Bickett, John Hamilton, Jr. (1892–1947)

John Hamilton Bickett, Jr., judge, was born at Cameron, Texas, on July 29, 1892, son of John Hamilton and Minnie (Muse) Bickett. He attended public school at Cameron and later at Dallas and San Antonio, after which he entered the University of Texas. He was awarded B.A. and LL.B. degrees in 1914 and in the same year was admitted to the state bar. When the United States entered World War I, Bickett enlisted as a private; by the end of the war he was regimental sergeant major. From 1924 to 1934 he served on the state Board of Law Examiners. He resigned when Governor Miriam A. Ferguson appointed him chief justice of the Fourth Court of Civil Appeals in San Antonio. Bickett was reelected, but in 1935 he resigned to serve as general counsel of Southwestern Bell Telephone Company. He was appointed to the board of regents of the University of Texas in 1942 and served as chairman in 1943–44. He retired in 1944. Bickett was president of the State Bar of Texas in 1945–46. He was also a member of the Philosophical Society of Texas and a Presbyterian. In 1924 he married Lula Wright Styles. He died on May 1, 1947, in Dallas and was buried at Mission Burial Park, San Antonio.