Changes

After his divorce, Nix in 2006 wed the former Pamela Theresa Gros Babin of New Orleans. He has a stepdaughter, Denise T. Babin Scherer.<ref name=coxfuneralhome/>

After his divorce, Nix in 2006 wed the former Pamela Theresa Gros Babin of New Orleans. He has a stepdaughter, Denise T. Babin Scherer.<ref name=coxfuneralhome/>

 

==Political life==​

==Political life==

In 1971, Nix left the Delta Economic Development District to enter the political area. He was the manager of field organization for former [[U.S. Representative]] [[Gillis Long]] of Louisiana's 8th congressional district, since disbanded, in Long's second unsuccessful attempt to win the [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] [[Governor|gubernatorial]] nomination. The victor and subsequent governor, [[Edwin Edwards]], invited Nix in 1972 to become his executive assistant. In 1974, Edwards elevated Nix to chief executive assistant with duties including liaison with the state congressional delegation,<ref name=lapolmu>{{cite web|url=https://www.lapoliticalmuseum.com/inductees.php|title=J. Kelly Nix|publisher=[[Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame]]|accessdate=February 8, 2020}}</ref><ref name=coxfuneralhome/>  which once again included Representative Gillis Long, who returned to Congress for a second stint from 1973 until his death in 1985, and also two [[Republican Party|Republican]] members, [[David C. Treen]] and William Henson Moore of Baton Rouge.​

In 1971, Nix left the Delta Economic Development District to enter the political area. He was the manager of field organization for former [[U.S. Representative]] [[Gillis Long]] of Louisiana's 8th congressional district, since disbanded, in Long's second unsuccessful attempt to win the [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] [[Governor|gubernatorial]] nomination. The victor and subsequent governor, [[Edwin Edwards]], invited Nix in 1972 to become his executive assistant. In 1974, Edwards elevated Nix to chief executive assistant with duties including liaison with the state congressional delegation,<ref name=lapolmu>{{cite web|url=https://www.lapoliticalmuseum.com/inductees.php|title=J. Kelly Nix|publisher=[[Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame]]|accessdate=February 8, 2020}}</ref><ref name=coxfuneralhome/>  which once again included Representative Gillis Long, who returned to Congress for a second stint from 1973 until his death in 1985, and also two [[Republican Party|Republican]] members, [[David C. Treen]] and William Henson Moore of Baton Rouge.​

 

In 1975, Nix unseated fellow Democrat [[Louis J. Michot]] of [[Lafayette]], who served a single term as state education superintendent. In 1979, he defeated in a multi-candidate field his strongest challenger, another fellow Democrat, [[Thomas Clausen]] of Baton Rouge, who used the yellow school bus as his campaing prop.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.death-record.com/d/n/Thomas-Clausen|title=Thomas Clausen Death Records|publisher=death-record.com|accessdate=October 7, 2013}}</ref> Clausen succceed Nix as superintendent in 1984. The Louisiana school superintendent, though no longer elected, is considered a powerful position in the state, having once been held by such figures as [[T. H. Harris]], [[Shelby M. Jackson]], [[Bill Dodd]], and recently [[John White]].

In 1975, Nix unseated fellow Democrat [[Louis J. Michot]] of [[Lafayette]], who served a single term as state education superintendent. In 1979, he defeated in a multi-candidate field his strongest challenger, another fellow Democrat, [[Thomas Clausen]] of Baton Rouge, who used the yellow school bus as his campaing prop.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.death-record.com/d/n/Thomas-Clausen|title=Thomas Clausen Death Records|publisher=death-record.com|accessdate=October 7, 2013}}</ref> Clausen succceed Nix as superintendent in 1984. The Louisiana school superintendent, though no longer elected, is considered a powerful position in the state, having once been held by such figures as [[T. H. Harris]], [[Shelby M. Jackson]], [[Bill Dodd]], and recently [[John White]].

 

==Controversies==​

==Controversies==

 

In his second term as superintendent under then Governor David Treen, Nix sided against those pursuing the [[creation science]] agenda in the writing and teaching of science. The Louisiana Balanced Treatment Act, signed into law in 1981 by Treen, required public school districts to offer equal consideration of creation and the [[theory of evolution]]. Nix deemed the act unconstitutional and refused to enforce it. The [[United States Supreme Court]] subsequently held in 1987 in ''Edwards v. Aguillard'' that creation science constitutes a religion and is prohibited in public education under the court's interpretation of the [[establishment clause]] of the [[First Amendment]] to the[[ United States Constitution]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q9rMi51o1-gC&pg=PA146&lpg=PA146|author=Pamela Winnick|title=A Jealous God: Science's Crusade Against Religion|page= 146|location=[[Nashville]], [[Tennessee]]|publisher=Thomas Nelson Publishers|date=2005|ISBN=1-5955-5019-4|accessdate=October 7, 2013}}</ref>​

