George Whitfield Connor was born on October 24, 1872, in Wilson, North Carolina. A University of North Carolina graduate, Connor served three terms as a state legislator and accumulated twenty-five years of service as a judge, first for the second district of the state superior court (1913-1924) and later as an associate justice of the state supreme court (appointed 1924). He died in Raleigh on April 23, 1938.