of Missouri, Presentation of Portrait of Honorable Frank Hollingsworth, (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri), December 20, 1965, 6. Document located in file in the Supreme Court of Missouri Law Library.
[xiv] Supreme Court of Missouri, Presentation of Portrait of Judge Frank Hollingsworth, (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri), December 20, 1965, 7. Document located in file in the Supreme Court of Missouri Law Library.
[xv] Missouri State Senate, Memorial Services: In Commemoration of the Late Hon. Jefferson Henry, Hon. William E. Hilsman, Hon. Marshall E. Ford, Hon. Edward J. Hogan, Jr., Hon. Hames Henry Gunn, Hon. J.G. Morgan, Hon. Frank Hollingsworth, Hon. Edmond R. Caldwell, and Hon. Langdon Robert Jones, (Jefferson City, MO: Missouri State Senate, 1965), 16. Document located in file in the Supreme Court of Missouri Law Library.
[xvi] “Judge of State High Court Dies,” Jefferson City Post-Tribune, (Jefferson City, Missouri), March 18, 1964. Newspaper located in file, in the Supreme Court of Missouri Law Library.
[xvii] “Judge of State High Court Dies,” Jefferson City Post-Tribune, (Jefferson City, Missouri), March 18, 1964. Newspaper located in file, in the Supreme Court of Missouri Law Library.
[xviii] Supreme Court of Missouri, Memorial Service, Honorable Frank Hollingsworth, (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri), July 10, 1964, 8. Document located in file, Supreme Court of Missouri Law Library.
Biographical Information authored by Hannah Loera, 2021, and Truman State University.