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20 J. S. Legal Hist. 5 (2012)
An Interview of the Honorable A. Wallace Cato on January 15, 2011

handle is hein.journals/jslh20 and id is 21 raw text is: ORAL HISTORY An Interview of The Honorable A. Wallace Cato on January 15, 2011 Conducted by Cayce Myers MR. MYERS: Today is January 15th, 2011. This is an inter- view for the Journal of Southern Legal History with Judge A. Wallace Cato, Chief Judge of the Superior Courts of the South Georgia Circuit. My name is Cayce Myers. I am a former law clerk of Judge Cato. We are in the Decatur County Courthouse in Bainbridge, Georgia, in Judge Cato's chambers. Judge Cato, I would like to begin this interview talking about your early life. If you can give some background about your parents and growing up in Decatur County. JUDGE CATO I was born on February the 6th, 1938, in Bainbridge, Georgia. That was a Sunday. The doctor upon delivery handed me to my mother and said, Here is your preacher. I think my mother spent the rest of her life, some ninety-one years, trying to make that come to pass. It never did. My father was John E. Cato, and my mother was Edna Duval Cato. My paternal grandparents were John Preston Cato and Ellen Susie Warren Cato. My maternal grandparents were John Walker Stegall and Rosa Mae Norells Stegall. I grew up in Bainbridge, Georgia. My father was a nursery- man, and at an early age I worked in the family nursery because he needed the help, of course. I did not like the clothes my mom bought me. She would buy me things like blue jeans and flannel shirts, and I wanted Levi's and Madras shirts, or whatever happened to be popular. We also had a florist shop, and my mother worked in the shop. I lived in an area where my friends were mostly African- American youngsters, and we played together. We had goats and wagons and chariot races and that sort of thing.