Earl Williamson

Earl Guyton Williamson, Sr. (November 15, 1903 — December 9, 1992) was a prominent businessman and politician in northern Caddo Parish, Louisiana, from the 1930s until the 1970s. He was originally affiliated with the Long faction within his state's dominant Democratic Party and was a personal friend of both Huey Pierce Long, Jr., and Earl Kemp Long.
Early years, self-education, family
Earl Williamson was born in tiny Carthage in Leake County in central Mississippi, near the larger city of Kosciusko, to John and Mary Bertha Williamson. When his father died, Earl, went to work as a laborer to help support his mother and siblings. He was self-educated, even in the field of law. "He was always reading, studying, he was a great speaker and his English diction was perfect," recalled (born 1927), one of his seven children and the one who established a lengthy political career of his own. For a time, the attorney Jasper K. Smith (June 20, 1905 - May 18, 1992), a former Vivian mayor and member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, tutored Williamson and others in the law. Though Williamson never became a lawyer himself, his legal studies proved invaluable to him in the three political offices, two elected and one appointed, which he held.
On August 3, 1922, Williamson wed the former Mamie A. Greer (February 28, 1904-July 9, 1948). In addition to Don Williamson, they had three other sons: Earl G. Williamson, Jr. (born 1923), James Whitfield Williamson (June 12, 1925—November 15, 2008), and David Williamson (born 1930) of Orange, Florida, and a daughter, Velma Jean Williamson Bright (born 1932) of Longview, Texas. Williamson joined the United States Army Air Corps after World War I ended, and he learned to be a pilot. Thereafter, he and a brother-in-law, Joe Greer, entered the crop dusting business. After living for a time in Memphis, Tennessee, Williamson relocated his family to the town of Vivian north of Shreveport in far northwestern Louisiana, where there was a demand for crop dusting. Thereafter, he became the Chevrolet dealer in Vivian and successfully operated Williamson Motors for several decades.
During World War II, Williamson worked for a time at the ammunition plants in Minden, the seat of Webster Parish, and in Karnack, Texas. James Williamson recalled that his father drove a nine-passenger Chevrolet station wagon to and from the plant to provide transportation for other workers as well as himself. It was in part Williamson's way of supporting the war effort, James Williamson said. Don Williamson also noted that the dealership was losing money during World War II, and Earl Williamson had little choice but to work outside the business. James Williamson also recalled his father as a "humorous person who could tell jokes and draw crowds."
Revitalizing Vivian, Louisiana
After service on the Vivian Town Council, Williamson was elected mayor and served for twelve nonconsecutive years, 1938—1946 and 1962—1966. During his tenure, the town built its city hall, community center, swimming pool, and paved its streets. Early in his mayoral career, Williamson carried a gun for self-protection, for he had angered the criminal element by cleaning up rowdy conditions in certain Vivian bars. James Williamson, like his father, also served as Vivian mayor for nonconsecutive terms—between 1972 and 1986 and again for an interim period in 1998. James Williamson, like his father, was also a former alderman prior to his mayoral tenure.
Williamson served simultaneously in the part-time positions of Vivian mayor and the Caddo Parish Police Jury. The mayor's office paid a small salary, and the jury paid for per diem service when on official business. A court challenge clarified his right to hold both positions.
In 1962, Earl Williamson, still a police juror, regained the mayor's office for another term, but in 1966, he was defeated by fellow Democrat (later Republican) , a Vivian grocer and banker. Then when Wilson became state representative in 1972 as the successor to Don Williamson, James Williamson succeeded Wilson as mayor. In the 1975 primary, Don Williamson turned back Wilson's challenge to Williamson's own state Senate seat.
Don Williamson recalled his father's friendship with both Huey and Earl Long. Williamson, then no more than six years of age, said that he can recall Huey Long, with his entourage, driving into Vivian, picking up Don's father, Earl Williamson, and heading to the racetrack in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He remembers his father going with Earl Long to Long's "pea-patch farm" home in Winnfield. Earl Williamson always stayed in the (former) governor's mansion during the Long administrations whenever he visited Baton Rouge. After the shooting of Huey Long in 1935, Earl Williamson rushed to Baton Rouge to be a part of what turned out to have been the death vigil of his fallen friend and political ally. Williamson said that some of these recollections were refreshed by family political stories.
Don Williamson said that he did not share his father's commitment to Longism, that he was more independent and reform-minded than his father and tried to look at issues and candidates on their merits without regard to overreaching factional or partisan concerns. Still, Don Williamson said that he understood how his father and others of that generation were attracted to Longism with its promise of homestead exemptions and populist programs.
Earl Williamson supported the States' Rights Party presidential nominee, then South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond, in 1948. Turmond was actually the official Democratic nominee in Louisiana. Don Williamson said that he believes his father voted for Barry M. Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election over the successful Democrat, Lyndon B. Johnson, but unlike other Caddo Parish Democrats, such as state Senator Jackson B. Davis, who served from 1956-1980, and Sheriff J. Howell Flournoy, who openly endorsed Goldwater, Wiliamson remained officially silent. And in 1992, Earl Williamson wore a button and carried a placard while in his wheelchair for the independent presidential candidate Ross Perot. Don Williamson also recalled that his father, unlike most Democrats, strongly opposed U.S. President Harry Truman's dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur from the U.S. Army command in the Korean War.
As regional highway director
In 1948, when Earl Long returned to the governorship after having decisively defeated former anti-Long Governor Sam Houston Jones of Lake Charles, Williamson was named the director of highways for the Fourth Congressional District. He was actually offered the state highway directorship, which would have required relocation to Baton Rouge, but instead accepted the Shreveport-based position because of Mrs. Williamson's declining health at the time. Williamson hence simultaneoulsy promoted state highway development through his appointed position as he did parish road building and grading through his part-time police jury duties. In 1952, when Earl Long was succeeded as governor by the anti-Long Robert F. Kennon of Minden, Williamson tendered his resignation as highway director to allow the new governor to choose his own appointee.
Running for Louisiana Public Service Commission
Also in 1948, Earl Williamson waged an unsuccessful race for the Louisiana Public Service Commission. He polled enough votes to enter the Democratic runoff primary but withdrew because he believed that he was too far behind the frontrunner, Shreveport attorney Harvey Broyles, to close the gap. Broyles was a nephew of former Longite Governor Oscar Kelly Allen of Winnfield. This particular north Louisiana-based PSC seat would be taken in 1954 by the Long-backed John Julian McKeithen, a young attorney from Columbia, the seat of Caldwell Parish, and the future governor (1964-1972). In 1963, Mayor and Police Juror Earl Williamson would work actively for McKeithen election as governor. Coincidentally, one of Don Williamson's Shreveport neighbors is a relative of Harvey Broyles.
A second family
After the first Mrs. Williamson died, Earl Williamson remarried. The second match to the former Mary Jane Hearne (September 12, 1926—March 26, 1992), also her second marriage, produced Earl Williamson's two younger sons. Tedford Fielden Williamson (born 1957), is a businessman and a former city council member in Round Rock, Texas, coincidentally located in populous Williamson County north of Austin. Clayton Lamar Williamson (born 1952) of Montgomery, Texas, in the Houston metro area, is a counselor and a former city manager of three small Texas communities. Both Tedford and Clayton Williamson share the interests of their father and half-brothers in government and politics.
With his second marriage, Earl Williamson switched membership from the Baptist Church to her preferred Methodist denomination. In addition to her homemaking duties, the second Mrs. Williamson was a school secretary and a McKeithen-appointed member of the Caddo Parish Levee Board.

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