Frank Voelker, Jr.
| Frank Voelker, Jr.
(Louisiana attorney and politician) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| Born | February 12, 1921 Lake Providence East Carroll Parish, Louisiana | ||
| Died | January 29, 2002 (aged 80) New Orleans, Louisiana | ||
| Political Party | Democrat | ||
| Spouse | Virginia Wilson Voelker (married 1944-2002, his death) Children: | ||
| Religion | Roman Catholic Alma mater: | ||
| Military Service | |||
| Service/branch | United States Marine Corps | ||
| Years of service | 1943-1946 | ||
| Rank | First Lieutenant (Trained pilots at the Pensacola Naval Air Station) | ||
| Battles/wars | World War II | ||
Frank Voelker, Jr. (February 12, 1921 – January 29, 2002),[1] from Lake Providence, Louisiana, was an attorney, farmer, the chairman of the former Louisiana Sovereignty Commission, and a short-term gubernatorial candidate before he withdrew from the race in 1963.
Background
Voelker was the second of five children born to Isabel Ransdell and Frank Voelker, Sr., a Louisiana 6th Judicial District judge, both of Lake Providence. Isabel was the daughter of District Judge Francis Xavier Ransdell, who preceded Frank Voelker, Sr., on the court.[2] While living in Lake Providence, they spent much time at their fishing camp at the woods in Delacroix.
The junior Voelker graduated from the Roman Catholic St. Patrick Parochial School in Lake Providence and then received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston. In 1943, he graduated from Tulane University Law School in New Orleans.[2]
From 1943 to 1946, he was a first lieutenant and a pilot in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. Among his assignments, he trained pilots at the Pensacola Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. After military service, he engaged in 1946 and 1947 in further study of corporations and taxes at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[3] Voelker is mentioned in the book, All Aboard: Lucky in War, Lucky in Peace, Lucky in Love by James Gobold, a war buddy.[4]
Legal career
After his year at Harvard, Voelker launched his law practice in Lake Providence; his partners included W. B. Ragland, Jr., Charles Brackin, and James Carpenter Crigler, Sr. (1919-2016). In 1950, he was appointed city attorney,[3] a position that he filled until Governor Jimmie Davis named him to the Louisiana Sovereignty Commission,[5] a since defunct agency which monitored civil rights activists and alleged communist infiltrators within the state, much as the Federal Bureau of Investigation had done under J. Edgar Hoover. The agency was modeled after the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, which functioned from 1956 to 1977. Critics of the commission claimed that it was created to defend segregation, which soon was brought to an end through federal intervention. Willie Spencer Myrick (1918-1991), then a former state representative from Oak Grove in neighboring West Carroll Parish, was an investigator for the commission.[6] When Voelker left the commission, so did Myrick, who was elected in 1963 to the state Senate.[7]
Gubernatorial race
In 1963, Voelker resigned from the Sovereignty Commission to run for governor in the Democratic primary election in which Davis was ineligible to seek a third nonconsecutive term. In his campaign, Voelker urged the establishment of a cost-of-living formula for state employees and public welfare recipients.[8] A few weeks after Voelker entered the race, his father died of a heart attack.[9]
Voelker ran considerable advertising, including television spots in his gubernatorial race.[10] However, he could not make inroads into the top tier of candidates and therefore withdrew from the race to become chairman of the campaign of former Governor Robert F. Kennon. When Kennon finished in fourth place in the primary held on December 7, 1963, just fifteen days after the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, Voelker supported another losing candidate, deLesseps Story "Chep" Morrison, Sr., the former mayor of New Orleans who had led the primary balloting but then lost the runoff election to John J. McKeithen,[5] who then dispatched the Republican Charlton Lyons in the general election held on March 3, 1964.[11]
