Walter Lee (Louisiana politician)

Walter L. Lee, Sr. (September 9, 1921 – April 12, 2015)^[2] was from 1956 to 2012 the clerk of the 13th Judicial District Court in Evangeline Parish in south Louisiana. Until his defeat for a fifteenth term in the nonpartisan blanket primary in October 2011, Lee had encountered virtually no substantive opponents over the fifty-six years in his position.

Upon his election, Lee was sworn into office as clerk of court on June 7, 1956, by his predecessor, Richard Kenneth Reed (1917-1999), a real estate businessman from Mamou, who held the position for the preceding eight years.^[3]

A Democrat, Lee in 2011 received 21 percent of the ballots cast, a third-place finish in his last primary election for clerk of court. He had just turned ninety years of age at the time of that election. Instead the Democrat Randall M. Deshotel and a Republican, Ben Soileau,^[4] advanced to the general election held on November 19. Deshotel then defeated Soileau, 52-48 percent, to claim the right to succeed Lee.^[5]

In defense of the reelection that eluded him in 2011, Lee said that his office, based in the parish seat of Ville Platte, "is rated one of the best run offices in the state. This office is completely computerized, and I have a staff of employees who are all professional. As the old saying goes, don’t fix something that is not broken; and this office is certainly not broken."^[6] In his last term, Lee experienced a series of strokes and consequently used a wheelchair for mobility.^[7]

Lee served in the United States Navy in the South Pacific during World War II.^[7] In the Navy, he lived in his own apartment in San Diego, California. He made his own violin out of a cigar box and taught himself how to play the Cajun fiddle. He played with the Balfa brothers.^[8]

Lee formerly served on the board of directors of the Federal Land Bank and the Louisiana Clerks of Court Association. Because of his longevity in office, he was inducted in 2009 into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield. He is thus far the only clerk of court in Louisiana history to have received this designation.^[9]

Lee and his late wife, Florence, had three children, Walter, Jr., and wife, Judge Judy Fuller, of Lafayette; Mike Lee and wife, Sue, of Point Blue in Evangeline Parish, and Nona Lee, who predeceased her father. Lee is interred in the Sacred Heart Catholic Mausoleum in Ville Platte.^[8]

Lee should not be confused with Walter C. Lee (born October 1934), a Shreveport Republican^[10] and former member of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. This Walter Lee is also a former school superintendent in both Caddo and DeSoto parishes in northwestern Louisiana.

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