Holcomb graduated from
Robert E. Lee High School. He attended
Lee College in
Baytown and
Lamar University in
Beaumont, Texas, for his undergraduate education. He served in the
United States Air Force Reserve from 1951 to 1953; he then graduated in 1958 from
South Texas College of Law. From 1959 to 1966, he was the
city attorney, first for
Deer Park and then for
Orange in far southeastern Texas. In 1967, he was elected to the County Court at Law of
Orange County and served until 1972. During the school term of 1970–1971, he was also
adjunct professor of
Government at the Lamar University extension campus in Orange. He faced two challengers for re-election in the Republican
primary election in 2006, Judge Robert Francis of
Dallas, and then
State Representative Terry Keel of
Austin. Keel challenged both Holcomb and Francis for technical flaws in their applications to be on the ballot. and he won re-nomination and reelection. After his re-election, the Texas Constitution was amended to allow judges who turn seventy-five during their term to serve-out a four-year term, meaning Holcomb could serve four years of his six-year term. Holcomb retired from the Court of Criminal Appeals in 2010 and decided to run for the
Senate election in 2012, but the nomination instead went to
Ted Cruz, who won the party runoff election against
David Dewhurst. Holcomb died in
Wimberley, Texas on February 28, 2020, at the age of 86. == References ==