O'Hearn Mathews

O'Hearn Lawrence Mathews (February 8, 1923 – February 15, 1975)^[1] was a Democratic politician from his native Alexandria, Louisiana. He was the city marshal from 1960 to 1969, when he was elected to a single four-year term as the Alexandria streets and parks commissioner, a post no longer in existence under the revised municipal charter, which too effect in 1977. Mathews was the next-to-the-last of the streets and parks commissioners.^[2]

In 1962, Mathews was a charter member and the first president of the newly-organized Louisiana City Marshals Association. He was the first president of the organization and the only one to serve two one-year terms in the top leadership. His successor as Alexandria city marshal, Clarence Otis Penny (1916-1990), was the association president from 1981 to 1982.^[3]

In 1969, Mathews unseated Streets and Parks Commissioner William H. "Bill" Lambdin, Sr. (1894-1980),^[4] in the Democratic primary. In that same election cycle, John K. Snyder was defeated for mayor by Ed Karst, but he rebounded in 1973 to win the top position. The 16-year incumbent mayor, W. George Bowdon, Jr., trailed in the primary election. Carroll Lanier, meanwhile was elected for a single term in 1969 as finance and utilities commissioner. Mathews lost his position in the 1973 primary to Malcolm Hébert, a registered engineer known for his Cajun humor. The commission system of government ended with the 1977 municipal elections, when Lanier defeated Snyder for mayor. Now the mayor is the executive officer and the city council is the legislative branch of local government.^[2]

Matthews was the sixth of eleven children, all of whom are deceased, of John Lawrence Mathews (1888-1935) and the former Mary Rosalie Michiels (1893-1966).^[1] One of his brothers, Thomas J. "Tom" Mathews (1925-2007), was a long-term member of the Rapides Parish Police Jury. O'Hearn Mathews and his wife, Helen B. Mathews (born 1926), had at least two sons, Larry O'Hearn Mathews (born February 6, 1948), a former Alexandria city engineer and a resident of Woodworth in Rapides Parish,^[5] who is married to the former Brenda K. Curlee (born January 31, 1951), and Rodney Brent Mathews (1956-1974), who died at the age of seventeen shortly before the passing of his father.

Mathews is interred at Alexandria Memorial Gardens.^[1] The O'Hearn Mathews Soccer Field at 6107 Bayou Rapides Road in Alexandria is named in his honor.^[6]