James Nelson Lee
| James Nelson Lee | |
| In office 1979 – December 1985 | |
Judge of the Bunkie City Court
| |
| In office 1956 – 1978 | |
| Born | October 19, 1923 Lake Providence East Carroll Parish |
|---|---|
| Died | August 3, 2014 (aged 90) Bunkie, Avoyelles Parish |
| Resting place | Bayou Rouge Baptist Cemetery in Evergreen in Avoyelles Parish |
| Nationality | American |
| Political party | Democrat |
| Spouse(s) | Martha Managan Lee (married c. 1948-2003, her death) |
| Children | Nelson Managan Lee, Sr. Adrienne Lee McKay |
| Alma mater | Louisiana College Louisiana State University Law Center |
| Occupation | Attorney; Judge |
| Religion | Southern Baptist |
James Nelson Lee (October 19, 1923 – August 3, 2014) was a municipal and state court judge and prominent Southern Baptist layman from his adopted city of Bunkie in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana.
Background
The son of James Christopher Lee and the former Meriam Christina Nelson, Lee was born in 1923[1] and reared in Lake Providence[2] in East Carroll Parish in the far northwestern portion of the state. His father was a carpenter with a third grade education. His mother was college educated and made sure that all four of her children would attend college. In 1943, he graduated from Southern Baptist-affiliated Louisiana College in Pineville, with service thereafter in the United States Army during World War II. He remained thereafter a long-term member of the Army Reserve and reached the rank of Major. In 1948, he graduated from the Louisiana State University Law Center in Baton Rouge and launched his law practice that same year in Bunkie. He was a board member and attorney for Avoyelles Trust and Savings Bank.[3]
Political life
In 1956, Lee convinced the state legislature to adopt legislation to establish a city court in Bunkie and Ward 10 in Avoyelles Parish. He was elected the first of only two judges to serve in that court through 2014. In the fall of 1978,[4] he was elected to the 12th Judicial District Court, based in the parish seat of Marksville.[5] He held that position until retiring from the bench in December 1985. He continued in law partnership with Thomas A. Durham and later with his son, Nelson Managan Lee, Sr., but left the legal profession in the early 1990s to care for his ailing wife,[4] the former Martha Managan (1926-2003), a daughter of William Henry and Frances Williams Managan, Jr.[6]
In December 2011, the Bunkie City Council and Mayor Michael Eugene "Mike" Robertson, Sr. (born July 1950), honored Lee for his civic accomplishments and renamed Pecan Street as "Judge Lee Oaks".[4]
Personal life
On June 14, 1949, Lee married Martha Managan of Lake Charles, Louisiana in a double wedding with her sister, Emma Jean Managan, who wed the Reverend Elwood Kinser Wylie at Trinity Baptist Church in Lake Charles. James Lee and Martha Managan first met at the Baptist Student Union on the Louisiana State University campus in Baton Rouge, where Miss Managan was directing a choir.
Judge Lee was active in the Louisiana Baptist Convention in Alexandria, the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, Guidestone Financial Services (formerly, the Southern Baptist Annuity Board in Dallas), Texas, the Louisiana Baptist Children's Home in Monroe, and the First Baptist Church of Bunkie, of which he was a long-term deacon and a youth Sunday school teacher. Lee was also affiliated with the Masonic lodge and the Shriners. In 2008, the Louisiana Bar Association honored Lee as a 60-year member of the association.[3]
Mayor Mike Robertson, whom Lee once taught in Sunday school, said that the retired judge "liked his politics. He had a quick wit and humor about him that I've never seen in a person in that position."[4] Robertson originally came to Bunkie when transferred by a department store, and Judge Lee earlier had worked for the F. W. Woolworth Company.[4]
Lee died at the age of ninety in Bunkie. Services were held there at the First Baptist Church. He is interred alongside his wife and parents at Bayou Rouge Baptist Cemetery in rural Evergreen in Avoyelles Parish. In addition to his son, Nelson Managan Lee, Judge Lee is survived by a daughter, Adrienne Lee McKay and husband, Dan, of Bunkie; a younger son, Stuart Rogers Lee of Dallas, Texas; a brother, Albert "Al" M. Lee and wife, Dorothy, of Sarasota, Florida; a sister, Joy Christina Lee Black Turner of El Paso, Texas, and six grandchildren.[3] The grandchildren are Holly Elizabeth Descant (née McKay), Martha Ann Lee, Managan Lee Johnson (née McKay), Jane Jarrell Lee, Nelson Managan Lee, Jr., and Dan B. McKay, III. He was also survived by two great-grandsons, Theodore Isaac Johnson and Henry James Johnson, named in honor of his great-grandfather James Nelson Lee and great-great grandfather, Henry William Managan, Jr.
References
- ↑ http://www.hixson-ducote.com/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=2624230&fh_id=12588
- ↑ Judge James Lee obituary, The Avoyelles Journal, August 4, 2014.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Judge James N. Lee (ret.). Alexandria Town Talk. Retrieved on August 14, 2014.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Jodi Belgard (August 7, 2014). Retired Bunkie judge Lee dies at 90. The Alexandria Town Talk. Retrieved on August 14, 2014.
- ↑ Twelfth Judicial District Court (Avoyelles Parish). Louisianalawhelp.org. Retrieved on August 14, 2014.
- ↑ Martha Managan Lee. findagrave.com. Retrieved on August 14, 2014.