Truman Ernest Roberts

ROBERTS, TRUMAN ERNEST (1917 ~ 1993). Judge Truman Ernest Roberts was born August 26, 1917, to Truman E. and Willie Dee Armstrong Roberts, Sr. in Crawford, Texas. He graduated from Baylor University Law School in 1949 and served as county attorney for Hamilton County from 1950 to 1956.

Roberts served as district attorney for a district that included Hamilton, Bosque, Comanche, and Coryell counties from 1957 to 1961. He was presiding judge of the 52nd State Judicial District Court from 1961 to 1970, and was elected to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 1970. He was re-elected in 1976.

Roberts was a member of the State Bar Committee on Revision of the Penal Code, the Committee on Pattern Jury Instructions, and the Bar-News Media Conference Committee of Free Press and Fair Trial. He served for five years on the Executive Committee of the Governor's Criminal Justice Council and was a member of the Texas Senate Advisory Committee on Youth Affairs.

Roberts was a past president of the Baylor Law Alumni Association, a member of the Board of Directors of the Baylor Ex-Students Association, a member of the Board of Directors of the Baylor Stadium Corp., and was on the Committee of 100 for "Operation Second Century" for Baylor University. He was named Outstanding Baylor Lawyer for 1973.

Roberts was a member of the First United Methodist Church in Hamilton and was secretary of the Board of Trustees of the Central Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church. Roberts enlisted in the Army as a private in 1940 and attained the rank of captain by the time of his release from active duty in 1946.

Roberts died March 17, 1993, in Hamilton, Texas and was buried at the Texas State Cemetery.

Biography taken from Hamilton Herald-News. Further information available through the Texas State Cemetery research department.