Floyd D. Culbertson Jr.

Floyd Douglas Culbertson Jr.
Mayor of Minden, Webster Parish
Louisiana, USA
In office
July 1940 – November 1942
Preceded by David William Thomas
Succeeded by John Calhoun Brown (previous Mayor Pro-tem)
Personal details
Born

(1908-04-15)April 15, 1908
Minden, Webster Parish

Louisiana, USA
Died April 28, 1989(1989-04-28) (aged 81)
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Resting place Memorial Park Cemetery in Tulsa
Nationality American
Political party Democratic Party
Spouse(s)
  • Gladys Day Culbertson (married 1933, divorced)
  • Violet McMurty Culbertson (married 1952)
  • Evelyn H. Johnson Davis Culbertson
Relations

William G. Stewart (great-uncle by marriage)

John Sidney Killen (great-grandfather)
Children
  • Douglas Floyd Culbertson (1953-1979) (son)
  • Bryan Davis (stepson)
  • Allan Davis (stepson)
  • Darrell Davis (stepson)
Parents Floyd, Sr., and Mary Leana Alford Culbertson
Alma mater

Minden High School
Louisiana College

Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University
Occupation Attorney
Military service
Service/branch United States Army
Rank Captain
Battles/wars Stateside service in World War II

Floyd Douglas Culbertson, Jr. (April 15, 1908 – April 28, 1989), was a lawyer in Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma, who from 1940 to 1942 was the mayor of his native Minden, the seat of government of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana.[1][2] He resigned early in his second term to enter the United States Army with stateside service in World War II.

Background

Culbertson's parents were Floyd Culbertson Sr. (1879–1958)[3][lower-alpha 1] and the former Mary Leana "Mollie" Alford (1887–1977), who was a native of Cherry Ridge in Union Parish in North Louisiana.[5] Culbertson had a sister, Mary, and three brothers, John, Jim and Roy.[3][5][lower-alpha 2] He graduated in 1926 from Minden High School.[6] He graduated in 1930 from Southern Baptist-affiliated Louisiana College in Pineville.[7]

Career

Culbertson studied for the Louisiana bar in the office of Clifford Hayes in Minden, and was admitted to the practice of law in 1937. Much later, in 1952, he graduated from the Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University near Dallas in University Park, Texas.[8]

In 1936, Culbertson was an unsuccessful candidate for the Webster Parish seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives. He finished third, with 1,1181 votes, in a four-candidate Democratic primary election. The winner of the position, Drayton Boucher of Springhill, unseated incumbent E. N. Payne in a runoff contest a few weeks later.[9]

In the 1940 primary for mayor, Culbertson unseated Mayor David William Thomas, who was seeking a third consecutive two-year term. McIntyre H. Sandlin, a former state representative, Minden mayor, and tax assessor, led in the primary with 668 votes to Culbertson's 596 and Thomas' 345 ballots.[10] In the runoff election, Culbertson polled 827 votes to Sandlin's 780.[11]

In the fall of 1940, Culbertson appointed nine men to the Webster Parish Selective Service Board, including Paul L. Miller, an oilman from the Couchwood community near Cotton Valley who earlier that year had lost a race for the Louisiana State Senate to Culbertson's former opponent for state representative, Drayton Boucher. The other appointees included Dr. Claude M. Baker (1895-1975) and two prominent Minden attorneys, John T. Campbell (1903-1993), and Daniel Webster Stewart, Jr. (1897-1982).[12]

In 1942, Culberton won his second term as mayor over former opponent David Thomas, 770 to 355 votes. Mayoral terms, then for two years, were expanded to four in 1954 with John T. David.[13] Soon after his reelection, Culbertson ran unsuccessfully in the 1942 primary for district attorney of the 26th Judicial District.[14] Culbertson polled 1,431 votes in the primary.[15] The position was decided in a runoff contest in which Arthur M. Wallace of Benton, an interim appointee of Governor Sam Houston Jones, defeated Minden attorney Graydon K. Kitchens Sr.,[16] a former law partner of subsequent Governor Robert F. Kennon and later a Kennon appointee to the Louisiana Tax Commission. Kennon himself had served as mayor of Minden from 1926 to 1928.[17]