After his gubernatorial race, the Voelkers relocated to New Orleans, where he was a partner in the law firm McGlinchey Stafford. Active in his state and national bar associations, Voelker In 1995 was named Distinguished Attorney by the Louisiana Bar Foundation. He was a fellow of the American Bar Foundation.[3]
Personal life
In 1947, Voelker married the former Virginia Lee "Gin" Wilson (1921-2011), a native of Weston in Lewis County in northern West Virginia. They were married by a priest in Chatham, New Jersey. Virginia Voelker graduated from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland in Baltimore, Maryland, and then attended acting school in New York City. She established the Good Shepherd Early Childhood Development Center, an early elementary Montessori school in Lake Providence.[12]
The couple had six children, one of whom, David Ransdell Voelker, was a New Orleans entrepreneur and community leader.[13] The eldest of the Voelker children, Mullady V. Crigler (1948-2026), formerly of Monroe, married James C. Crigler, Jr., an attorney and the son of Frank Voelker's former law partner. The other Voelker children include Dr. Frank Voelker, III, a physician from Covington in St. Tammany Parish, who specialized in cardiovascular disease,[14] Katherine "Kitty" V. Mattesky (1957-2025), a 40-year member of the faculty at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans, who advocated for the power of girls’ education,[15] Mary V. Clauss of New Orleans, and George Wilson Voelker (1960-2017), an entrepreneur and investor who in 1995 co-founded the financial services firm, Rice Voelker, who died from complications of a lung transplant.[16]
Voelker was affiliated with the American Legion and the Forty and Eight, the Farm Bureau, Rotary International, and the executive board of the Ouachita Council for the Boy Scouts of America. He was a member of the board of governors of the Council of State Governments. The Voelkers were members of St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Lake Providence prior to their move to New Orleans.[2] Mrs. Voelker was a board member of the Arts Council of New Orleans and the Harper and the Mitchiner-Gittinger family foundations there.[12]
Death and legacy
Voelker died in New Orleans two weeks before his 81st birthday. He and his wife are interred at Lake Providence Cemetery.[1]
The Voelker Scholarship at Tulane Law School is awarded periodically to a student from North Louisiana who has demonstrated academic excellence and a commitment to the study of civil law.[17]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Frank Voelker, Jr.. findagrave.com. Retrieved on March 21, 2022.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 East Carroll Parish, Louisiana, Genealogy, August 24, 2010,accessedlogspot.com|accessdate=May 31, 2013; no longer on-line.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 In Memoriam, 1940-1949. law.harvard.edu. Retrieved on June 1, 2013.
- ↑ James Godbold (1 August 1. 2003). All Aboard: Lucky in War, Lucky in Peace, Lucky in Love. iUniverse, 287, 325. ISBN 978-0-595-28865-6.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Minden Press, September 23, 1963, p. 16; Minden Herald, January 9, 1964, p. 15.
- ↑ Jerry P. Shinley Archive: Origins of the Louisiana Un-American Activities Committee. jfk-online.com (July 16, 2022).
- ↑ Membership in the Louisiana State Senate, 1880-2012. legis.state.la.us?accessdate=March 21, 2022.
- ↑ The Ruston Daily Leader, May 30, 1963, p. 1.
- ↑ Death of Judge Frank Voelker, Sr.. Lake Charles American-Press (July 3, 1963). Retrieved on May 31, 2013.
- ↑ Minden Press, July 15, 1963, p. 7.
- ↑ Louisiana Secretary of State, General election returns, March 3, 1964.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Virginia Lee “Gin” Wilson Voelker (1921-2011) - Find a Grave Memorial, accessed March 21, 2022.
- ↑ David Ransdell Voelker (1953-2013) - Find a Grave Memorial, accessed March 21, 2022.
- ↑ Frank Voelker, III MD | Louisiana Heart Center (laheart.org), accessed March 21, 2022.
- ↑ Katherine "Kitty" Voelker Mattesky obit. dignitymemorial.com. Retrieved on July 18, 2026.
- ↑ George Wilson Voelker obituary. dignitymemorial.com. Retrieved on July 18, 2026.
- ↑ Frank Voelker, Jr. Scholarship. law.tulane.edu. Retrieved on June 1, 2013; no longer on-line.