James Sjoberg (“Jim”) Webb, of Cleveland, Tennessee, died on Wednesday, September 21, 2016.
Webb was a great-great-grandson of Ira Webb, who was born in Warren County, Tennessee, in 1811 and lived in what is now Bradley County, Tennessee, while it was still Cherokee Indian Territory, in 1835 through early 1836 before settling in Spring Garden, Cherokee County, Alabama. He was the great-great-great-grandson of Edmund Roberts, a Revolutionary War veteran who, according to Ramey’s Annals, entered the Watauga Settlement before it became the State of Tennessee, and who is buried in the cemetery opposite Spring Creek Church of Christ in McMinn County, just across the Hiwassee River from Bradley County. He was a member of the First Families of Tennessee and the Sons of the American Revolution.
Jim served as Bradley County Attorney for 25 years, retiring from that position to devote his full time to private practice.He was a past President and member of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Counties Attorney’s Association. From 1978 until his retirement from the Board in December, 2003, he was a Director of The Bank/First Citizens Bank. Coming to Cleveland in 1960 following his release from active military duty, he joined the legal department of Bowaters Southern Paper Corporation.
In 1962, Jim became a partner of the law firm of Bell, Whitson, Painter & Webb, leaving that firm in 1963 to join Charleston Hosiery Mills, where he served as Vice-President and general counsel until 1973 when he re-entered the private practice of law, continuing in that profession until the time of his retirement. Among his former law partners were the late Mayor William T. Fillauer and deceased Judges Jack W. Whitson and Mayo L. Mashburn. He served as President of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce in 1969 and was a founder and became the third President of Cleveland and Associated Industries, following s. B. Rymer, Jr., and the late Kenneth H. Brown. He was a member of Tennessee Manufacturer’s Association from 1971 until 1973, President of the Cleveland Industrial Personnel Club in 1968, and a Trustee of the former Cleveland Day School. He was a former member of the Kiwanis Club.
An active Republican, Jim was an Honorary Colonel Aide de camp under former Tennessee Governor Lamar Alexander in 1979 and an honorary Sergeant-At-Arms of the Tennessee Senate in 1973.
From February, 1957, through October, 1960, Jim served on active military duty with the United States Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Division at Sewart Air Force Base, Tennessee, attaining the grade of Captain and remaining a reserve officer until honorably discharged in 1971.
Jim began his work career at the age of six as a shoe shine boy outside a Piedmont, Alabama billiard parlor. He was later employed continuously until his death working at such jobs as newspaper carrier, grocery delivery man, service station attendant, rack merchandiser, theater usher, truck driver, apprentice printer, welder, sheet metal worker, bank bookkeeper, assistant law librarian, and legal; researcher and brief writer for practicing attorneys.
The holder of Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Bachelor of Laws, and Doctor of Juris Prudence degrees from the University of Tennessee. In June, 1956, Jim graduated summa cum laude from that institution’s College of Law, where he was said by Professor (Colonel) Harold Warner to have “stood first in his class with a scholastic average of 3.83 (out of a possible 4.0), being one of the highest, if not the highest, averages ever achieved by a student in the College of Law”. He was awarded Faculty Prize Scholarships his second and third years as a law student, served as Editor-in-Chief of theTennessee Law Review and authored numerous articles for that publication; was President of the U. T. Student Bar Association and Vice-President of the Sixth Circuit of the national American Law Students Association; received the Callahan Prize, Bobb’s Merrill Award, Lawyer’s Title Insurance Company Award, Testerman Scholarship, Herbert L. Davis Memorial Scholarship, and Phi Delta Phi Scholarship Cup; and following his graduation, was elected to the Order of the Coif, and honorary law student’s scholarship fraternity. Jim’s mentor at the Bar, the late attorney, Foster D. Arnett of Knoxville, was advised by a member of the Board of Law Examiners that “Webb received the best mark in the State” on the Bar Examination for the year 1956. Jim was a member of the Bar of Tennessee and appellate Courts, the Middle and Eastern Districts of the United States District Courts for Tennessee, the United States Tax Court, the United States Court of Military Appeals and the United States Supreme Court.
At U.T., Jim was a member of Phi Delta Gamma social fraternity, Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity, Omicron Delta Kappa honorary leadership fraternity, and Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity, by which he was chosen as the “Outstanding Graduate of Roosevelt Inn” in 1956.
Jim and Jo were married at St James Episcopal Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, on June 30, 1956. After a brief honeymoon, the couple moved to New York City where Jim joined the Wall Street law firm of Mudge, Stern, Baldwin and Todd, of which the late President Richard Nixon and the late U. S. Attorney General John Mitchell were once partners.
