Dolph Frantz

Dolph Griffin Frantz (September 6, 1886 – July 6, 1953) was a journalist who was associated on a long-term basis with the since defunct Shreveport Journal, a once conservative newspaper based in Shreveport, Louisiana, which folded in 1991 after having moved sharply to the left editorially in the late 1970s.

Background[edit]

Frantz was born in Brandon in Rankin County, a part of the metropolitan area of the capital city of Jackson, Mississippi, to Edward E. Frantz (1858-1929) and the former Sudie Brown (1861-1935), who are interred at Cedarlawn Cemetery in Jackson.^[1] He had at least two siblings, Walter Kirkpatrick Frantz (1886-1946), who died in New Orleans and is interred at New Iberia, Louisiana,^[2] and Reaux B. Frantz (1889-1992).^[1] Frantz's paternal grandfather, Andrew Jackson Frantz, Sr. (1827-1892), a Maryland native, was a corporal in Confederate Army and is interred at Brandon Cemetery.^[3]

Career[edit]

In 1904, Frantz received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Millsaps College in Jackson, at which in 1904 he joined the staff of The Clarion-Ledger at Jackson, of which his father, Judge E. E. Frantz, of Jackson, was an editor. Frantz migrated to Shreveport, where initially he was roommate in a boarding house with Douglas Attaway, later the publisher of The Shreveport Journal. Frantz's grandfather, Col. A. J. Frantz, was also a newspaperman, the owner ad editor of The Brandon Republican in Mississippi.^[4]

From 1905 to 1907, Frantz was employed by The Shreveport Times, the only daily newspaper still in publication in Shreveport. Thereafter in 1907, he became the Shreveport city auditor and subsequently secretary to the city council as well as secretary to Mayor Ernest R. Bernstein.^[4] Within a year, however, Frantz left the municipal positions to become the city editor of The Shreveport Journal. Two years later, his uncle, Andrew Jackson "A. J." Frantz, Jr. (1877-1947), became the president of the Journal Publishing Company and was thereafter an editorial writer for The Journal.^[4]

Frantz worked in the unsuccessful mayoral campaign of J. Claiborne Foster and as assistant secretary for the Shreveport-based Louisiana State Fair from 1916 to 1918, when he returned full-time to The Shreveport Journal. He was the managing editor from 1919 to 1942 and editor from 1947 until his death in 1953.^[5] After 1925, he worked under his former roommate, the Journal president and publisher, the senior Douglas Attaway.^[6]

Throughout his career, Frantz was particularly active in the fight for prohibition, having had unfavorable with drunks on Shreveport streets prior to the banning of the sale of alcoholic beverages.^[4] In 1942, Frantz came within 211 votes in a Democratic runoff with Mayor Sam Caldwell, who won his third term in the office.^[7]

Personal life[edit]

In 1910, Frantz married the former Elda Verne Weaver (1884-1934);^[8] after her death, he wed in 1935 her sister, Dell Weaver Lawhorn.^[5] Frantz also taught at Centenary College in Shreveport and was affiliated with the First Presbyterian Church, Rotary International, the Boy Scouts of America, Masonic lodge, the Shriners, Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks, and the American Red Cross. He was a member of the Caddo Parish Democratic Executive Committee^[4] and a delegate to the 1940 Democratic National Convention, which met in Chicago to nominate Franklin D. Roosevelt for a third term as president.^[9]

Information is unavailable on the circumstances of Frantz's death, two months before his 67th birthday. Like his first wife Elda, his uncle, Andrew Jackson Frantz, Jr., Frantz is interred at the historic Greenwood Cemetery in Shreveport.^[8] Frantz had a namesake nephew, Dolph Griffin Frantz (1920-1991) of Iberia Parish, Louisiana.^[10] Frantz was sufficiently prominent that The New York Times filed an article on his death.^[11]

In 1952, the year before Frantz's death, the NBC television series, The Big Story (1949-1957) aired the episode, "Dolph Frantz of the Shreveport Journal," with Frank Albertson (1909-1964) portraying Frantz.^[12] However, there was no television station established in Shreveport until 1954 (CBS) and 1955 NBC, since ABC. Sohis compatriots could not view the program.

References[edit]