James C. Gardner

Last updated
James C. Gardner
Jamesgardner-swearing-in.jpg
James Creswell Gardner's swearing in as the mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana (1954)
Mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana
In office
November 9, 1954 –1958
Preceded by Clyde Edward Fant, Sr.
Succeeded by Clyde Edward Fant, Sr.
Shreveport City Council, District B member
In office
1978–1982
Preceded byNew position
Succeeded byDee Peterson
State Representative from Caddo Parish (at-large)
In office
1952–1954
Preceded by Edwin Ford Hunter, Jr.
Succeeded by Frank Fulco, Sr.
Personal details
Born
James Creswell Gardner

(1924-06-17)June 17, 1924
Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana, USA
DiedAugust 27, 2010(2010-08-27) (aged 86)
Shreveport, Louisiana
Resting placeForest Park East Cemetery in Shreveport
NationalityAmerican
Political party Democratic Party
Spouse(s)(1) Mary Ella Buchanan Gardner (married 1944-1976, her death)
(2) Mary Ann Welsh Gardner (married 1978-his death)
Children2 (and 3 stepchildren)
OccupationPower company executive
Military service
Service/branch United States Army
Rank Second lieutenant
Battles/wars European Theater of Operations
For the Republican former U.S. representative and lieutenant governor of North Carolina, see James Carson Gardner.

James Creswell Gardner, I, known as Jim Gardner (July 17, 1924 – August 27, 2010), [1] was a power company executive best known as the mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana, who served a single term from 1954 to 1958.

Shreveport, Louisiana City in Louisiana, United States

Shreveport is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the most populous city in the Shreveport-Bossier City metropolitan area. Shreveport ranks third in population in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge and 126th in the U.S. The bulk of Shreveport is in Caddo Parish, of which it is the parish seat. Shreveport extends along the west bank of the Red River into neighboring Bossier Parish. The population of Shreveport was 199,311 as of the 2010 U.S. Census. The United States Census Bureau's 2017 estimate for the city's population decreased to 192,036.

Louisiana State of the United States of America

Louisiana is a state in the Deep South region of the South Central United States. It is the 31st most extensive and the 25th most populous of the 50 United States. Louisiana is bordered by the state of Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, Mississippi to the east, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. A large part of its eastern boundary is demarcated by the Mississippi River. Louisiana is the only U.S. state with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are equivalent to counties. The state's capital is Baton Rouge, and its largest city is New Orleans.

Contents

Sometimes called Shreveport's "First Citizen," Jim Gardner was aged 30 when he assumed the office.

In 1959, Gardner joined the administration of Southwestern Electric Power Company, which serves parts of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. He retired as company vice president in 1987. He penned a two-volume autobiography, entitled Jim Gardner and Shreveport.

Arkansas State of the United States of America

Arkansas is a state in the southern region of the United States, home to over 3 million people as of 2018. Its name is of Siouan derivation from the language of the Osage denoting their related kin, the Quapaw Indians. The state's diverse geography ranges from the mountainous regions of the Ozark and the Ouachita Mountains, which make up the U.S. Interior Highlands, to the densely forested land in the south known as the Arkansas Timberlands, to the eastern lowlands along the Mississippi River and the Arkansas Delta.

Texas State of the United States of America

Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Geographically located in the South Central region of the country, Texas shares borders with the U.S. states of Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the southwest, while the Gulf of Mexico is to the southeast.

