Enos McClendon

Enos Carr McClendon, Jr. (September 17, 1917 – June 16, 2003), was a judge of the Louisiana 26th Judicial District from 1960 until his retirement in 1978. McClendon was based in Minden, the seat of Webster Parish in the northwestern portion of the state.

Background

McClendon was the son of the former Lurene Gray (1891–1978) and Judge Enos McClendon, Sr., (1889–1958) of Homer in Claiborne Parish in north Louisiana. The senior McClendon served on the Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeal from 1930 until his death in 1958. McClendon's paternal grandparents were Enos H. McClendon (1849–1919) and the former Della Carr (1860–1927).^[1]

McClendon, Jr., graduated from Homer High School and procured his Bachelor of Arts and LLB degrees from Tulane University and the Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans. He served four years in the United States Army during World War II.^[2] Except for the time of his military service, he practiced law in Minden from 1940 to 1960.^[3]

McClendon was married for more than fifty years to the former Lois Rogers (1920–1991), and the couple had four children: Enos Carr McClendon, III (born 1946), Eloise M. Murchison (born 1948), Roger Gray McClendon (born 1949), and Kathy M. Hines.^[4]

Son Carr McClendon of Carlsbad, California, is married to the former Peggy Whaley of Minden, the daughter of the late Marjorie Bright Whaley and Bernard Crowell Whaley (1920-2015), a native of Columbia County, Arkansas. A decorated first lieutenant with the United States Army Air Forces, Bernard Whaley flew thirty bombing missions during World War II over France and Germany, two on D-Day at Normandy. He was subsequently the owner and operator for forty years of the Dairy Queen in Minden.^[5]

After the death of his first wife, Judge McClendon was married for the last twelve years of his life to the former Laura Gordon.^[4]

McClendon was for several years the superintendent of the adult division of the First Baptist Church of Minden. In 1958, he was elected to succeed the Minden attorney Graydon K. Kitchens, Sr., as president of the Webster Parish Bar Association, with later Judge Cecil C. Lowe as the association vice-president.^[6] He was active in the Boy Scouts of America, American Cancer Society, American Legion, and the Chamber of Commerce.^[2]

Judicial career

McClendon practiced law for sixteen years prior to his election as judge. In the Democratic primary election held on July 23, 1960, McClendon defeated another Minden attorney R. Harmon Drew, Sr., for the newly established "Division B" judgeship McClendon received 6,107 votes to Drew's 5,261. Although Drew won in his native Webster Parish, he lost to McClendon in Bossier Parish. In the other judgeship, "Division A", the winner was O. E. Price of Bossier City.^[7] The previous district judge prior to McClendon was James E. Bolin, who advanced to the Second Circuit Court of Appeal in Shreveport, where Harmon Drew, Jr., is a sitting judge.

In 1967, Judge McClendon was elected president of the Louisiana District Judges Association at the annual convention held in Biloxi, Mississippi.^[8] He retired from the bench effective December 31, 1978.^[3]

McClendon died at the age of eighty-five after a lengthy illness. Services were held at the First Baptist Church in Minden, with then pastor Wayne DuBose and former pastor Ronald Prince, and his successor on the bench, retired Judge Graydon K. Kitchens, Jr., officiating. Enos and first wife Lois McClendon are interred in his family plot at Arlington Cemetery in Homer, Louisiana.^[4]

Judge McClendon's obituary describes him, accordingly:

He invested his life in his family, friends, community, and church. Judge McClendon served God faithfully ... giving wise counsel to countless people. His wit and humor were good medicine to those he encountered, even during his difficult months of illness. He has passed into eternity, but his life lives on through all who knew him.

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