remark. He asked the lawyers if anyone in the room knew that he had heard it. When the lawyers advised him that no one had, he stated the rule that lawyers had a constitutional right to cuss the judge and, since Mr. Trigg didn't know he had been heard, he was not going to be fined. Former Confederate John S. Mosby, who worked in the United States Department of Justice late in his career, supported McDowell for nomination to the Supreme Court, or at least to the Court of Appeals. McDowell assumed senior status on September 1, 1931, and was succeeded by John Paul Jr., son of his predecessor. Death and legacy Judge McDowell had a heart attack and died while visiting Lexington, Kentucky on October 8, 1933, at the age of 72. His widow survived him by six years, dying in Lynchburg in 1939, but buried beside him at the Lexington Cemetery in Fayette County, Kentucky. His former house in Lynchburg (1314 Clay Street) survives and is a contributing property to the Diamond Hill Historic District. The New York Times reported in 1901 that the author John Fox Jr., also from Big Stone Gap, based a character in his book Blue-grass and Rhododendron: Outdoors in Old Kentucky on McDowell. The book was dedicated to McDowell, Bullitt, and Horace Ethelbert Cox, as "The First Three Captains of the Guard." References Sources Judges of the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia Virginia lawyers United States district court judges appointed by Theodore Roosevelt 20th-century American judges 1861 births 1933 deaths Lawyers from Louisville, Kentucky Henry Clay family