Background
Webb, John was born on September 18, 1926 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, United States. Son of William Devin and Ella (Johnson) Webb.
Webb, John was born on September 18, 1926 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, United States. Son of William Devin and Ella (Johnson) Webb.
Student, University North Carolina, 1946-1949; Bachelor of Laws, Columbia University, 1952.
Prior to serving on North Carolina"s highest court, Justice Webb had been a Superior Court (trial) judge and a judge of the North Carolina Court of Appeals. He was a veteran of the United States Navy, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and from law school at Columbia University. Near the end of his tenure on the Supreme Court, Justice Webb wrote the sole dissent in a case in which the Court upheld a trial court taking custody of children away from a gay father because of the father"s relationship with a male.
Justice Webb wrote: "There is virtually no showing that these acts by the defendant have adversely affected the two children.
The test should be how the action affects the children and not whether we approve of it" (Pulliam v Smith, 348 North Carolina 616, 631 ). Webb died on September 18, 2008, on his 82nd birthday.
Served with United States Navy, 1944-1946. Member North Carolina Bar Association.
Married Martha Carolyn Harris, September 13, 1958. Children: Caroline Webb Smart, William Devin.