Irving Ward-Steinman

Irving Ward-Steinman (Attorney and radio station owner in Alexandria, Louisiana)
Born	March 26, 1905 New York City
Died	January 21, 1996 (aged 90) Resting place: Greenwood Memorial Park in Pineville, Louisiana
Political Party	Democrat
Spouse	Daisy Leila Ward-Steinman Two children: David Ward-Steinman Judith Ward-Steinman Karst Campbell Ed Karst (estranged son-in-law)
Religion	Episcopalian

Irving Ward-Steinman (March 26, 1905 – January 21, 1996) was a lawyer and radio station owner in his adopted city of Alexandria, Louisiana. He was the estranged father-in-law of Charles Edward "Ed" Karst, the mayor of Alexandria from 1969 to 1973.

Background

Born in New York City, Ward-Steinman was a son of Avram Mosha Steinman and the former Michilena Ihjmanovich Labe. His varied formal education was completed over many years. In 1925, he received a Doctor of Divinity degree from College Divinitatas Metaphysica, location unknown, perhaps no longer a functioning institution. In 1926, he obtained a bachelor's degree in Oriental Literature from the Oriental Institute, location unknown but possibly the University of Illinois. He attended the Vanderbilt University School of Religion in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1930 and that same year received another bachelor's degree from Southern Baptist-affiliated Louisiana College in Pineville. In 1931, he received a master's degree, field not specified, from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. In 1970, he received a Ph.D. from Memorial Christian College and Seminary, location unknown. In 1975, he claimed a second Ph.D. and a Doctor of Theology from Baptist Christian University, location unknown but not Louisiana Baptist University in Shreveport. Though he studied in various Baptist institutions, and his name is Jewish, he was an Episcopalian. It is unclear where Ward-Steinman obtained his legal training. Perhaps he studied on his own and passed the bar examination before attendance at a law school became mandatory for attorneys.

Career

In 1936, Ward-Steinman was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate from Louisiana. He ran to fill the seat of the late Huey Pierce Long, Jr.. At first Governor Oscar Kelly Allen (1882-1936) of Winnfield won the Democratic nomination, but he died a week after the primary election. In a second election called, Allen J. Ellender of Houma in Terrebonne Parish, defeated his principal challenger, U. S. Representative John Nicholas Sandlin, Sr. (1872-1957) of Minden in Webster Parish. Ward-Steinman, the third candidate, polled few votes in the two Senate contests.

In 1941, Ward-Steinman was the manager of the Paramount Theater in Monroe, Louisiana, which closed in September 1970 and was later demolished to provide parking for the Monroe Civic Auditorium complex. A newspaper account tells of Ward-Steinman announcing a "Kitty Foyle" contest, referring to a film role in 1940 made famous by Ginger Rogers. Participants were asked to write an essay of their impressions of the character Kitty Foyle. It is unknown when Ward-Steinman left the Paramount. In Alexandria, he was the chairman of the Indigent Defender Board for the 9th Judicial District of Rapides Parish. He was a member of the city, state, and national bar associations. For a time, he was the Rapides Parish director of Civil Defense. In 1949, he was listed as the director and vice-president of the Credit Bureau of Alexandria, Inc.

While living in Leesville in Vernon Parish west of Alexandria, date unavailable, he established radio station KLLA (since KJAE) and was the lay pastor of the Polk Memorial Episcopal Church. In Alexandria, he owned another radio station, name of call letters unavailable, on which he often personally gave the news and commentary. He instructed the adult Bible class at St. James Episcopal Church. He was the president and board chairman of the Louisiana Japan Society, Inc. He was also active in efforts to preserve the history of the Confederate States of America. He was a member of the Moose lodge. He was among civic leaders who pushed for the establishment of the Rapides Symphony Orchestra, which launched performances in 1967. He was also a conossieur of the arts and was a master of ceremonies at many area events requesting his services.

Family

Ward-Steinman was married to the former Daisy Leila Ward (March 23, 1907 – November 19, 1986), a daughter of Charles Waters Ward (1863-1931) and the former Stella Lawrence (1869-1937), who are interred at Methodist Cemetery in Pineville, Louisiana. Daisy's grave marker at Greenwood Memorial Park in Pineville indicates that her father was a "senator", but there is no listing of him as a state senator from Rapides Parish in the Senate historical directory, which lists all senators since 1880 by parishes. Charles Ward was a son of Dr. Samuel Parkhurst Ward (1925-1908), Daisy's grandfather.

The Ward-Steinmans had two children. Son David Ward-Steinman (1936-2015) graduated from Bolton High School in Alexandria and Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, which he chose because of its strong music school. He then obtained a master's degree and his Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Illinois. A composer, pianist, and professor, David Ward-Steinman was at the time of his death from cancer at the age of seventy-eight an adjunct professor at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, at which he had worked since 2003. From 1961 to 2003, he was a professor at San Diego State University in San Diego, California, at which he launched a program in Comprehensive Musicianship, directed the New Music Ensemble, and instructed courses in the fine arts. As a pianist, he was first taught by his mother and eventually specialized in new music and improvisation in all style. In 1989, he published Toward a Comparative Structural Theory of the Arts; he was co-author of Comparative Anthology of Musical Forms, a two-volume work. He also piloted his own airplane. He composed the Christmas cantata "And in These Times," a modern retelling of the nativity story which ends "on a note of hope." As of 1984, David Ward-Steinman was the only Alexandria native to have been listed in David Ewen's reference book American Composers, a biographical dictionary of some three hundred major U.S. composer of serious music since 1776. The book includes information on each musician's life, works and significance." Ewen cites Ward-Steinman's "restless and innovative creative imagination" in "avant-garde pastures."

The Ward-Steinmans' daughter, Judith Ward-Steinman Karst-Campbell (February 15, 1941 – January 20, 2020), later Judy Campbell, wife of Kenneth Wayne Campbell (born 1939), resided at the time of her death in Morehead City, North Carolina, and formerly in Hiawassee in Towns County in far northeastern Georgia. Irving Ward-Steinman also lived in Hiawassee in the latter part of his life. Judy Karst, like her father a graduate of Louisiana College, did graduate work in Far Eastern and colonial history. In 1977, she ran for mayor of Alexandria as a Democrat in a crowded field that included incumbent John K. Snyder; Champ Baker, the former executive director of the Kisatchie-Delta Regional Planning & Development District, and the winning candidate, Carroll Lanier.Mrs. Karst polled few votes in the race and at some point thereafter left Alexandria.

In 1983, Ward-Steinman and Ed Karst, began a long-term legal disagreement over space that Karst rented at 1130 Ninth Street for Karst's law office. Ward-Steinman filed suit to evict Karst; he claimed that Karst had occupied the property for eight years under a verbal lease calling for $300 in monthly rent but had paid no rent at all.. At issue was the legitimacy of a temporary restraining order that Ward-Steinman obtained against Karst, who claimed the directive was wrongfully issued. Karst represented himself; Ward-Steinman, prevailed in court.

A widower for more than nine years, Ward-Steinman died early in 1996 at the age of ninety. On his grave bench at Greenwood Memorial Park in Pineville, alongside his wife, Ward-Steinman sums up his legacy as a "Life of Scholarship, Service, Art, and Love."