News

99th Bar Memorial Service honors 50 lawyers

October 18, 2005

Fifty Mississippi lawyers who died during the past year were honored Tuesday, Oct. 18, during a special memorial service at the State Capitol.

Mississippi Supreme Court Presiding Justice William L. Waller Jr. of Jackson presided over the gathering of judges, lawyers, friends and family in the Old Supreme Court Chambers at the Capitol. Mississippi Bar President Joy Lambert Phillips of Gulfport delivered the eulogy.

The memorial service, which included the lighting of a candle as each name was read, was the 99th to honor deceased members of the Mississippi Bar.

Mississippi Supreme Court Presiding Justice Kay Cobb of Oxford, in a response for the Court, said, “In looking over this honor roll, we see names of men and women, young and old, who are known, loved and respected within the legal profession. Their work and effort was in the law, a noble profession. Their labors were long, not necessarily in proportion to the number of years spent, but in proportion to their enjoyment of it. From just a quick glance at the list of names of those we honor today, we see one who served faithfully 70 years in our profession, and one who only served six years.”

Justice Cobb said, “Whether from small, humble beginnings or from strong legal legacies, they rose to impressive heights. Each made his or her lasting impression on our great profession.”

Justice Cobb thanked the families and friends for their support of their loved ones’ profession. She also challenged all those lawyers in attendance, “Always remember that we are the recipients of a rich heritage left by those we honor today, and their predecessors. May we always seek to discern the truth and be faithful trustees of their work, enlarging upon its foundation, and extending it’s height, to make our profession more noble than before.”

Attorney H. Hunter Twiford of Jackson, chairman of the Bar Memorial Committee, read a resolution on behalf of the bar. It said, in part: “These individuals, some in the active practice of law and others in positions of academic, civic, governmental or business leadership, have served their profession, their nation, their state, their communities and their families with honor, courage, dignity and wisdom....

“As we gather today in their memory, we give thanks to this great and honorable profession to which those memorialized today devoted their lives, and we are again reminded that the freedoms we enjoy depend upon the selfless devotion to the principles of the law as exemplified in the lives of those whom we now commemorate.”

Here is a list of the names of the deceased, including hometowns and bar admission dates:

Dixie Lea Aldrich Florence 1973
William A. Baskin Southaven 1983
Allan P. Bennett Jackson 1980
Warner Eugene Buxton Ellisville 1977
French Caldwell Antioch, TN 1962
Michael L. Carr Jr. Brookhaven 1949
James William Cocke Jr. Jackson 1948
Joe H. Daniel Jackson 1940
William L. Denton Biloxi 1965
Myrtis Easley Gilmer, TX 1953
Jeremy J. Eskridge Tupelo 1964
Richard D. Foxworth Columbia 1964
William J. Gamble III Purvis 1981
Herman Cowan Glazier Jr. Diamondhead 1942
Lynn Milam Granberry Madison 1981
Jesse Martin Harrington Madison 1998
Alton H. Harvey Fort Myers, FL 1958
Billy W. Hood Gulfport 1979
Victor Donald Hunt Brandon 1997
O’Gwen L. King Pensacola, FL 1967
Zelda Siegel Labovitz Memphis, TN 1937
Jack Hudson Lucas Jackson 1958
Charles Alvin Marx Hattiesburg 1964
Dalton McBee Jr. Jackson 1977
George T. McClintock Jackson 1935
David M. McMullan Ridgeland 1963
Kenneth E. McNees Jackson 1982
William P. Mitchell Tupelo 1937
Donald L. Moak Mobile, AL 1965
Natalie Nix Montgomery Ecru 1999
William Sanders Murphy Lucedale 1940
Kenneth A. Pels Gaithersburg, MD 1962
Lee N. Perry Gulfport 1981
Ralph D. Pruett Jr. Hattiesburg 1952
Fred H. Purser Jr. Ridgeland 1965
George Miles Quin Gulfport 1951
Bernard Leland Riddick Jackson 1965
Darryl J. Roberts Pascagoula 1988
Thomas G. Roberts Bay Springs 1951
Ralph E. Rood Columbus 1972
Linda Carol Slade Diamondhead 1981
William L. Stewart Gulfport 1959
John W. Tarver III Greenville 1969
James Clifton Thomas Jr. Hazlehurst 1975
Walter Wright Thompson Clarksdale 1971
Robert Charles Trainor Jackson 1956
Laurel G. Weir Philadelphia 1950
John Harold White Jr. Jackson 1959
Richard E. Wilbourn II Meridian 1962
Joseph E. Wroten Aberdeen 1948


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