Background

Jim Gardner in his wagon in 1925 at the age of one Jim-in-wagon.jpg
Jim Gardner in his wagon in 1925 at the age of one
Gardner's first wife, the former Mary Ella Buchanan, in her wedding dress, October 14, 1944, in Aberdeen, Maryland Jim-gardners-wife Mary Ella Buechana Gardner in wedding dress in 1944.jpg
Gardner's first wife, the former Mary Ella Buchanan, in her wedding dress, October 14, 1944, in Aberdeen, Maryland

Gardner was born in Shreveport to Arvill Pitt "Jack" Gardner and the former Marie Creswell. [1] He is a descendant of Thomas Bibb, the second governor of Alabama, and Pierce Mason Butler, the governor of South Carolina from 1836–1838, who was killed in the Mexican-American War. [1]

Thomas Bibb American politician

Thomas Bibb was the second Governor of the U.S. state of Alabama from 1820 to 1821. He was born in Amelia County, Virginia in 1783. He was president of the Alabama Senate when his brother, Governor William Wyatt Bibb, died in office on July 10, 1820, and took over as governor for the remainder of his term. He was married to Parmelia Thompson from 1809 to his death in 1839.

Alabama State of the United States of America

Alabama is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama is the 30th largest by area and the 24th-most populous of the U.S. states. With a total of 1,500 miles (2,400 km) of inland waterways, Alabama has among the most of any state.

Pierce Mason Butler American politician

Pierce Mason Butler was an American soldier and statesman who served as the 56th Governor of South Carolina from 1836 to 1838. He was killed while serving as colonel of the Palmetto Regiment at the Battle of Churubusco, during the Mexican–American War.

In 1944, at the age of 20, Gardner married childhood sweetheart Mary Ella Buchanan. They had graduated together in 1940 from C.E. Byrd High School, the first public high school established in Shreveport. [1]

Gardner entered basic training in the United States Army and was admitted to Officer Candidate School as a second lieutenant. His Reserve Officers Training Corps unit was sent from Camp Beauregard near Pineville, Louisiana, to Fort Benning, Georgia. With his commission, Gardner was assigned to the European Theater of Operations in World War II. He landed at Cherbourg, France, and then was assigned to Nuremberg, Germany, where he observed of the Nazi war crime trials. In June 1946 he was discharged at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, and returned to Shreveport, where he spent the remainder of his life. [1]

Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1a rank.

Camp Beauregard US Army installation near Pineville, LA operated by the Louisiana National Guard

Camp Beauregard is a U.S. Army installation located northeast of Pineville, Louisiana, primarily in Rapides Parish, but also extending northward into Grant Parish. It is operated by the Louisiana National Guard as one of their main training areas.

Pineville, Louisiana City in Louisiana

Pineville is a city in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is located across the Red River from the larger Alexandria. Pineville is hence part of the Alexandria Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 14,555 at the 2010 census. It had been 13,829 in 2000; population hence grew by 5 percent over the preceding decade.

After the war, Gardner obtained a bachelor's degree in history from Louisiana State University. In 1963, at the age of 39, Gardner passed the Louisiana bar exam after taking night classes at Centenary College of Louisiana [1] and four years of self-study.[ citation needed ]

Louisiana State University university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

Louisiana State University is a public research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy. The current LSU main campus was dedicated in 1926, consists of more than 250 buildings constructed in the style of Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, and occupies a 650-acre (2.6 km²) plateau on the banks of the Mississippi River.

Centenary College of Louisiana private college in Shreveport, Louisiana, USA

Centenary College of Louisiana is a private, four-year arts and sciences college located in Shreveport, Louisiana. The college is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Founded in 1825, it is the oldest chartered liberal arts college west of the Mississippi River and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).

On December 28, 1976, Mary Ella died of cancer. The couple had two children. In 1978, Gardner married Mary Ann Welsh (1928-2017), [1] a divorcee with three daughters. She was the first art professor at Louisiana State University in Shreveport from the establishment of the institution in 1967 until her marriage to Gardner. [2]

Mayor

Gardner saw politics as a means to improve the lives of citizens in the community. He was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1952, when he was 27. He left the legislature after his election as mayor two years later. As a legislator, he worked for passage in the tumultuous 1954 session of right-to-work legislation, which was repealed two years later on the return of Earl Kemp Long to the governorship.[ citation needed ]

