Charles A. Marvin

Charles Allen Marvin, known as Corky Marvin (July 18, 1929 - April 27, 2003), was a district attorney and a state circuit court judge in North Louisiana from 1971 until his retirement in 1999.

Background

Marvin was born in Jonesville in Catahoula Parish in northeastern Louisiana. He studied journalism at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, where he was the outstanding graduate in his field and an editor of the student newspaper, The Tech Talk. He then worked for a year as editor of the weekly newspaper the Delhi Dispatch in Delhi in Richland Parish, east of Monroe. After service in the United States Air Force during the Korean War, Marvin attended Louisiana State University Law Center in Baton Rouge, from which he graduated after three years of study in 1957. In 1989, Louisiana Tech named him a "Distinguished Alumnus". In 1962, Marvin became an original board member, along with another Minden attorney, Luther Moore, and later Caddo Parish SHERIFF Don Hathaway, of the Louisiana Tech Foundation.In 1990, the LSU Law Center named Marvin an honorary member of the Order of the Coif and inducted him into its hall of fame.

In 1956, Marvin married the former Rebecca Campbell (born September 1935) of Minden and began his practice of law there with the firm Campbell, Campbell and Marvin, later Campbell, Campbell, Marvin, and Johnson. The first "Campbell" in the firm was John T. Campbell (1903-1993), Rebecca's father, who was also a former clerk of the Louisiana State Senate. The second "Campbell", Cecil P. Campbell (1909-1996), was her uncle. During his days as a practicing attorney, Charles Marvin was president of the Minden Chamber of Commerce and commander of the Wiley-Pevy American Legion post. He was also affiliated with the veterans organization Forty and Eight.

Political and legal career

A Democrat, Marvin in 1966 ran unsuccessfully for the position of Minden and Ward I city judge. He was handily defeated by the incumbent Cecil C. Lowe, who was elected in 1976 as a member of the 26th Judicial District Court, which includes Bossier and Webster parishes. Lowe received 2,952 votes to Marvin's 1,530; Marvin carried only one precinct in that race.The city judgeship was subsequently held by John Cecil Campbell, Mrs. Marvin's cousin.

In 1970, Marvin was elected to succeed Louis H. Padgett, Jr. (1913-1980), of Bossier City as the DA of the 26th Judicial District. In 1975, Marvin left that position upon his election to the Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeal, based in Shreveport. Marvin defeated a fellow Democrat, Fred M. Jones, Jr., a native of Rayville in Richland Parish and the then city judge in Ruston. In the nine-parish race, Marvin polled 16,106 votes; Jones, 14,521. There was no Republican candidate. Marvin succeeded the retiring Judge H. Welborn Ayres, a native of Natchitoches Parish, who retired at the mandatory age of seventy-five.

Thereafter, Marvin was elected to full ten-year terms on the court in 1978 and 1988, both times without opposition. From 1990 until his retirement in 1999, Marvin was the chief judge of the circuit court. He was frequently invited to serve as a pro tempore justice for the Louisiana Supreme Court. He was also a president of the Council of Chief Judges of the United States. He was the author of numerous law review articles and served as an adjunct professor at the LSU Law Center, the historically black Grambling State University, and Bossier Parish Community College. For six terms, he was president of the Webster Parish Bar Association. He was a member of the National Trial Lawyers Association.

Judge Marvin was along with bail bondsman Angelo Roppolo and others one of the founding members of the Shreveport Red Mass Society, which holds an annual service for lawyers, judges, and law enforcement personnel to highlight the connection between faith in God and the rule of law. The Red Mass is held at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in downtown Shreveport.

Personal life and legacy

Judge Marvin was a trustee and Sunday School teacher at the Minden First United Methodist Church. He was also a trustee of the Louisiana Methodist Foundation. He was a member of the Masonic lodge and the Shriners.

There are four Marvin children. Melissa Brown (born 1958) is the wife of Gary Lamar Brown (born 1954), whose parents, Newton and Erlene Nealy Brown, were murdered in their home in Dixie Inn west of Minden on Christmas Eve, 1982, by Jimmy Glass and Jimmy Wingo. The tragic case attracted national attention because of an upswing in executions in Louisiana at the time and a debate over the constitutionality of the death penalty.Second daughter Michele Simoneaux and her husband, Rodney J. Simoneaux (both born 1959), reside in Belle Rose in Assumption Parish in south Louisiana. Son John Schuyler Marvin is the husband of the former Jodi Lane Comeaux. The youngest Marvin daughter, Mary Margaret, is the wife of Bruce Johnson. There were twelve grandchildren at the time of the judge's death.

Schuyler Marvin is the current DA of Bossier and Webster parishes, having first been elected in November 2002, some five months before his father's death. He was unopposed for a second six-year term in 2008. The junior Marvin is a Democrat-turned-Republican.

Judge Marvin died of cancer at the age of seventy-three. Services were held on April 29, 2003, at First United Methodist Church in Minden. He is interred at Gardens of Memory Cemetery.

In 2015, Marvin will be posthumously inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.