Elmer Violette

Elmer Hector Violette (February 2, 1921 – June 18, 2000) was an American jurist and Democratic Party politician from Maine. He was a justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court from 1981 to 1986 as well as a member of the Maine Superior Court, Maine Senate, and Maine House of Representatives. Childhood Elmer Hector Violette was born on February 2, 1921, in Van Buren, Maine. He was one of seven siblings. His father was a woodsman, butcher, and grocer during the Great Depression, and his mother was a schoolteacher. Both were staunch Democrats, and his father had even served in the Maine House of Representatives. A French Canadian, Violette was raised Roman Catholic, and served as an altar boy as a teenager. Early career and military service In 1939, Violette attended Ricker College, graduating with a two-year degree and returning to Van Buren. He was elected to the Maine House of Representatives in 1942 without opposition, but resigned on January 15, 1943 after being drafted into the U.S. Army during World War II. He went to meteorological school in Illinois and spent three years at the Bangor Air National Guard Base (then Dow Field) and CFB Goose Bay in Labrador as a weather-watcher. He was discharged from service in December 1945. On September 2, 1946, he married Marcella Belanger. The couple remained in Van Buren after their marriage.