Larkins, John Davis, 1909-1990

John Davis Larkins, Jr., the son of Charles H. and Mamie Dorsett Larkins, was born in Morristown, Tennessee, on June 8, 1909. After the death of Mrs. Larkins, he was reared by his uncle and namesake Rev. John Davis Larkins. He received the B.A. degree from Wake Forest College in 1929 and passed the state bar exam in 1930 at the age of 20. During the same year he married Miss Pauline Murrill of Jacksonville, N.C., and opened a law office in Trenton, N.C.

Judge Larkins was a member of the N.C. State Senate (1936-1944, 1948-1954) and President Protempore (1941-1942), a soldier in the U.S. Army (1945), chairman of annual N.C. Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinners (1937, 1939-1943, 1949, 1951, 1952, 1953), secretary of the N.C. Democratic Executive Committee (1952-1954) and its chairman (1954-1958), chairman of the Governor's Advisory Budget Commission (1951-1953), member of the Democratic National Committee (1958-1960), delegate-at-large to the Democratic National Convention (1940, 1944, 1948, 1956, 1960), and an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor of North Carolina (1960). In 1961 he was appointed by President John F. Kennedy as U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of N.C.