Arzo Carson
Arzo Carson (Jan. 17, 1923 – Feb. 5, 2023) was an attorney from Scott County who served as District Attorney General and the first director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. He’s often referred to as the “father of the TBI.”
Biography
Born Jan. 17, 1923 in Oneida, Arzo Carson was the son of John M. Carson (1887-1978) and Levada Laxton (1895-1975). His siblings included Ovia Carson (1917-1982), Odell Carson (1918-2008), Nannie Mae Lane (1920-2012), Arvil Carson (1925-2008), Rosalee Thomas (1928-1977) and Sylvia Lou Phillips (1931-2002).
Carson was the great-grandson of John Linn Carson Jr. (1808-1899), the first Carson to settle in Scott County. John Linn Carson Jr. and his wife, Jane Triplett, settled the Tunnel Hill area east of Oneida and it was there that Arzo Carson was born three generations later.
He married Shirley June Laxton (1936-2021), who he met while working as an associate at the Baker & Baker Law Firm in Huntsville. The two married in 1959. They had two children: daughter Scarlett Wirt and son Jared Carson.
Early Life
Carson grew up in the Tunnel Hill community, just off Paint Rock Road east of Oneida. He graduated from Oneida High School in 1941, and enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1943. He served three years in the Navy, and was a veteran of World War II.
Carson graduated from the University of Tennessee with a law degree and began his career as an attorney in 1952. He was initially an associate with the Baker & Baker Law Firm in Huntsville, where he met his wife, Shirley, and later served as a partner with Carson & Wilson Law Firm from 1956 until 1966.
D.A. and T.B.I.
Carson was an assistant district attorney, and was later elected as attorney general for the 19th Judicial District, which consisted of Scott, Morgan, Campbell, Claiborne, Fentress and Anderson counties. He served in that capacity until 1980, when he was called upon by then-Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander to head up the newly-reorganized Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
As the TBI’s first director, Carson served in Nashville from 1980 until his retirement in 1990. Following his retirement, he was appointed director emeritus of the bureau. Later, in 2009, the Tennessee General Assembly passed a bill, signed by then-Gov. Phil Bredesen, that named the TBI’s headquarters in Nashville in his honor as the “Arzo Carson TBI State Office Building.”
Late Life
Following retirement, Carson and his wife traveled extensively in the U.S. and Canada, hiked parts of the Appalachian Trail and the Sheltowee Trace National Recreation Trail, and spent time with their grandchildren. They made their home in Huntsville.
Carson died on Feb. 5, 2023, just days after being recognized by Scott County Commission upon his 100th birthday. A funeral service was held Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023 at First Baptist Church of Oneida, where he was a long-time deacon and Sunday school teacher, with Steve Marcum, Steve Phillips and Crestin Burke officiating. He was buried the following day at Carson Memorial Park in Oneida.