Alfred Paul Murrah, Sr., was born October 27, 1904, near Earl, Indian Territory, a now-extinct community but then part of the Chickasaw Nation. His parents were George Washington and Lanora M. Simmons Murrah.
Murrah’s mother died when he was seven, the family moved out of Oklahoma. On his father’s death, while Alfred was in his early teens, Murrah became a “knight of the road” for a time, riding freight cars throughout the southern and southeastern United States. Tired of hoboing around the country, the 13-year-old Murrah decided he wanted a job that would give him an opportunity to improve upon his fourth-grade education. He found it on a farm in Tuttle.
There he milked cows and did farm chores for his room and board. To earn spending money, he got still another job at the Star Pharmacy drugstore. Then he presented himself to the Tuttle High School principal and convinced the teacher he could take his place with other 13-year-olds in the classroom and still hold down two jobs. That he did and when he graduated in 1923, he was a member of the debate team, president of the senior class, and valedictorian. With his high school diploma, he hitchhiked to Norman enrolled in the University of Oklahoma and then set out to finance his way through law school.
Entering the University of Oklahoma, Murrah worked his way through college. He graduated with honors in 1927 receiving the Bachelor of Laws degree. In 1937, at age thirty-two (32), Murrah was appointed U.S. District Judge for the Western, Eastern, and Northern Districts of Oklahoma. He was the youngest man in history to be appointed to this position. In 1940 Murrah was elevated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit a jurisdiction embracing Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Kansas and New Mexico.
Once when asked for his advice to young people, Murrah said: “Get a good education. Decide what you want to do. Whatever you like to do best is exactly the thing you are fitted for. Put your finger on a map, close your eyes and pick a place. Then go there and be diligent and decent. You won’t have too much competition, and you will get ahead.” And he continued don’t begrudge the fact that you have to work for what you get.
Murrah and Agnes “Babe” Milam married on June 29, 1930, and had three children. The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, opened in 1978 and destroyed April 19, 1995, in a bomb attack.
Reference Material from: Von R. Creel – Oklahoma Historical Society, Findagrave.com, Reddit, Pinterest