Joe Lawler

Joe Kenneth Lawler

(Businessman and Caddo Parish police juror in Shreveport, Louisiana)

* * *

Born |  July 10, 1930
Shreveport, Louisiana
Died |  January 13, 2019 (aged 88)
Shreveport, Louisiana

Resting place:
Blanchard Cemetery in Caddo Parish

Political Party |  Democrat[1]
Spouse |  Mary Anne Attaway Lawler (married c. 1951-2009, her death)

Children:
Linda Susan Lawler (1954-1964)
Tami Anne Herbert (1969-2016)
Kenneth Guy Lawler
Danny Joe Lawler
David Lawler
Ten grandchildren
Parents:
Harry See, Sr., and Rose Boutte' Lawler

Religion |  United Methodist

Joe Kenneth Lawler (July 1, 1930 - January 13, 2019) was a businessman in his native Shreveport, Louisiana who served for three four-year terms on the Caddo Parish Police Jury (now the Caddo Parish Commission), the parish governing body.

One of six children of Harry See Lawler, Sr., and the former Rose Boutte', he attended the since reconfigured Fair Park High School in Shreveport, where he was remembered as a track star and pole vaulting champion. In 1948, he entered the United States Navy and was appointed as the recruit commander. After his military service, Lawler was hired by the Shreveport Fire Department and assigned to the central fire station in downtown Shreveport. After two years, he was promoted to driver of a 100-foot tall ladder truck, the largest in the department. In 1965, he was appointed by then Chief Dallas Greene to help organize the Louisiana State University Fire College in the capital city of Baton Rouge. He retired from the fire department as a captain after twenty-one years of duty.[2]

A Democrat, Lawler was then elected to three terms on the police jury, was the president of the body for one year and chairman of the criminal justice committee of the Louisiana Police Jury Association. Juror Lawler pushed for completion of the Walter B. Jacobs Nature Park, the Richard Fleming Park and Boat Launch, and the North Shreveport Industrial Park. He was instrumental in the establishment of Fire District No. 1, the first such entity in Caddo Parish. He also backed the move of corrections facilities from the jurisdiction of the police jury to that of the parish sheriff's office. After he left the police jury, he was named by the Caddo Parish Commission to sit on the 911 Communications District, a post he filled for seventeen years.[2]

He owned Joe Lawler Construction Co., Inc., and was also engaged in land development. In 1983, the Louisiana Moral and Civic Foundation named Lawler the "Most Outstanding Christian Businessman" in his state. He was an active member since 1950 of the Blanchard United Methodist Church, renamed NorthPoint United Methodist Church. He was for a year the first vice commander of the American Legion in Shreveport. He died at the age of eighty-eight after a long battle with lymphoma.[2]

## References[edit]

1. ↑ Joe Lawler. Mylife.com. Retrieved on January 16, 2019.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Joe Kenneth Lawler. The Shreveport Times (January 15, 2019). Retrieved on January 16, 2019.