Robert Roberts, Jr.

Robert Ryer Roberts Jr. (March 2, 1872 – May 2, 1940) was an American educator, lawyer, and a Democratic politician in the early 20th century from northern Louisiana. Though born in Union Parish, where he spent his early years, he represented Webster Parish in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1908 to 1914,^[2] after which time he became a judge for the Louisiana Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit and the Louisiana 26th Judicial District, based in Webster and Bossier parishes. He was subsequently an attorney in private practice in Shreveport in Caddo Parish.

One of his grandchildren was subsequent Louisiana Governor Murphy James "Mike" Foster, Jr., who served as a Republican from 1996 to 2004.

Biography[edit]

Roberts was a son of Robert Roberts, Sr., born in South Carolina, and the former Mary McCormick, a native of Mississippi. The senior Roberts was a physician, a captain of infantry for the Confederate Army in the American Civil War, and the Union Parish superintendent of schools. The junior Roberts graduated in 1893 from the former Ruston College, a forerunner of Louisiana Tech University in Ruston in Lincoln Parish. He subsequently graduated in 1897 from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He first taught in public schools before he engaged in the practice of law in the Ruston firm, Barksdale & Barksdale. After admission to the bar, he represented the Barksdale firm in Farmerville in his native Union Parish. He was elected mayor of Farmerville c. 1900 and then the mayor of Minden in Webster Parish from 1905 to 1906. In 1908, he was elected to the first of two terms in the state legislature as the representative for Webster Parish. He resigned midway in his second legislative term, during which he had been the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. In 1914, before he left the house he was co-author of the Burke-Roberts Workmen's Compensation Act. He was a member of the Louisiana Tax Commission in 1911 and the Louisiana Constitutional Convention of 1913. He was also a private secretary to Governor Luther Egbert Hall (1869-1921), a native of Bastrop in Morehouse Parish who appointed Roberts to a two-year opening on the Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit in Shreveport, created by the death of Judge Ben Edwards.^[3] Roberts was succeeded in the legislature by W. Burch Lee, who subsequently was the clerk of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, also based in Shreveport.^[4]

In 1920, while he still resided in Minden, Roberts was elected judge of the 26th Judicial District Court, a position which he held from 1920 to 1925. He succeeded John Nicholas Sandlin, Sr. (1872-1957), who was elected to the United States House of Representatives for Louisiana's 4th congressional district.^[5] After a realignment in 1923, which was temporary, Bossier Parish was moved into the 1st Judicial District with Caddo Parish. Roberts thereafter engaged in his law practice in Shreveport with his son, Roberts Roberts, III, a number designation later used by Judge Roberts's grandson.^[3]

Judge Roberts married the former Olive Goodwill (born 1875), the daughter of Captain Alfred Goodwill, one of the early settlers of Minden, and Goodwill's second wife, the former Ida Victoria Hill (1838-1937). Robert and Olive Roberts had a daughter, also named Olive Roberts (1904-1990), who graduated in 1925 from H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, the women's division of Tulane University in New Orleans. She married Murphy James Foster (1898-1981), a sugar planter from Franklin in St. Mary Parish and a son of Governor Murphy J. Foster, Sr. (1849-1921). Murphy and Olive Foster were the parents of Governor Mike Foster, who was technically Foster, III, but used "Jr." One of Olive Foster's paternal cousins, Jasper Goodwill, was also a mayor of Minden, with service from 1955 to 1958.^[6]

Judge Roberts was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Kappa Sigma, the Masonic lodge, and the Shreveport Country Club. He was an avid fisherman, and hunter, and golfer.^[3]

A grandson of Judge and Mrs. Roberts, Robert Roberts, IV (1930-2010), used the designation Robert Roberts, III. He too was a prominent Shreveport attorney, a member from 1955 to 1999 of the firm Blanchard, Walker, O'Quin & Roberts, PLC. He graduated from Davidson College in North Carolina and LSU, from which he received both bachelor's and law degrees. While in law school, he was associate editor of the Louisiana Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. He was a former president of the Shreveport Bar Association.^[7]

In 1940, Roberts died at his home on Fairfield Avenue in Shreveport following two years of poor health.^[1]

References[edit]