Federal Courthouse Named After Rush Limbaugh's Grandfather

President Bush signed Pub. L. No 110-13 on March 21, 2007. The statute designates the United States courthouse located at 555 Independence Street in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, as the "Rush Hudson Limbaugh, Sr. United States Courthouse." From H. Rep. No. 110-10:

Rush Hudson Limbaugh, Sr. was born in Bollinger County, Missouri on September 27, 1891.

He began his education in a one room school a mile from his farm home. He attended the University of Missouri at Columbia and in 1914 entered the University of Missouri Law School. He skipped his third year of law school, passed the Missouri bar exam, and was admitted to practice in 1916.

Limbaugh was a leading figure in the legal profession for his accomplishments not just in Missouri and the United States, but around the world. At the time of his death, at the age of 104, he was still practicing law after nearly eight decades. He was the nation's oldest practicing attorney. He argued over 60 cases before the Missouri Supreme Court. He tried cases before the Interstate Commerce Commission, the U.S. Labor Board and the Internal Revenue Appellate Division.

Limbaugh served as City Attorney of Cape Girardeau from 1917 to 1919. In 1923, he started a law firm that still bears his name. From 1942 until 1946 he served as Missouri Counsel for the War Emergency Pipelines, through which gasoline was transported from Texas and Louisiana to the East Coast as a war measure. He was President of the Missouri Bar from 1955 to 1956. He served on the committee that drafted the 1955 Missouri Probate Code and served as Chairman of the Real Property, Probate, and Trust Law Section of the American Bar Association from 1954-1955. Limbaugh also served as Counsel to what is now Southeast Missouri State University for over four decades. In the early days of Indian independence in the 1950s, the U.S. State Department sent him to India to be an ambassador for the U.S. legal system.

He was also active in other areas of civic life. He was elected to the Missouri State Legislature from 1931 to 1932, where he pressed for the formation of the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the consolidation of school districts. He served as President of the State Historical Society of Missouri from 1956 to 1959. He was also a Sunday school teacher, and a member of many local civic organizations including the Boy Scouts of America, Centenary United Methodist Church, and the Salvation Army.

Rush H. Limbaugh Sr. died in his home on April 8, 1996.

Rush H. Limbaugh Sr. will be remembered as more than a brilliant attorney; he will also be remembered as a great American. As such, it is very appropriate that the United States Court House in Cape Girardeau, Missouri be designated the `Rush H. Limbaugh, Sr., United States Courthouse.'

Rush H. Limbaugh Sr. is the grandfather of radio pundit Rush Limbaugh. For more about the Senior Limbaugh see his wikipedia entry and Federal Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh's Rush Hudson Limbaugh and His Times: Reflections on a Life Well Lived (2003). [JH]