A photograph of Frank Ertel Carlyle from the 1919 University of North Carolina yearbook. Image from the Internet Archive.
Frank Ertel Carlyle, congressman and lawyer, was the second son and third child of William Watts and Lillian Ottelia Vampill Carlyle. He was born in Lumberton and educated in local schools and at the Wilson Memorial Academy, Nyack, N.Y. He entered The University of North Carolina in 1916, but enlisted in the U.S. Navy in June 1918, serving the remainder of the year. He returned to the university and upon graduation was licensed to practice law in January 1921; he opened an office in his native town.
Carlyle was elected to the office of solicitor of the state's Ninth Judicial District in 1938, 1942, and 1946. He ran for Congress in 1948, was elected, and served three succeeding terms from 3 Jan. 1949 to 3 Jan. 1957. He was defeated in his bid for a fourth term in 1956 and resumed his law practice.
Carlyle was married to Lois Godwin Caldwell in 1927, and they were the parents of a daughter, Mrs. Doran Berry. At his death in 1960 he was buried in Meadowbrook Cemetery, Lumberton.
References:
Biog. Dir. Am. Cong. (1961).
Janie Carlyle Hargrave, personal interview (28 Jan. 1973).
North Carolina Collection (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), for clippings.
