Bart Durham

Bart Durham was born and raised in Ripley, Tennessee, a small farming community in Lauderdale County. His father, B.C. Durham, practiced law, served as Ripley's mayor and state legislator, presided over the Bank of Ripley and co-published The Lauderdale County Enterprise. Bart grew up playing sports and later described his childhood as happy.

Law was a major part of his family history. His maternal grandfather, Blair Pierson, was a Chancery Court judge in Memphis, while his third cousin Colin McKinney served on the Tennessee Supreme Court. McKinney took Bart to court in Nashville when he was a boy, giving him an early view of legal work.

Before completing his legal education, Durham served two years in the U.S. Army, including time in Germany. He studied at the University of Tennessee and completed his law degree at a Memphis night law school in 1963. He passed the Tennessee Bar Exam that year while recovering from surgery for a kidney stone, then briefly practiced alongside his father in Ripley.

Durham moved into federal service in Memphis after his father's death. From 1966 to 1969, he worked as an Assistant United States Attorney under U.S. Attorney Thomas L. Robinson and handled cases across 33 counties in West Tennessee. He was on duty after James Earl Ray assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. and went with FBI agents to the Lorraine Motel and the boarding house connected with the shooting. He also worked on the prosecution of Ku Klux Klan leadership and served as courtroom second chair in the six-week United States v. Sims bribery trial.

In 1969, Durham moved to Nashville to serve as an Assistant Attorney General for Tennessee. He led federal civil rights cases throughout the state, appeared in federal district courts from Memphis to East Tennessee, argued more than 100 cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati and argued three cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Durham entered private practice in 1975 with Henry Haile, a lawyer he had worked with in the Attorney General's office. He later established his own firm and gradually focused on representing people in serious personal injury and wrongful-death cases. By the early 1990s, he had phased out areas such as bankruptcy, criminal law and domestic relations to concentrate on personal injury work.

He became the first lawyer in Tennessee to advertise his services in print, on radio and on television. His firm, Bart Durham Injury Law, grew into a substantial Nashville practice, and he became a familiar presence in the region through hundreds of commercials. He was named a Senior Counselor by the Tennessee Bar Association and continued assisting with the firm until his death.

Durham particularly valued working with his son Blair Durham, who became the firm's senior attorney and day-to-day manager. They tried jury cases together and often appeared together in commercials. Durham said his favorite advertisement was "Heritage Spot," which focused on three generations of Durham lawyers and his hometown of Ripley.

In the mid-1990s, Durham began training to work as a professional wrestling ringside manager after wrestler Candi Divine introduced him to the role. He made his first appearance managing Regina Hale at the Excalibur Gym in Madison, Tennessee, and later worked at gyms, high school auditoriums and nightclubs in several states.

Performing under the name "Black Bart," Durham carried a briefcase and took part in the theatrical interference that characterized the manager role. He suffered a concussion after being struck by a steel chair at a 2002 show at Nashville's Exit Inn. Later heart problems ended his wrestling career.

Durham learned to fly while attending Florida State University and received his private pilot license in 1954. He returned to aviation in the early 2000s, logged more than 400 hours and worked toward an instrument license while flying in Nashville and the Santa Monica area. His heart bypass surgery ended what he called his total passion for flying.

His interest in Ferrari cars began in 1996, when he purchased a 1995 Ferrari 355 Coupe. He later owned several other Ferraris, including a 360 Spider, and became active in the Ferrari Club of America. In 1997, he helped found the Tennessee chapter and served as its president, followed by two years as regional director of the club's Southeast Region.

Durham married Cindy Durham in December 2012 in Nashville, followed by a second ceremony in Malibu in June 2013. Cindy was a member of Nashville Korean Presbyterian Church with him and later earned U.S. citizenship after a six-year process. She also sang with the Yonsei University Alumni Choir in Southern California.

Durham's older son, Colin Durham, became a health care consultant after earning a Master of Science from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His grandchildren included Ethan and Adelynn. Durham died in 2024 at the age of 89.