Roy, Reuben Finnell (January 7, 1854-1922)
Dates
- Existence: January 7, 1854 - 1922
Biography
Judge Reuben Finnell Roy, son of Vienna Russell Finnell and Fantley Jackson Roy, was born January 7, 1854, in Marion County, Missouri. He received his education in the common schools and attended Shelby High School in Shelbyville, Missouri, where he later taught mathematics. He was admitted to the bar in 1877 and served as Judge of the Tenth Judicial Circuit from 1893 to 1899.
In 1904 Roy was elected a delegate to the Universal Congress of Lawyers and Jurists, which met in St. Louis, Missouri. As a Republican, he twice ran for Missouri Congress, once in 1908 and again in 1910, failing in both attempts. In 1913, he was appointed by the Supreme Court as a member of the bipartisan commission created by the Forty-sixth General Assembly to aid the Supreme Court; and reappointed for a term of four years ending April 1919.
Roy married Mary Margaret Hays on December 19, 1882, in New London, Missouri. They had two children: George (b. 1891), who died November 29, 1902, of a gunshot wound inflicted by a childhood friend; and Ruth Margaret (b. 1903), who died in 1988. Reuben Roy died in 1922 at the age of 68.