In November 1942, Culbertson resigned as mayor to enter the United States Army National Guard.[18][19] Culbertson made lieutenant by October 1943.[20] John Calhoun Brown,[21] a member of the Minden City Council since 1932,[22] served as mayor pro tem for the remainder of Culbertson’s term until the spring of 1944, when J. Frank Colbert, a former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, was elected to the position. Culbertson spent most of his military service assigned to the Judge Advocate General office in the Brooklyn borough of New York City before he re-opened his law office in Minden in December 1946.[23]

In 1947, Culbertson joined Minden businessman Larkin L. Greer (1902–1991) and future State Representative E. D. Gleason as co-chairmen of the Webster Parish "Kennon Club" to support Judge Robert Kennon for governor. Kennon, however, was eliminated in the Democratic primary early in 1948. Former Governor Earl Kemp Long defeated in a runoff election former Governor Sam H. Jones. In 1940, Jones had unseated Long, who held the office for the preceding year.[24]

Except for the years in which he was in the military, Culbertson headed the Red Cross office in Webster Parish from 1938 to 1948, when Minden businessman Willard Roberts (1899–1994) assumed those duties.[25] In 1950, Culbertson and his political opponent, former Mayor David William Thomas, were opposing lawyers in a legal dispute over a $196 debt deemed collectible to the plaintiff by City Judge R. Harmon Drew Sr. The case was appealed unsuccessfully to the Louisiana Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit in Shreveport.[26] On March 8, 1952, Culbertson was admitted to the practice of law in Texas, his law office was located in Dallas, Texas and later in Tulsa, Oklahoma.[8] In 1977, when his mother died, Culbertson was living in Keller in suburban Tarrant County, Texas.[3][5]

Marriages and children

In 1933, Culbertson married Gladys Day (1907–1995), daughter of William Hartwell Day, Sr. (1884–1959) and Minnie W. Day (1888–1964) of Gibsland in Bienville Parish. They wed in Lafayette County in southwestern Arkansas. Gladys was a legal secretary and real estate agent, who operated from her husband's law office. [lower-alpha 3] In a February 1940 article in the Minden Herald, Culbertson was listed as still married to Gladys Day. They were apparently divorced a few weeks later.[7]

In 1952, Culbertson wed the former Violet McMurty (1921–1970), a native of Tulsa, where he was living at the time. Their son, Douglas Floyd Culbertson, was born in San Gabriel in Los Angeles County, California, on September 5, 1953. Douglas, a University of Texas School of Law student, died of cancer in Austin, Texas, on March 19, 1979, at the age of twenty-five.[29] Violet died of cancer in Tulsa, Oklahoma, January, 1970.[lower-alpha 4]

Culbertson married Evelyn Davis, Doctor of Philosophy,[31] who was a professor of the School of Arts and Sciences and Director of the Music Education at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa from 1965 to 1980, when she became professor emeriti. From Evelyn's first marriage to Joseph M. Davis, she had three sons, Bryan, Allan, and Darrell Davis, all of Ocala. Evelyn died in 2006.[31]

Notes

  1. ↑ Floyd Culbertson, Sr., is mentioned in 1894 at the age of fifteen in the publication, The Southern Cultivator and Industrial Journal.[4]
  2. ↑ His mother, Mary, died at the age of ninety on September 19, 1977. His sister was then living in Shreveport. His brother Roy was a resident of Colleyville in Tarrant County. His brother Jim resided in Dallas. Douglas, Sr., and Mary Alford Culbertson are interred at Gardens of Memory Cemetery in Minden.[3][5]
  3. ↑ In 1940, Culbertson was listed in the census as a "single" lodger in Minden.[27] Gladys Culbertson was listed as a married high school teacher in the 1940 census but living with her mother and two adult siblings in Gibsland.[28]
  4. ↑ Culberton's son, Douglas, graduated from Memorial High School in Tulsa and received a National Merit Scholarship to Princeton University, from which he graduated in 1976 Phi Beta Kappa summa cum laude. His history thesis was judged the best in the department. He was recognized statewide for his piano talent. At the time of his passing, he was a student at the University of Texas School of Law. An unnamed member of the Austin, Texas law firm where he had been working while in school recalled: "In Doug Culbertson we lost a lawyer who would have brought honor and dignity to the profession by standing up tall true to his ideals, true to his word and obligations, and sensitive to the proprieties and the interests of others." A Douglas Culbertson Memorial Fund was established at Princeton in his honor,[29] but it has since lapsed.[30]

