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Term of Service at the Supreme Court of Missouri: January 1899 – December 1912

Judge Leroy B. Valliant was born June 14, 1838, in Moulton, Alabama. He graduated in 1856 from the University of Mississippi in 1856 with a bachelor’s (A.B.) degree. He received his law degree (LL.B.) in 1858 from Cumberland University Law School in Tennessee. He received an honorary doctor of laws degree (LL.D.) in 1898 from the University of Mississippi.

In 1859, Valliant practiced law in Greenville, Mississippi, where he later became judge of the chancery court. Valliant moved to Missouri in December 1874, where he practiced law in St. Louis and was a member of the St. Louis Bar Association. In 1886, then-Governor John S. Marmaduke appointed him as a judge of the St. Louis circuit court, a position to which he was elected in 1886 and then reelected in 1892.

In November 1898, voters elected Valliant to the Supreme Court of Missouri to replace Judge W. C. Marshall, who had been appointed to fill the remaining four years of the unexpired term of Judge George Bennet MacFarlane, who had died. Valliant’s term began January 1, 1899. In November 1902, voters reelected Valliant to a full 10-year term, to conclude December 31, 1912.

Valliant served two terms as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri. His first term was from January 1909 to May of 1910, and his second was from December 1910 through the end of his judicial term December 31, 1912.

Judge Leroy B. Valliant died March 3, 1913, in Greenville, Mississippi. He was 74 years old.