Biography:

Attorney; military officer; professor of military law. Born–Huntsville, Alabama, June 9, 1890. Parents–Judge Tancred Betts and Maud Broun Betts.Married–Pleasant Hobbs.  Children–two. Education– University of Alabama, LL.B., 1911; graduated from the U.S. Army Infantry School, 1925. Practiced law with the firm of Betts and Betts in Huntsville; first man from Madison County to volunteer for service in World War I.  Achieved rank of Captain in the Infantry, 1917;  re-enlisted at the end of the War. Transferred from the infantry to the Judge Advocate General’s Corps in 1929. Advanced through the ranks to brigadier general in 1943; served as professor of military law, United States Military Academy, 1938-1942. At the time of his death he was judge advocate general of the United States Forces in Europe and the legal advisor to General Eisenhower. Awarded many medals and honors, including the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star.  Named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.  Inducted into the Athenaeum Club of London. Elected to the Alabama Men’s Hall of Fame. Died May 6,1946.

Source:

Who Was Who in America, Vol. 2; Obituaries on File, 1979; website of Alabama Academy of Honor.

Publication(s):

Historic Huntsville. Birmingham, Ala.; Southern University Press, 1909. (also published as Early History of Huntsville, Alabama, 1804 to 1870. Montgomery, Ala.; Brown Printing, 1916.)

Kaleidoscopics of Other People and Places. Boston:  Christopher Publishing House, 1930.