J. Frank McInnis

Grave of Judge J. Frank McInnis at Minden Cemetery

Jesse Frank McInnis, known as J. Frank McInnis (January 28, 1886 – January 27, 1959), was a judge of his state's Second Circuit Court of Appeal from Minden in Webster Parish, Louisiana. In 1952, McInnis succeeded Robert F. Kennon of Minden, in the circuit judgeship which Kennon vacated to become governor of Louisiana. Prior to his appeals court service, McInnis served for twenty-two years on the now 26th Judicial District Court.^[2]

Biography

The son of Jesse McInnis (1858-1946),^[3] McInnis was born on a farm near Castor in Bienville Parish in north Louisiana, where he attended Castor High School. He left the farm at the age of sixteen to come to Minden in 1906,^[4] where he worked for more than a decade in mercantile, railroads, and banking.^[5] From 1919 to 1924, he was the deputy Webster Parish clerk of court under John H. Tillman, in which capacity he also independently studied for the law.^[6] In 1923, McInnis was admitted to the Louisiana bar and began his law practice in Minden. One of his early law partners was another attorney originally from Castor, John T. Campbell (1903-1993), who also for a time was the secretary of the Louisiana State Senate.^[7]

On January 1, 1930, Governor Huey Pierce Long, Jr., appointed McInnis, a fellow Democrat, to the new 26th District state court, created in 1926 and based in Benton, the seat of Bossier Parish.^[8] After his short-term appointment, McInnis was elected to full terms on the district court in 1930, when he defeated fellow Democrat R. H. Lee in a runoff election.^[9] In 1936, he won by 46 votes over opponent Clifford E. Hays, 2,889 (50.4 percent) to 2,843 (49.6 percent).^[10] McInnis won again in 1942 and 1948. Some 80 percent of McInnis' criminal court rulings were upheld on appeal. At the time, few criminal cases were appealed.^[6]

As district judge, McInnis succeeded Judge Harmon Caldwell Drew, who at the time was elevated to the Second Circuit Court of Appeal in Shreveport.^[6] Drew was the father of later City Judge and State Representative R. Harmon Drew, Sr. Harmon Caldwell Drew's grandson, Harmon Drew, Jr., also of Minden, still serves on the same appeal court.

From 1945 to 1946, McInnis served for fourteen months on the Court of Appeals^[2] and returned to that body when Judge Kennon became governor in 1952. On December 31, 1952, Judge McInnis swore in Louis H. Padgett, Jr., as the district attorney for Bossier and Webster parishes. Padgett had defeated R. Harmon Drew, Sr., in a special election for the DA position vacated by incoming Judge James E. Bolin.^[11]

McInnis was also involved in non-judicial matters. He helped to reorganize the former Bank of Webster during the Great Depression. In 1950, he marked his twentieth anniversary on the court.^[5] In 1953, McInnis was named "Citizen of the Year" by the Minden Lions Club.^[2][12]

In December 1953, McInnis retired after a year and a half of service on the circuit court of appeals, having completed Kennon's unexpired term. In February 1954, McInnis joined the Minden law firm of John B. Benton, Jr. (1924–2009), the assistant DA under Louis Padgett, and Enos Carr McClendon, Jr., later a state court judge from 1960 to 1978.^[13] He was married to the former Cortez Mixon (November 3, 1889 – December 2, 1947), a native of Cotton Valley in central Webster Parish.^[6][14][15] The couple resided at 211 Goode Avenue in Minden.^[16] McInnis was a Methodist.^[2]

McInnis died on the day before his 73rd birthday in Madison, Wisconsin, where he was visiting his daughter, Elizabeth Crumpton (1917-2013), and her husband, Dr. Charles Whitmarsh Crumpton, Sr. Elizabeth Crumpton was living in Middleton near Madison at the time of her death in 2013. Frank and Cortez McInnis are interred at Minden Cemetery.^[14][17]

Judge McInnis, through his brother John Lawson McInnis, Sr., was an uncle of the Minden businessmen and building contractors, Harry Elwood McInnis, Sr. (1913-2003), and John Lawson McInnis, Jr. (1915-1994).^[1][18] Judge McInnis was a brother-in-law of the banker Clarence C. Fulbright of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, who was married to Mrs. McInnis' sister, Trevanion Mixon Fulbright. Clarence Fulbright was killed in an automobile accident in 1953.^[19]

References