Joseph Wilson Ervin

He was the younger brother of a more famous politician, Sam Ervin.

Ervin pictured at the University of North Carolina, c. 1921

Ervin was born in Morganton, Burke County, North Carolina. He attended the public schools, was graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1921 where he was a member of the Dialectic Society and from its law school in 1923, was admitted to the bar in 1923 and commenced practice in Charlotte, North Carolina.

He was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-ninth Congress and served from January 3, 1945, until his death in Washington, D.C. on December 25, 1945, nearly a year after entering Congress.

He committed suicide by inhaling gas from a kitchen stove. This was said to be due to the pain from osteomyelitis that he was suffering from.[1] His brother Sam Ervin was elected to finish his term. Joseph Ervin was interred in Forest Hill Cemetery, Morganton, N.C.

• Sam Ervin
• List of United States Congress members who died in office (1900–49)

• United States Congress. "Joseph Wilson Ervin (id: E000210)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

Excerpt from the book "Defending White Democracy: The Making of a Segregationist Movement and the Remaking of Racial Politics, 1936-1965″ by Jason Morgan Ward (2011)

• http://blogs.lib.unc.edu/ncm/index.php/2013/07/25/dec-19-ervin