In the Gardner administration, Shreveport took the initial steps toward the development of the Red River waterfront and Interstate 20, launched during the administration of U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. There was a large bond program to finance massive overhauls and modernization of the Shreveport water and sewerage systems and streets, substantial urban renewal projects, important annexations, and general civic growth and development.[ citation needed ]

Though he served only one term as mayor, Gardner is remembered for laying the groundwork for bringing Shreveport into the modern municipal era. Later mayors did not hesitate to call upon Gardner to promote civic issues. He was also designated "Mr. Shreveport". [1]

Over the years, Gardner was called upon for many public duties. In 1965, Governor John J. McKeithen named him the vice-chairman of the newly established Louisiana State Science Foundation, which located funding for promising research endeavors to improve the state economy. Gardner moved up to the chairmanship in 1966, when Baton Rouge attorney Theo Cangelosi stepped down after a year because of temporary health problems.[ citation needed ]

Memoirs

For years, Gardner fought heart disease. He had bypass surgery in 1978 and again in 2006. He wrote his memoirs while recovering from surgery.

Institutions

At the time of his death, Gardner was a member of the Broadmoor United Methodist Church in Shreveport. An active Methodist layman, he taught Sunday school for 35 years. [1]

Gardner was a member of the large Shreveport Rotary International and the Shreveport Committee of One Hundred, a civic improvement group. His civic awards included Young Man of the Year (1954), "Mr. Shreveport" (Optimist Club, 1979), Shreveport Bar Association Liberty Bell Award, Shreveport Chamber of Commerce Business Leader of the Year, Community Council Paul M. Brown Humanitarian Award, and the Brotherhood Humanitarian Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews. [1]

Commemoration

On May 30, 2008, the Shreveport police headquarters, the former City hall and the former Confederate Memorial Medical Center (or Charity Hospital) buildings, was renamed the James C. Gardner Building. In the dedication ceremonies, then mayor Cedric Glover hailed Gardner's "wisdom, vision, dedication, and commitment to the city. We have roads that go north and south and east and west and loops that go around." Glover said that the highway system is the fruition of the city master plan which Gardner developed a half century earlier that has made possible the major highways of the area, including the Clyde Fant Parkway, Interstate 20, and Interstate Loop 220. [3]

As a state legislator, Gardner authored the bill which shifted the Charity Hospital building from state to municipal control. As mayor, he pushed for a bond election for new construction on the site. Gardner also served on the board for Charity Hospital, as had his grandfather, James Creswell, two generations earlier. The impetus to rename the building after Gardner was pushed by former State Representative Forrest Dunn, a former curator of the Louisiana State Exhibit Building Museum in Shreveport. [3]

Death

Gardner died of cancer, aged 86, at Willis- Knighton Pierremont Medical Center in Shreveport. He was interred beside Mary Ella at Forest Park East Cemetery in Shreveport. [1]

An only child, Gardner was survived by his second wife, Mary Ann Gardner, who lived until 2017; a daughter and two sons from the first marriage, and the three stepdaughter from his second marriage.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 James C. Gardner obituary, Shreveport Times , August 29, 2010
  2. ↑ "Mary Gardner obituary". The Shreveport Times. January 13, 2017. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  3. 1 2 Adam Kealoha Causey, "Police headquarters renamed Gardner Building", Shreveport Times, May 31, 2008
Political offices
Preceded by
Edwin Ford Hunter, Jr. 		Member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for Caddo Parish (at-large)

James Creswell Gardner, I
1952–1954

Succeeded by
Frank Fulco
Preceded by
Clyde Edward Fant, Sr. 		Mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana

James Creswell Gardner, I
1954–1958

Succeeded by
Clyde Edward Fant, Sr.
Preceded by
New position under home rule charter 		Member of the Shreveport City Council for District B

James Creswell Gardner, I
1978–1982

Succeeded by
Dee Peterson
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