Rollo C. Lawrence

Rollo Charles Lawrence, Sr.
Mayor of Pineville, Louisiana
In office 1930–1946
Preceded by	J. M. Rembert
Succeeded by	Willie E. Kees, Jr.
Personal details
Born	(1894-04-10)April 10, 1894 Pineville, Rapides Parish Louisiana, USA
Died	October 1, 1968(1968-10-01) (aged 74) Rapides Parish
Resting place	Greenwood Memorial Park in Pineville
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Nellie Alvania Wells Lawrence
Children	Rollo Lawrence, Jr.
Parents	Washington and Mary E. Moseley Lawrence
Residence	Pineville, Louisiana
Occupation	Grocer

Rollo Charles Lawrence, Sr., known as Rollo C. Lawrence (April 10, 1894 – October 1, 1968),^[1] was a Democratic politician from his native Pineville, Louisiana, who was allied with Governor Earl Kemp Long. He was the mayor of Pineville from 1930 to 1946 and thereafter the first superintendent of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola in West Feliciana Parish.

Background

Little is available on Lawrence's background. He signed up for the United States Army draft at the age of twenty-three in World War I, but it is not clear if he served. He listed his occupation as the grocery business. He and his wife, the former Nellie Alvania Wells (October 9, 1895 – December 13, 1992), had at least one child, Rollo, Jr.^[2] Information is unavailable on Lawrence's life during the decade of the 1920s and the time that he left state employment in 1951 until his death seventeen years later.

Career

His second election as mayor in 1934 was carried in out-of-town newspapers.^[3] With sixteen years of tenure, he is the third longest-serving Pineville mayor, exceeded by Fred Baden, who held the position from 1970 to 1998, and the current mayor, Clarence R. Fields, in office since December 1999. Lawrence and sitting State Representative Richmond C. Hathorn were indicted in 1939 for dual office-holding or being "deadheads" on the state payroll, officials who are paid for doing little or no real or needed work. The indictment was part of a general sweep of corruption in Rapides Parish. Sheriff U. T. Downs, who had been the mayor of Pineville from 1918 to 1926, was indicted for malfeasance in office.^[4] Downs died a year and a half after his indictment by which time he was no longer sheriff.

Earl Long's gubernatorial predecessor (and third successor in the office as well), Jimmie Davis, created the office of superintendent at Angola by combining the former general manager and warden positions. In 1950, Long brought back the office of warden to meet patronage demands of office-seekers who had supported him for governor in the bitter race in 1948 against Sam H. Jones. The return of the warden's position created renewed infighting with the subsequent superintendents over the division of authority. In 1948, with the start of his second term, Long appointed Rollo Lawrence as the penitentiary superintendent. Though he was no professional penologist, Lawrence had a strong interest in rehabilitation of criminals.^[5]

Working with Lawrence as the prison rehabilitation director was James Monroe Smith, the former president of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge who had pleaded guilty in 1939 to three charges of forgery, one of embezzlement, and he was sentenced to eight-to-twenty-four years at Louisiana State Penitentiary. He was sentenced to thirty months in the federal prison at the United States Penitentiary, Atlanta in Georgia on charges of mail fraud and income tax evasion. In 1945, Governor Davis commuted Smith's sentence; both he and Smith were natives of Jackson Parish in North Louisiana. Had Davis not authorized the commutation, Smith would have been an inmate at Angola at the time Lawrence was the superintendent.^[6] Lawrence and Smith believed that the state should made an "honest effort" to steer inmates, particularly first offenders, into occupational skills which they could use upon release from incarceration. The two questioned the penal farms in which prisoners were used commercially for often back-breaking labor but not given usable occupational skills to help them find gainful employment once released from confinement.^[5]

Joining in the call for prisoner rehabilitation was Margaret Dixon, the influential managing editor of The Baton Rouge Morning Advocate until her death in 1970 and a Long-appointee to the LSU Board of Supervisors. Nearly forty Angola prisoners engaged in self-mutilation to call attention to what they saw as inhumane prison practices. An investigation conducted by Lawrence revealed only two cases where prisoners had been beaten and in both the guards had acted in self-defense when attacked.^[5] Lawrence resigned as prison superintendent in May 1951.^[7]

Death

Lawrence died in 1968 at the age of seventy-four. He and his wife are interred at Greenwood Memorial Park in Pineville.^[1][8][9]

Rollo Lawrence, Jr. (March 8, 1916 – October 23, 2011), was a decorated United States Air Force officer with service in the Army Air Corps in World War II and thereafter with the 38th Tactical Missile Wing.^[10]The junior Lawrence and his wife, the former Katherine Eleanor Conrad (1927-1995), are interred at Roselawn Memorial Park and Mausoleum in Baton Rouge.^[11]

References