Floyd D. Culbertson Jr.

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

References