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SUSAN COX: Today is Friday, December 5, 2008. I am Susan Cox, with the law firm of Edenfield, Cox, Bruce & Classens in Statesboro, Georgia.
We are here today to interview Judge John R. Harvey for the Journal of Southern Legal History. Judge Harvey is retired from the position of chief judge of the Adantic Judicial Circuit in Southeast Georgia, and we are in the law library next to his office in the Bryan County Courthouse in Pembroke, Georgia.
SUSAN COX: Judge Harvey, why don't you start out by telling us when and where you were born.
JUDGE HARVEY: I was born in Bryan County on July 5, 1935. I was actually born in the hospital in Statesboro.
SUSAN COX: Who were your parents?
JUDGE HARVEY: My father was Will C. Harvey, and my mother was Ruth Lee Lanier Harvey.
SUSAN COX: I understand that your family had been in the Bryan County area for a long time.
JUDGE HARVEY: We came in the 1700s.
SUSAN COX: Tell me something about your ancestors.
JUDGE HARVEY: My great-great grandfather was Richard T. Harvey, Sr. Historically, I was told that he moved from Virginia to North Carolina and then from North Carolina to Bryan County, Georgia. My great grandfather was Richard T. Harvey, Jr., and he married Cynthia Burnsed. They lived in the same vicinity where I was raised, and they had thirteen children. My grandfather was one of the older children.
SUSAN COX: I understand your grandfather was a large land owner.
JUDGE HARVEY: Yes, my grandfather was a large land owner.
SUSAN COX: And what did your father do?
JUDGE HARVEY: My father was in the farming and turpentine business.
SUSAN COX: Was your mother employed outside the home? JUDGE HARVEY: She was a housewife.
SUSAN COX: Did you have any brothers or sisters?
JUDGE HARVEY: I had one brother, James, who was born in 1925, but he died in 1929. I have a sister, Betty, who was born in 1930 and a brother, Harold, who was born in 1933. I was the youngest child, born in 1935.
SUSAN COX: What did your sister and your brother do?
JUDGE HARVEY: Well, we all went to the University of Georgia and graduated from the University...