Lewis McAllister
| Lewis Leslie McAllister, Jr. | |
Mississippi State Representative
for Lauderdale County (Meridian) | |
| In office 1962–1968 | |
| Succeeded by | Edward Sidney Jolley |
|---|---|
| Born | September 25, 1932 Place of birth missing |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Donna Ratliff McAllister |
| Children | Five children, including: Lewis L. McAllister, III |
| Residence | Northport Tuscaloosa County |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Religion | United Methodist |
Lewis Leslie McAllister, Jr., also known as Mac McAllister (born September 25, 1932), is a retired businessman from Northport in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, who was the first Republican to serve in the Mississippi House of Representatives since Reconstruction.[1]
McAllister was born in Meridian, Mississippi, to Lewis McAllister, Sr. (1903-1978), a native of Texas, and the former Annie Payne (1910-2011), a native Mississippian who lived to the age of 101. The parents are interred at Magnolia Cemetery in Meridian.[2]
Political life
In 1963, at the age of thirty, McAllister, who then resided in Meridian, Mississippi, won a special election in Lauderdale County to fill a vacancy in the Mississippi House. He hence became the first member of his party to serve in the Mississippi legislature in the 20th century.[3]
McAllister sought a full term in 1963 on the Republican ticket headed by gubernatorial nominee Rubel Phillips of Corinth and Jackson, Mississipp. The GOP candidate for lieutenant governor was Stanford Morse, an outgoing state senator and lawyer from Gulfport on the Mississippi Gulf Coas]. Democratic Governor Ross Robert Barnett (1898-1987) was term-limited in the 1963 election. Thirty Republicans ran for legislative seats, a record number for the fledgling party. Phillips and Morse, both former Democrats, were defeated by the Democrats Paul B. Johnson, Jr. (1916-1985), and Carroll Gartin (1913-1966), respectively, McAllister won a full term in his state House race.[3]
In 1966, McAllister was the Republican nominee for Mississippi's 4th congressional district seat vacated after one term by Republican Prentiss Lafayette Walker (1917-1998), who instead challenged without success the reelection of Democratic U.S. Senator James Oliver Eastland (1904-1986). McAllister lost to Gillespie V. "Sonny" Montgomery (1920-2006), who held the Meridian-based House seat for thirty years.[3]
In 1967, Paul Johnson was ineligible to seek reelection as governor, and then U.S. Representative John Bell Williams (1918-1983) of Mississippi's 3rd congressional district carried the party banner. By this time, Clarke Reed of Greenville ad replaced the original chairman of the state party, Wirt Yerger, an insurance agent in Jackson, under whose leadership McAllister had been first elected to the House. One Republican leader told Time magazine that the 1967 results had probably halted GOP inroads in Mississippi at the state level by perhaps fifteen years. Yet the party won two seats in the United States House of Representatives in 1972.[3]
McAllister was unseated though he carried the Meridian section of his district prior to reapportionment. Two other freshmen Republican legislators were defeated, Representative Charles K. Pringle, an attorney from Biloxi, and state Senator Seelig Wise, a cotton and soybean farmer who represented Coahoma, Tunica, and Quitman counties near Clarksdale in northwestern Mississippi.[3]
Later years
In 1971, McAlliser left Meridian and relocated to Tuscaloosa,[3] where in 1976 he opened Coral Industries, a manufacturer of bath enclosures.[4]The McAllisters are benefactors of the private Tuscaloosa Academy.[5] He resides in Northport, two miles north of Tuscaloosa.
References
- ↑ Lewis L. McAllister. Mylife.com. Retrieved on February 13, 2021.
- ↑ Lewis Leslie McAllister, Sr.. findagrave.com. Retrieved on February 13, 2021.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Billy Hathorn, "Challenging the Status Quo: Rubel Lex Phillips and the Mississippi Republican Party (1963-1967)," The Journal of Mississippi History XLVII, November 1985, No. 4, pp. 240, 242, 258, 262.
- ↑ Mr. Lewis "Mac" McAllister, Jr.. zoominfo.com. Retrieved on February 13, 2021.
- ↑ Tuscaloosa Academy. tuscaloosaacademy.org. Retrieved on February 14, 2014; specific information may not be accessible on-line.
