Oakland Cemetery History
  • About
  • Map
  • Contexts
Christopher Wimbish.jpeg
  • ← Previous Item
  • Next Item →

Christopher C. Wimbish Jr.

Title

Christopher C. Wimbish Jr.

GPS

33.7483889,-84.3704269

Birth Date

1892

Birthplace

Atlanta, GA

Death Date

1963

Military Service Details

Training Camp at Ft. Des Moines IA. Service: 366 Infantry to discharge. Camp Dodge, IA; Camp Upton, NJ; AEF; Camp Gordon, Ga; Alsace; Meuse-Argonne; Lorraine. Served overseas as 1st Lt. June 15, 1918 to February 28, 1919. Honorably discharged April 19, 1919.

Occupation

In Atlanta, he worked at various jobs (laborer, bellboy at the Winecoff, teacher at St. Paul’s Episcopal School, and life insurance salesman) before his enlistment in the military.
After the Armistice, Wimbish was the proprietor of a theater, The Idle Hour, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
He joined the law firm of Temple, Wimbish, and McLendon (later Temple and Wimbish). He specialized in property and criminal law, civil rights, and minority group cases. He was named Assistant State's Attorney (a position he held until 1931.) He also held a commission in the Officers Reserve Corp.
In 1938, he switched to the Democratic Party but was unsuccessful in his race for Illinois State Senate. That same year, he married again to Odessa Ireland.
From 1940 to 1944 he served as Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of Chicago. In 1942, he was elected to the Illinois Senate from the Third District. Wimbish sponsored the Fair Employment Practices bill during his first term (The bill would not become law until 1961). He was re-elected in 1946 and 1950. He served as Democratic Committeeman from the Third Ward from 1948 to 1952.
In 1958, he was elected Trustee of the Sanitary District, the position he held at his death.

Biographical Text

His father, Christopher C. Wimbish Sr., was a mail carrier and active in the Republican party. In 1898, he was appointed federal surveyor of customs for Atlanta by President William McKinley. His mother, Maggie Baker, was a teacher and principal of the E. P. Johnson night school.

Education

He attended Atlanta public schools and Atlanta University. In 1917, he was one of 20 Atlanta University men commissioned as officers (including his brother 2nd Lt. Hugh H. Wimbish).
He received an A.B. degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C. in 1914. In 1923, he came to Chicago and entered Northwestern University Law School. He graduated with an LLB degree in 1925. He was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1927.

Spouse

Vivian Clayton, Odessa Ireland

Collection

WWI Individuals

Output Formats

  • atom
  • dcmes-xml
  • json
  • omeka-xml

More Information

This item has no relations.

Banner photograph courtesy of Ren Davis, the Historic Oakland Foundation.

Proudly powered by Omeka.