Lynn Kyle Watkins
| Lynn Kyle Watkins | |
Judge of the Louisiana Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit
| |
| In office 1908–1912 | |
| Born | January 4, 1858 Kentucky, USA |
|---|---|
| Died | March 16, 1935 Minden, Webster Parish Louisiana |
| Resting place | Minden Cemetery |
| Political party | Democrat |
| Spouse(s) | (1) Gussie Hightower (married 1893-1914, her death) (2) Ella Cook Watkins (married 1920-1935, his death) |
| Relations | John T. Watkins (brother) Judge L. B. Watkins (uncle) |
| Children | Including: Flora Glenn Watkins (1896-1977) |
| Alma mater | Minden Male Academy Cumberland University |
| Occupation | Attorney and judge |
Lynn Kyle Watkins (January 4, 1858 – March 16, 1935) was a judge and civic figure in his adopted city of Minden in Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana.
Biography
A native of Kentucky, Watkins came to Minden, where he graduated from the former Minden Male Academy, a forerunner of Minden High School. His father, John D. Watkins, was the principal of Minden Male Academy and later a state senator, district attorney, and judge.[1]
Lynn Watkins attended Cumberland University in Lebanon in Wilson County in north central Tennessee. He left college after being stricken with typhoid fever and thereafter studied law in the offices of his father and brother.[2] In 1884, he was admitted to the bar and practiced law with his father. In 1908, he was a delegate to the Louisiana State Constitutional Convention. He served for four years on the Louisiana Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit, based in Shreveport. In 1912, he was defeated in an election for a seat on the Louisiana Supreme Court.[3] His uncle, L. B. Watkins, was an associate justice of the state Supreme Court.[2] Watkins was also the Minden city attorney for twenty years and the designated attorney for the Webster Parish School Board.[3]
In 1893, Watkins married the former Gussie Hightower (1874-1914). In 1920, he married the former Ella Cook (1872-1960), the widow of Dr. Joe Glenn Gladney (1863-1918) of Minden. Watkins was a younger brother of John T. Watkins, who represented Louisiana's 4th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1905 to 1921.[3] Watkins' son-in-law, Clyde Toadvin (1895-1974), was an uncle of Frank Toadvin Norman who served as the mayor of Minden for two four-year terms from 1958 to 1966.
When Watkins died at the age of seventy-seven, his friend and legal colleague, Thomas W. Robertson of Shreveport, called him "a man of resolve ... of lofty conception of duty ... and a man who would not be swerved or swayed from the straight line of what he deemed to be right."[3] Judge Watkins's pallbearers included Jasper Goodwill, Frank Norman's predecessor as the mayor of Minden, and John Barnard "J. B." Snell (1884-1959),[3] a former Minden High School principal, cotton gin owner, long-term member of the Webster Parish School Board, the husband of author Ada Jack Carver Snell, and the father of journalist David Snell.[4]
References
- ↑ "Judge John D. Watkins" in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana". Southern Publishing Company (1890). Retrieved on March 24, 2015.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lynn Kyle Watkins. Findagrave.com. Retrieved on July 8, 2016.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 "Funeral Rites Held for Judge Lynn K. Watkins", Minden Signal-Tribune and Springhill Journal, March 19, 1935, pp. 1, 6.
- ↑ John Barnard Snell, findagrave, accessed February 4, 2023.
