A LOOK BACK: KAPPA HISTORY
James B. Parsons Legal Prodigy, Judicial Pioneer and Perennial Scholar
By Kevin Scott, Grand Historian
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I've always been intrigued by law-- I fought my first case when I was 15 years old.
J ames Benton Parsons came from mea- ger and unconventional beginnings. He was the son of an evangelist minister and schoolteacher, and was the youngest of three brothers and one sister. He and his family were in the midst of traveling to St. Louis as his father and older brother preached the Gos- pel, when he was born August 13, 1911 in Kansas City, Missouri. Parsons and his family continued to hopscotch from state to state, during his youth, following his father’s quest to convert others to Christianity. He resided in various states including Lexington, Kentucky, Dayton, Ohio, Indianapolis, Indiana, and in Chicago and Decatur, Illinois. An incident occurred when Parsons was 15, that directed him to the field of law. While living in Decatur, Parson’s older brother’s salary was being
garnished for a suit which he paid for in full, but returned it due to defects. Parsons sought to mount a legal defense for his brother and fight the injustice he was enduring. Without having the benefit of case law knowl- edge, Parsons went to the public library and learned the necessary Illinois laws in order to draft a legal case brief, based on the contracts by minors disclaimer laws. Fifteen-year-old Parsons represented his 20-year-old brother in court and presented the written argument to the judge. A frightened Parsons was questioned by the judge, who demanded to know who wrote the argument – the justice subsequently dismissed the case and came to his house that evening with a set of 22 law books. Parsons subse- quently began reading and studying law.
214 | SUMMER 2017 THE JOURNAL
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