References

  1. ↑ City of Minden, List of Minden Mayors Since 1868
  2. ↑ Louisiana. Attorney General's Office (1940). Opinions of the Attorney General of the State of Louisiana. Moran Industries, Incorporated. p. 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Funeral Services Held Tuesday for Floyd Culbertson Sr.", The Minden Herald, September 11, 1958, p. 5
  4. ↑ "The Young Folks". Atlanta, Georgia: Southern Cultivator and Industrial Journal, Vol. 52. February 1894. p. 90. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Mary Culbertson (mother of Floyd Culbertson Jr.) obituary, Minden Press-Herald, September 20, 1977, p. 3
  6. ↑ "Minden High School, 1925 The Grig yearbook (lower left link)". mindenmemories.com. Retrieved June 5, 2009.
  7. 1 2 "Culbertson Tells Qualifications: Said Sole Promise to Make City a Good Mayor", Minden Herald, February 16, 1940, pp. 1, 8
  8. 1 2 "Floyd D. Culbertson Jr.". Texas Bar Association. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  9. ↑ Minden Signal-Tribune and Springhill Journal, January 28, 1836, p. 2
  10. ↑ Culbertson and Sandlin to Be in Runoff for Mayor of Minden", Minden Herald, January 19, 1940, p. 1
  11. ↑ "Culbertson Is Named Next Mayor of Minden in Tuesday's Balloting", Minden Herald, February 23, 1940, p. 1
  12. ↑ "Mayor Names Draft Board for Webster: Selection Is Made after Mayor Receives Request from Civil Service Commission", Minden Herald, September 20, 1940, p. 1
  13. ↑ Election results, Webster Review and Signal Tribune, April 14, 1942, p. 1
  14. ↑ Minden Herald, July 13, 1942, p. 1
  15. ↑ "Kitchens and Wallace to Be in DA Runoff", Minden Herald, September 11, 1942, p. 1
  16. ↑ Minden Herald, September 11, 1942, p. 1
  17. ↑ Webster Review and Signal Tribune, September and October 1942
  18. ↑ ”Culbertson to Enter Army: Two Boards Attempt to Line Mayor up for Army Service”, Webster Tribune, October 27, 1942, p. 1
  19. ↑ Evans J. Casso (1976). Louisiana Legacy: A History of the State National Guard. Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing Company. p. 187. ISBN 1-56554-546-X. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
  20. ↑ "Newcomers here are Listed by Merchant's Group (Galveston Merchant's Association)". Galveston Daily News. Galveston, Texas. October 16, 1943. p. 8. Lt. Floyd D. Culbertson of 3624 S<unreadable 2 characters> from Minden, La.
  21. ↑ Earlene Mendenhall Lyle, Minden Cemetery: A Peaceful Resting Place," June 2004, p. 65
  22. ↑ "J. C. Brown re-elected", Minden Herald, May 10, 1934, p. 1
  23. ↑ "Law offices of former mayor re-opened Wednesday", Minden Herald, December 20, 1946, p. 1
  24. ↑ Minden Herald, November 7, 1947, p. 1
  25. ↑ "W. Roberts Named to Head Red Cross in Webster Parish," Minden Herald, November 26, 1948, p. 1
  26. ↑ "Brown v. Harvey". casetext.com. April 5, 1950. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  27. ↑ "Floyd D. Culbertson Jr., Minden, Louisiana". United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. p. 29. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  28. ↑ "Gladys D. Culbertson in the 1940 census". United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. p. 9, line 16. Retrieved March 23, 2015.
  29. 1 2 Memorials: Douglas Floyd Culbertson. Princeton Alumni Weekly, Vol. 80. September 10, 1979. p. 36. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  30. ↑ "Endowed Undergraduate Scholarships (A-E)". Princeton University. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  31. 1 2 "Dr. Evelyn Davis Culbertson (third wife of Floyd Culbertson Jr.)". Ocala, Florida: Ocala Star-Banner. August 8, 2006. Retrieved March 16, 2015.
Political offices
Preceded by
David William Thomas		 Mayor of Minden, Louisiana

Floyd Douglas Culbertson Jr.
1940—1942

Succeeded by
John Calhoun Brown, Mayor Pro-tem
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