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Lawrence H. Fountain

American politician (1913-2002)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ1809187 ↗
Source-derived summary

Lawrence H. Fountain (April 23, 1913 – October 10, 2002) was an American lawyer and World War II veteran who served 15 terms as a Democratic U.S. representative from North Carolina from 1953 to 1983.

Early life

Fountain was educated in the public schools of Edgecombe County and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he received his A. B. degree in 1934 and his Juris Doctor degree. He was admitted to the North Carolina Bar following graduation from law school in 1936.

He practiced law in Tarboro, North Carolina and was active in statewide Democratic Party politics until March 1942 when he entered the United States Army as a private in the infantry. He rose through the ranks and was released from service as a major in the Judge Advocate General's Office on March 4, 1946. Fountain then returned to his law practice in Tarboro.

In civilian life, he remained a member of the U. S. Army Reserve and later retired as a lieutenant colonel.

Service in public office

In 1947, Fountain was elected to the North Carolina Senate where he served until 1952.

Congress

In the 1952 election, he won a seat in the 83rd Congress as Representative from the Second Congressional District of North Carolina. He was reelected to each Congress through the 97th, at which time he did not seek reelection.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Lawrence H. Fountain” as american politician (1913-2002). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1913, 2002, 1953, 1983—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1913-04-23. The account is most persuasive where Lawrence, Fountain and American can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american politician (1913-2002). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1809187. VIAF identifies the subject as 4364162. The Library of Congress control number is n2006070235. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1913, 2002, 1953 and 1983.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Lawrence H. Fountain”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Lawrence H. Fountain primary sources, Lawrence H. Fountain archive and Lawrence research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Lawrence H. Fountain”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Lawrence H. Fountain” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.