F. Jean Pharis

Francis Jean Pharis, I
District Attorney for the 9th Judicial District Court in Alexandria in Rapides Parish, Louisiana
In office 1957 – December 31, 1966
Succeeded by	Edwin Oswald "Ed" Ware, III
Pineville City Judge
In office 1979–1991
Succeeded by	Henry H. Lemoine, Jr.
Born	March 31, 1923   Pineville, Rapides Parish, Louisiana
Died	February 8, 2018 (aged 94) Pineville, Louisiana
Resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Ball, Louisiana
Political party	Democrat
Spouse(s)	(1) Frances McLelland Pharis (married 45 years until her death) (2) Betty Boone Pharis (married 1995-2018, his death)
Children	From first marrage: Betty Jean Morrison F. Jean "Buddy" Pharis, II Fred A. Pharis Tom C. Pharis Vicky Phars Praet Bill Pharis Stepdaughter from second marriage: Gwen Haynes Fourteen grandchildren
Alma mater	Bolton High School Louisiana College Louisiana State University Law Center
Occupation	Attorney and Judge United States Army in World War II invasions of Leyte and Okinawa
Religion	Southern Baptist

Francis Jean Pharis, I, known as F. Jean Pharis (March 31, 1923 – February 8, 2018), was an attorney and judge from his native Pineville, Louisiana. He was a practicing attorney for sixty-nine years, first in Pineville; then, Alexandria.

Background

The oldest of five children, including twin sisters, of James Andrew Pharis, Sr. (1896-1963), who served in the United States Army Quartermaster Corps in World War I, and the former Florence Elizabeth "Lorrie" Humble (1898-2002), Pharis graduated in 1940 from Bolton High School in Alexandria and briefly attended Louisiana State University in the capital city of Baton Rouge and Southern Baptist-affiliated Louisiana College in Pineville before he enlisted in the Army at the outbreak of World War II. Stationed in the South Pacific Theater of Operations, he was a member of the 788th Amphibian Tractor Battalion in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines and then Okinawa. He believed that he would be killed in the fighting but survived after the Empire of Japan surrendered on V-J Day in September 1945. Upon his discharge from the Army, he returned to study at Louisiana College, from which he graduated in 1946. Three years later, he completed his legal training at the LSU Law School and opened a second-floor office in downtown Pineville. His partner in the practice was his brother, James A. Pharis, Jr. The law office moved to Alexandria in 1962. One of Pharis' sons, Fred Andrew Pharis (born 1954), joined him in the firm and continued the association until his father's passing.

Career

In 1957, Pharis won a special election for district attorney for the 9th Judicial District, which encompasses Rapides Parish, to complete a three-year unexpired term. He was at thirty-four the youngest person ever elected as a DA in Louisiana. He won a full term in the 1959 Democratic primary by only forty-six disputed votes. His intra-party opponent, then state Senator Crawford Hugh "Sammy" Downs (1911-1985), a son of former Pineville mayor and Rapides Parish Sheriff U. T. Downs and a part of the fading Earl Kemp Long political organization, challenged Pharis' election on the basis of 746 absentee ballots which Downs claimed were improperly cast. Downs failed to have Pharis' official certification by the Rapides Parish Democratic Executive Committee overturned. Pharis hence ran unopposed for DA in the general election held on November 8, 1960, when John F. Kennedy won Louisiana's ten electoral votes (now eight) against Richard M. Nixon. In 1966, Pharis was succeeded as DA by another Democrat, Edwin Oswald "Ed" Ware (1927-2016) of Alexandria, whose grandfather was the founding president of Louisiana College. Ware held the position for three six-year terms before retiring in 1985.

In 1978, Pharis won the first of his two six-year terms as the Pineville municipal judge; his tenure ended on January 1, 1991. In 2014, son Fred Pharis ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the Pineville city judgeship but finished last in a four-candidate field ultimately won by another Republican, Gary K. Hays, the current judge.

Civic and religious contributions

Judge Pharis was for eight years a trustee and for four years the board president of the Baptist Hospital of Alexandria, since the downtown Rapides Regional Medical Center. He was a president of several entities, including the Louisiana College Alumni Association, the Louisiana City Judge's Association, the Family Counseling Agency, and the Renaissance Youth Rehabilitation Home in Alexandria. He was also a member of the District Attorney's and Juvenile Judges associations and served on the board of the Central Louisiana United Way. For sixty years he was active in the Pineville Kiwanis International.

Pharis was legal counsel to the executive committee of the Louisiana Baptist Convention and a long-term member of the First Baptist Church of Pineville, located across the street from City Hall. He was  a First Baptist deacon more than three decades and a Sunday school teacher for forty-five years. Pharis died in 2018 at his Pineville hone at the age of ninety-four. Services were held on February 14 at the First Baptist Church of Pineville, with Dr. Stuart Holloway officiating. He is interred along with his parents at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Ball, north of Pineville.

In 2016, the Louisiana Bar Foundation in a series of interviews with senior members of the bar, asked Judge Pharis how he would like to be remembered. Pharis replied, according to his obituary, that he should be remembered as "a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ, as an ethical lawyer who tried to do the best for each of his clients, and as an honorable family man, who was honest and just." Regarding his success in the legal profession, Pharis quipped, "Not bad for a country lawyer."