Jackson Blaze’s Living Legends: Jack Livingston

By Dylan Smith, Managing Editor • marla@southerntorch.com

Jackson Blaze’s Living Legends recognizes individuals who have forged their mark on Jackson County and who’s service and professional conduct will have a lasting impact on the county.

JACKSON COUNTY, Ala. — When it comes to defining what it means to be a Living Legend, Jack Livingston, at 93 years-of-age, exemplifies the meaning in every sense of the title. Livingston hails from the Greatest Generation of Americans who saved the free world from the evils of tyranny through their heroic displays of patriotism.

Livingston’s story begins in the year of 1926 in Centre, Alabama as the youngest of three sons of Haynie and John Livingston. Like many families in the 1930s, the Livingston’s weren’t afforded the opportunity to enjoy the luxuries of electricity and indoor plumbing.

A memory that stood out to Livingston in his youth was the moment that he learned the Japanese had attacked the United States Naval Fleet at Pearl Harbor. “I remember a group of neighborhood boys were playing out in the yard when my dad had come out on a Sunday afternoon and told us about what had happened,” said Livingston. “We didn’t even know where Pearl Harbor was.”

He recalled his initial reaction to the bombing. “We’d whip those ole folks [Japanese] in no time flat. That’s what I thought – that’s what everyone thought.”

Livingston graduated from Cherokee County High School in 1944 and enrolled at Auburn University before enlisting in the Navy in July of 1944. “I enlisted. No one wanted to get drafted. Patriotism was everywhere, you know.”

He noted his mother’s hesitance in signing for him to enlist. “My mother would not sign for me to go in. You had to have parental consent before you were eighteen. My dad finally convinced her to let me choose my own branch of service under the knowledge that I would be drafted anyhow after I turned eighteen.”

Livingston said he chose to join the Navy rather than the Army primarily due to the difference in the assignments. “In the Army, my brother was in the frontlines living outside during the coldest winter of the century in Europe. I felt like I’d rather go into the Navy.”

After two years of Naval service, Livingston returned to Auburn University on a GI Bill to finish his pre-law studies. Upon completing his undergraduate studies, he attended the University of Alabama School of Law and graduated in 1950. While attending law school, Livingston took advanced ROTC to earn a small stipend because he and his fiancé and eventual first wife, Ann McArthur, had decided they were to get married should Livingston pass his first year of law school.

It was during this time that Livingston was called back to service. “I had no idea I would get called back in, the unit I was assigned to during the Korean War.”

Upon his discharge in 1952 he began the private practice of law in Centre. He went on to serve as the Cherokee County Solicitor General for nine years until he was appointed Circuit Judge of Alabama’s Ninth Judicial Circuit in 1963. The Ninth Circuit comprised of Cherokee, DeKalb and Jackson Counties. The following year he was elected to the position without opposition and served until September 1^st, 1966 when he resigned his post and opened his private practice in Scottsboro, which he continues to this day.

Livingston said he knew he wanted to make a career in the legal profession due to the challenge it presented. “Well, I guess it’s more of a challenge than anything else and I thought I could do it. I had seen some of my classmates who tried it and did not succeed and went into other occupations. I wanted to work for myself.”

The greatest achievement in Livingston’s career in the legal profession wasn’t earned in the courtroom. It was through his work that he met Ann McArthur, his first wife and mother of his two children, Steve and Susan. “I was representing her mother in a lawsuit – she lived here in town. We were going to deposition and she came with her mother.”

Livingston noted the difficulties of losing Ann at such a young age. “One of the tragedies of our lives was losing Ann at age 52.”

Livingston says some changes in the profession over the years have made daily office life more convenient.

“When I started practicing law, we had typewriters and used carbon paper. We didn’t have copying machines, there were no such things at that time. I didn’t have a secretary as a judge.”

Mr. Livingston has lived a life of service in his community.

Livingston is a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, which is comprised of only one percent of all the lawyers in the state, an honor that is bestowed by nomination and vote by members of the organization.

He served twice as president of the Tennessee Valley Council of the Boy Scouts of America, was awarded the Silver Bearer. He is a Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary and has served as President of the Scottsboro Rotary Club. For more than twenty years, he was a Director of the First Southern National Bank.

He has been active in the Mountain Lakes Chamber of Commerce and has served as a two-term President. He is very active in Scottsboro First United Methodist Church, where he has served in many leadership capacities. In 2006, Livingston was nominated and selected as the Citizen of the Year.

Livingston was one of the founding members of the Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure Committee and is a member of the Alabama Law Foundation. He is also a member in good standing of the Jackson County Bar Association and the Alabama State Bar Association.

Livingston described what he sees as tremendous growth potential for the county. “We now have 72, that’s a great asset to us. We have several industrial sites throughout the county. I’m not sure what will happen with Bellefonte but I believe it will eventually be a significant asset to Jackson County, whether if Mr. Haney’s plans come to pass or not but I believe it will be developed by somebody – it’s just too great of an industrial site not to be.”

Above his office computer sits a framed photograph of Mr. Livingston holding the Bible during his son, Steve Livingston’s, swearing-in ceremony for the office of a state senator. He told Jackson Blaze what that moment meant to him as a father.

“I was extraordinarily proud of him. I told him when the first returns come in – he had such a great vote in Scottsboro. I told him whether he won or lost, you should walk with your head held high having such tremendous support from where you live. That made me proud of him.”

Livingston said while he isn’t practicing law, he likes to spend his leisure time at his Larkinsville farm. “We came here, and I started looking for a farm – I was raised on a farm and always wanted to live on a farm.”

Livingston concluded by offering his praise and appreciation to Jackson County. “There couldn’t be a better place to live than where we live.”

Jack Livingston is the epitome of what it means to be a legend. He exemplifies the patriotism and self-determination that is uniquely binding to the American Spirit. His dedication to family, community, and nation is to be admired and honored. From the organizations he’s been associated with to the people he has encountered, his service will no doubt have a lasting impact on Jackson County.

Jack Livingston is truly a Jackson County Living Legend.