Following Jim’s release from active military duty, the Webbs, preferring a quieter environment than New York in which to rear their son, chose Cleveland as their permanent home.Jim was a member of Cleveland Golf and Country Club, Cleveland Lodge Number 1944 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Rolls Royce Owner’s Club, and former member of The Walden Club, Mountain City Club of Chattanooga, and Club LeConte of Knoxville. He was a Thirty-second Degree Mason, belonging to Cleveland F & A.M. Lodge Number 134, and was a Noble of Alhambra Shrine Temple of Chattanooga.
Active in several local and charitable endeavors, Jim was one of the founders of the local Citizens Scholarship Foundation, now defunct, and Cleveland’s Junior Achievement organization. He was a communicant and former Vestryman and Church School Teacher, and a member of the Brotherhood and St. Andrew, at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, in Cleveland, Tennessee, and he and Jo were the donors of the present electrical, illumination, and security systems, along with certain other furnishings and equipment, of that St. Luke’s sanctuary and Parish House, honoring their late son.
An ardent lover of cats, the Webbs also provided a substantial endowment to the local ARK. Jim provided his legal services, without charge, to Siskin Hospital for Physical Rehabilitation in Chattanooga for the securing from the State of Tennessee Health Facilities Commission, Certificates of Need for many of Siskin’s beds. Jim was a pillar, for many years of the Cleveland-Bradley County Community Chest, and he also aided Sharing International, from 1974 until it was disbanded in 1977, in its efforts to aid citizens of economically stricken areas. He was extremely gratified by the results of his efforts, over the years, in assisting numerous young persons.
An avid traveler, Jim, usually accompanied Jo and often by Debbie as well as other friends and family, journeyed to virtually every continent and virtually every country on earth, from Alaska to Zanzibar and from Thule, Greenland, in the Arctic and Tierra de Fuego, Argentina, near the Antarctic, and from the Seychells Island to Columbo, Sri Lanka, journeying to the Orient on more than 60 occasions and Europe more than 30 times, even visiting Pakistan and going twice on photo safaris in Africa, and such other exotic locations and Bangkok, Tahati, Egypt and Morocco. His favorite destinations were Egypt and Monte Carlo. River and ocean cruises, on which he sailed more than 80 times, were his favorite means of transport. He enjoyed photography and was a collector of art objects. Leica cameras, and, from time to time, exotic automobiles.
Following the death of Jo, the entire collective estates of Jim and Jo will ultimately pass, by their wills, to the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine Hospital for the establishment of a facility to be names the “Webb Memorial Cat Treatment Center” and dedicated to the memory of Jimmy and Jo, Jim was a member of the 1794 Society of the University of Tennessee.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Jesse Tatum Webb II and Dura Sparks Webb; his brother, Jesse Tatum Webb III; and his son, James Sjoberg (“Jimmy”) Webb, Jr.
He is survived by his wife, Nina Josephine Holt (“Jo”) Webb; his sister, Martha Kate (“Katy”) Webb Ogle of Farragut, TN; and his paralegal of 38 years and close family friend, Deborah L. (“Debbie”) Arp of Cleveland.
Funeral services for Jim will be held at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 320 Broad Street, N. W., Cleveland, Tennessee by The Reverend Joel W. Huffstetler at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 25. A Masonic Service will be conducted by members of Cleveland’s F & AM Lodge Number 134 at graveside atop Hilcrest Memorial Gardens in Cleveland, Tennessee, a Military Honor Guard and Piper will be present. Pallbearers will be The Hon. Larry Puckett, D. Terry Forshee, Rob Norred, Kenneth Miller, Matthew Coleman, and Robert Thompson. Honorary Pall bearers will be William D. Cobb of Big Rock, Tennessee and Douglas B. Parker of Clarksville, Tennessee; the members of the Bradley County Bar Association; John W, Holden, Jr., Kenneth H. Rayborn, Forrest L. Preston, Tommy Rowland, and The Hon. Jerri Bryant.
Jim’s body will lie in state, for visitation by family and friends at Ralph Buckner Funeral Home, 3000 Ralph Buckner Blvd., N.E., Cleveland, Tennessee, on Friday, Sept. 23 from 3-7 p.m.
Memorials may be made to the University Of Tennessee College Of Veterinary Medicine Hospital (Webb Memorial Cat Treatment Center).
Ralph Buckner Funeral Home and Crematory is in charge of the arrangements.