Born at the Tait-Ervin House in Camden, Wilcox County, Alabama in 1863 to the former Sarah Asbury Tait and her husband, prominent planter Dr. Robert Hugh Ervin.
During Prohibition, the U.S. Department of Justice investigated bootlegging in Mobile, based on an attempt by entrepreneur (and later long-serving Congressman) Frank Boykin to bribe U.S. Attorney Aubrey Broyles, who had vowed to clean up the port city.
[2] When Broyles recused himself following defense accusations that he had asked for bribes, U.S. Attorney General (and future U.S. Supreme Court justice) Harlan Fiske Stone and his assistant Mabel Walker Willebrandt appointed Jefferson county prosecutor (and future U.S. Supreme Court justice) Hugo Black and Mobile lawyer Nicholas Stallworth as special prosecutors.
Eleven of the conspirators were ultimately convicted, including the Democratic Executive Committee chairman John McEvoy and Mobile's police chief O'Shaunessey.
Enlisting in the Alabama National Guard in 1926, he rose to the rank of colonel during his service in World War II and earned a Bronze Star.