Myrtis Methvin

Myrtis Lucille Gregory Methvin
Methvin (c. 1928)
Mayor of Castor Bienville Parish, Louisiana, USA
In office 1933–1945
Personal details
Born	(1895-05-02)May 2, 1895 Ethel, Attala County Mississippi, USA
Died	August 5, 1977(1977-08-05) (aged 82) Castor, Louisiana
Resting place	Gwin Memorial Cemetery in Mangham in Richland Parish, Louisiana
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	DeWitt Talmage Methvin, Sr. (married 1923-1975, his death)
Relations	Judge Mildred Methvin (granddaughter)
Children	DeWitt T. Methvin, Jr. (1924-2005) Doris Beverly Methvin Warren Patricia Ann Methvin Ham
Parents	Anna Sweatt (1872-1958) and Elijah Milton Gregory (1864-1937)
Religion	Southern Baptist
The first woman mayor of a Louisiana community was Lula Wardlow of Montgomery, whose service from 1926 to 1930, preceded that of Myrtis Methvin by seven years.

This article also contains the biography of Myrtis Methvin's son, attorney DeWitt T. Methvin, Jr., of Alexandria, Louisiana.

Myrtis Lucille Gregory Methvin (May 2, 1895 – August 5, 1977) was the second woman to serve as mayor of a community in the U.S. state of Louisiana. From 1933 to 1945, the Democrat Methvin was mayor of Castor in Bienville Parish in the northwestern portion of the state.

Biography of Myrtis Gregory Methvin

Early life

Myrtis Gregory was the oldest of four children born to Elijah Milton "Lige" Gregory (1864-1937) and the former Anna Sweatt (1872-1958) in Ethel near Kosciusko in Attala County in central Mississippi. Elijah and Anna married in 1892. As a girl, Myrtis lived in Natchez on the Mississippi River in western Mississippi, until her father moved the family c. 1908 to Mangham in Richland Parish south of Monroe, Louisiana. Elijah Gregory opened a store on the main highway in Mangham. Meanwhile, Myrtis's future husband, DeWitt Talmage Methvin, Sr. (1894-1975), himself a Mississippi native, also moved to Mangham. As a railroad depot agent, he named a town "Delco", which no longer exits.^[1]

Myrtis and DeWitt married in 1923 in the First Baptist Church in Mangham; they lived for several years in Alexandria in Rapides Parish, where their son, attorney DeWitt T. Methvin, Jr. was born and later practiced law for more than a half-century.^[2]

The Castor years

The Methvins relocated to Castor in 1929, where they remained until their deaths.^[2]DeWitt, Sr., was engaged in selling timber to the Alexandria-based Roy O. Martin, Jr., company and its sawmill in Roy south of Castor. The senior Methvin also operated his own portable sawmill.^[3]

Not long after their arrival in Castor, Myrtis Methvin had a dispute with a neighbor, Henry Rufus "Hal" Lacy, Sr. (1870-1956),^[4]whose cow, "Bossie", despite warnings feasted in the Methvin vegetable garden. Methvin "jailed" the cow until Lacy agreed to keep the animal confined to his own property. Methvin's success in handling Lacy prompted citizens to urge her to run for mayor, a position to which she was elected in 1933.^[5]

DeWitt Methvin, Sr., was also an elected official, a short-term member of the Bienville Parish Police Jury, the parish governing body akin to the county commission in other states.^[3]

In addition to their son DeWitt, Jr., the Methvins had two daughters, Doris Beverly Methvin Warren (died 2008) of Castor, the widow of William Melvin Warren (1924-1988), and Patricia Ann Ham and husband Benjamin Glenn Ham of the Fairbanks community in Ouachita Parish.^[2]The Methvins, who died two years apart, are interred at Gwin Memorial Cemetery in Mangham.^[6]

DeWitt Talmage Methvin, Jr.
Born	(1924-11-07)November 7, 1924 Alexandria, Rapides Parish Louisiana, USA
Died	September 26, 2005(2005-09-26) (aged 80) Alexandria, Louisiana
Resting place	New Ebenezer Cemetery in Castor in Bienville Parish, Louisiana
Alma mater	Castor High School Louisiana State University Louisiana State University Law Center
Occupation	Lawyer
Political party	Democratic
Religion	Roman Catholic
Spouse(s)	(1) Lallah Hill Cunningham Methvin (married 1950, divorced, deceased) (2) Frances Phillips Methvin (surviving widow)
Children	Lallah Anne Methvin Sciba Mildred Methvin Elisabeth Methvin Murrell DeWitt T. Methvin, III Mary Ceil Methvin
Parent(s)	DeWitt T. Methvin, Sr. Myrtis Lucille Gregory Methvin
Relatives	W. Peyton Cunningham (father-in-law)

DeWitt T. Methvin, Jr.

