Troy University - Palladium Yearbook (Troy, AL)

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He attended Clio Elementary School and was graduated ' from Barbour County High School, where he was presi- dent of the Senior Class and Captain and quarterback of the football team in 1937, the same year his father died. As a farm boy, hejfbrned early the lessons of hard work and economihflKig manual chores to help his family financiallv Prfer he was elected a Page in the Alabama State Sejtre. was a delegate to Boys ' State, and twice won the Sjwnern Golden Gloves bantam wuaj t boxing cham- pionship in 1936 and 1937. Wallace ' s family also helped shape the political history of the state. His father, George CorlejrSlVallace, Sr.. was Chairman of the Barbour County Board of Revenue when he dm thcLiqe of forty. His mother, Moxell Smith VVal- r the State Department of Health for 22 „ andfather,. Dr. G. O. Wallace, served as a ,udge in Barbour County and his grandmother, i as Mother May, died in 1970 at the age of 88.

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THE WALLACE YEARS

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When Wallace arrived on the University of Alabama campus in 1937, his total assets consisted of the suit he wore, a few dollars in his pocket and some odds and ends in his cardboard suitcase. That same year his father died and he waited on tables, worked as a clerk in the Registrar ' s office and drove a taxi to earn enough money to stay in college. During college, Wallace was Captain of the Freshman Baseball roster, Captain of the Varsity Boxing Team, Freshman Class President, final- ist in the Student Debating Tournament, President of the Spirit Committee, member of the Law School Honor Court and member of the Phi Alpha Delta legal fraternity. He graduated with a law degree in 1942. Following his graduation, at the age of 23, he volun- teered for the U.S. Air Corps on October 20, 1942. Entering as a Private, he started active service on Janu- ary 31, 1943, and saw heavy combat action in the Pacific as a B-29 Flight Engineer assigned to the 20th Air Force. He received the Air MedaH Good Conduct Medal, American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal. He was honorably discharged December 8, 1945 as a Flight Sergeant. During his military service, he married Lurleen Burns on May 22, 1942, whom he had met while he was a stu- dent at the University. They became the parents of four children: Bobbi Jo (now Mrs. James Parsons, born October 15, 1944); Peggy Sue (now Mrs. Mark Kennedy, born January 24, 1950); George Jr., born October 17, 1951; and Janie Lee, born April 13, 1961. Following military service, Wallace, in 1946 returned to Alabama, where he became an Assistant Attorney Gen- eral. The following year, at the age of 27, he was elected to the Alabama Legislature from Barbour County, where he served with distinction. Twice he was voted an outstanding member of the Legislature by the Capi- tol Press Corps, being named No. 1 Champion of Ala- bama Veterans in 1947, and Most Persistent Legisla- tor in 1949. Wallace was elected Judge of the Third Judicial Circuit of Alabama in 1953. He was elected a delegate to the 1948 Democratic National Convention. In 1952, he became Circuit Judge of the Third Judicial Cirucit . . . one of the youngest per- sons to hold that office in the United States. In the 1956 Democratic Convention, Wallace was appointed chair- man of the Southern delegation on the Platform Com- mittee. In 1958, Wallace was a candidate for Governor and received more than a quarter million votes. He placed second in a field of 14 in the Primary and made a credi- table showing in the run-off.