Myrtis Methvin

Myrtis Lucille Gregory Methvin (May 2, 1895 – August 5, 1977) was the second woman to serve as mayor of a community in the U.S. state of Louisiana. From 1933 to 1945, the Democrat Methvin was mayor of Castor in Bienville Parish in the northwestern portion of the state.

Biography of Myrtis Gregory Methvin

Early life

Myrtis Gregory was the oldest of four children born to Elijah Milton "Lige" Gregory (1864-1937) and the former Anna Sweatt (1872-1958) in Ethel near Kosciusko in Attala County in central Mississippi. Elijah and Anna married in 1892. As a girl, Myrtis lived in Natchez on the Mississippi River in western Mississippi, until her father moved the family c. 1908 to Mangham in Richland Parish south of Monroe, Louisiana. Elijah Gregory opened a store on the main highway in Mangham. Meanwhile, Myrtis's future husband, DeWitt Talmage Methvin, Sr. (1894-1975), himself a Mississippi native, also moved to Mangham. As a railroad depot agent, he named a town "Delco", which no longer exits.^[1]

Myrtis and DeWitt married in 1923 in the First Baptist Church in Mangham; they lived for several years in Alexandria in Rapides Parish, where their son, attorney DeWitt T. Methvin, Jr. was born and later practiced law for more than a half-century.^[2]

The Castor years

DeWitt T. Methvin, Jr.

DeWitt Methvin, Jr., is interred at New Ebenezer Cemetery in Castor, Louisiana, next to the graves of his sister and a brother-in-law. His parenets are buried at Gwin Memorial Cemetery in Mangham, Louisiana.

The Methvins relocated to Castor in 1929, where they remained until their deaths.^[2] DeWitt, Sr., was engaged in selling timber to the Alexandria-based Roy O. Martin, Jr., company and its sawmill in Roy south of Castor. The senior Methvin also operated his own portable sawmill.^[3]

Not long after their arrival in Castor, Myrtis Methvin had a dispute with a neighbor, Henry Rufus "Hal" Lacy, Sr. (1870-1956),^[4] whose cow, "Bossie", despite warnings feasted in the Methvin vegetable garden. Methvin "jailed" the cow until Lacy agreed to keep the animal confined to his own property. Methvin's success in handling Lacy prompted citizens to urge her to run for mayor, a position to which she was elected in 1933.^[5]

DeWitt Methvin, Sr., was also an elected official, a short-term member of the Bienville Parish Police Jury, the parish governing body akin to the county commission in other states.^[3]

In addition to their son DeWitt, Jr., the Methvins had two daughters, Doris Beverly Methvin Warren (died 2008) of Castor, the widow of William Melvin Warren (1924-1988), and Patricia Ann Ham and husband Benjamin Glenn Ham of the Fairbanks community in Ouachita Parish.^[2] The Methvins, who died two years apart, are interred at Gwin Memorial Cemetery in Mangham.^[6]

References