Background

The son of DeWitt and Myrtis Methvin, DeWitt T. Methvin, Jr. (November 7, 1924 – September 26, 2005), was born in Alexandria and reared in Castor in Bienville Parish. He studied at Castor High School, then under the long-term principalship of E. R. Minchew, also the speech teacher and debate coach. Minchew was later a speech professor at Louisiana Tech University.^[7] DeWitt skipped the second grade, and there were only eleven grades for pupils graduating in 1940. He played baseball and basketball at Castor High School, which had no football team. He and his father built the first tennis court in town.^[3]

At the age of fifteen and a half, DeWitt, Jr., enrolled at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge to study medicine. With the intervention of World War II, he enlisted in the United States Navy at the age of eighteen and earned pilot's wings. He taught naval aviation at several locations from Rochester, New York, to Oakland, California. He was discharged from the military in 1946, when he returned to LSU to study pre-law, not to complete the medical degree in which he had lost interest. Instead he graduated in 1950 from Louisiana State University Law Center, at which he won the moot court competition in each of his three years of law school.^[3]

Legal career in Alexandria

Methvin settled in Alexandria, not only because he had been born there, but he determined that there was a greater need for lawyers in Rapides Parish than in other locations which he may have considered settling. Soon, he was active in legal and civic circles: assistant district attorney from 1953 to 1955, president of the Junior Chamber International at the age of thirty-one in 1955, and president of the Alexandria Bar Association from 1963 to 1964. He practiced with, among other lawyers, Howard B. Gist, Jr., who was prior to 1973 the Alexandria city attorney in three mayoral administrations.^[8]Methvin was known for his brief and poignant cross-examinations in the courtroom. He was a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers. From 1972 to 1981, he was the first chairman of the Louisiana Board of Ethics for Elected Officials.^[3] One of the firm's legal secretaries, Jackie Pope Adams (1922-2013), a native of Marion County, Mississippi, was the secretary to the Alexandria City Council and the city clerk after adoption of the home rule charter.^[9]

Personal life

In 1950, DeWitt Methvin married the former Lallah Hill Cunningham (1929-2012), a Roman Catholic . Her father was the Natchitoches attorney and former State Representative W. Peyton Cunningham;^[10] her grandfather, Charles Milton Cunningham , was the editor of The Natchitoches Times and a member of the Louisiana State Senate from 1915 to 1922.^[11] Her great grandfather Milton Joseph Cunningham, had been the Attorney General of Louisiana for three terms prior to 1900.^[12]DeWitt and Lallah Methvin had five children, including Lallah Anne (L'Anne) and husband, Joe Sciba of Plano, Texas, Mildred Ellen "Mimi" Methvin, an attorney, retired United States Magistrate Judge of the Western District of Louisiana, and the 2014 interim judge of the Louisiana 27th Judicial District Court in St. Landry Parish, who resides in Lafayette and is divorced from James Thomas "Jim" McManus (born February 1951); Elizabeth "Lisa" Murrell (born December 1954) and husband, Jack Clary "Jay" Murrell, Jr., of Shreveport; DeWitt, III, and wife Stacy Methvin of Houston, and Mary Ceil Methvin of Boone, North Carolina. There are twelve Methvin grandchildren.^[3]Son-in-law Jay Murrell (born February 1949) is an oilman and a Republican former member of the Caddo Parish Commission and an unsuccessful candidate in 2007 for the Louisiana State Senate.^[13]

Methvin is interred at New Ebenezer Cemetery in Castor, Louisiana, next to the graves of his sister and a brother-in-law.

A sportsman, Methvin leased a small island with a camp house on Cane River Lake, halfway between Alexandria and Natchitoches. With his grandchildren, who called him "Pop", the Methvins spent many summer weekends there. He also hunted ducks in the marshes of Cameron Parish in far southwestern Louisiana and quail at Black Lake near Creston in Natchitoches Parish.^[3]

Methvin and Lallah divorced. She relocated to Shreveport and upon her death was interred in the Cunningham plot at Catholic Cemetery in Natchitoches. Methvin married the former Frances Phillips (born October 1941), who survives him.^[3]Prior to his death of a heart attack, Methvin was in the process of closing his practice after fifty-five years.^[3]

His services were held at Our Lady of Prompt Succor Catholic Church in Alexandria. He is interred beside a sister, Doris Beverly Methvin Warren, and brother-in-law, William Melvin Warren, at the New Ebenezer Cemetery in Castor.^[3]

References