In his second term as superintendent under then Governor David Treen, Nix sided against those pursuing the [[creation science]] agenda in the writing and teaching of science. The Louisiana Balanced Treatment Act, signed into law in 1981 by Treen, required public school districts to offer equal consideration of creation and the [[theory of evolution]]. Nix deemed the act unconstitutional and refused to enforce it. The [[United States Supreme Court]] subsequently held in 1987 in ''Edwards v. Aguillard'' that creation science constitutes a religion and is prohibited in public education under the court's interpretation of the [[establishment clause]] of the [[First Amendment]] to the[[ United States Constitution]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q9rMi51o1-gC&pg=PA146&lpg=PA146|author=Pamela Winnick|title=A Jealous God: Science's Crusade Against Religion|page= 146|location=[[Nashville]], [[Tennessee]]|publisher=Thomas Nelson Publishers|date=2005|ISBN=1-5955-5019-4|accessdate=October 7, 2013}}</ref>​

 

Scandal involving two of Nix's assistants rocketed his administration in July 1981. [[Charles E. Thompson]], the deputy superintendent for [[special education]], was a native and former superintendent of Tensas Parish, also in northeastern Louisiana. Henry Leroy Smith, Jr. (1931-2012), originally from [[North Carolina]], was from 1976 to 1982 the assistant superintendent for special education.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/theadvocate/obituary.aspx?n=henry-leroy-smith&pid=155776801|title=Henry L. Smith|publisher=Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, February 5, 2012|accessdate=March 10, 2014}}</ref> Thompson and Smith were [[Indictment|indicted]] on ten counts by a [[grand jury]] in Baton Rouge in an alleged [[kickback]] scheme. The two were charged with shaking down the International Management System of [[Missouri]] to pay a percentage of its contract price from the state of Louisiana into a pool or a "kitty" in which the money was divided among Thompson, Smith, and a third man, Edward G. Ackal, a businessman from Lafayette,<ref>"Nix keeps deputies on payroll," ''[[Minden Press-Herald]],'' July 31, 1981, p. 1.</ref> whose company Educational Products Corporation was engaged in the sale of goods and services to the state government.<ref name=courtcase/>​

Scandal involving two of Nix's assistants rocketed his administration in July 1981. [[Charles E. Thompson]], the deputy superintendent for [[special education]], was a native and former superintendent of Tensas Parish, also in northeastern Louisiana. Henry Leroy Smith, Jr. (1931-2012), originally from [[North Carolina]], was from 1976 to 1982 the assistant superintendent for special education.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/theadvocate/obituary.aspx?n=henry-leroy-smith&pid=155776801|title=Henry L. Smith|publisher=Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, February 5, 2012|accessdate=March 10, 2014}}</ref> Thompson and Smith were [[Indictment|indicted]] on ten counts by a [[grand jury]] in Baton Rouge in an alleged [[kickback]] scheme. The two were charged with shaking down the International Management System of [[Missouri]] to pay a percentage of its contract price from the state of Louisiana into a pool or a "kitty" in which the money was divided among Thompson, Smith, and a third man, Edward G. Ackal, a businessman from Lafayette,<ref>"Nix keeps deputies on payroll," ''[[Minden Press-Herald]],'' July 31, 1981, p. 1.</ref> whose company Educational Products Corporation was engaged in the sale of goods and services to the state government.<ref name=courtcase/>​

 

The grand jury claimed that Thompson, Smith, and Ackal conspired to split $360,000 of an $889,000 contract to International Management System. The contract was issued to test thirty thousand preschool children to determine how many qualified for expanded special education under terms of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, signed into law by [[U.S. President]] [[Gerald Ford]] in 1975. All three were found guilty of defrauding the taxpayers, lost their appeals before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in [[New Orleans]], and served prison sentences.<ref name=courtcase>{{cite web|url=http://openjurist.org/706/f2d/523/united-states-v-g-ackal-l-ce|title=UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Edward G. ACKAL, Henry L. Smith and C. E. "Ed" Thompson, Defendants-Appellants. No. 82-3243. United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit. May 23, 1983. Rehearings and Rehearing En Banc Denied July 18, 1983|publisher=openjurist.org|accessdate=March 10, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bop.gov/inmateloc/|title=Click Edward G. Ackal, Henry L. Smith, and Charles E. Thompson for prison release dates of December 20, 1985, January 2, 1986, and January 23, 1986, respectively|publisher=Federal Bureau of Prisons|accessdate=March 10, 2014}}</ref><ref>Billy Hathorn, "Education in Tensas Parish, Louisiana: Desegregation, Re-Segregation, and the Continuing Decline in School Enrollments, 1970-2017" ''North Louisiana History,'' Vol. 49 (Winter-Spring 2018), pp. 34-35, 44.</ref>

The grand jury claimed that Thompson, Smith, and Ackal conspired to split $360,000 of an $889,000 contract to International Management System. The contract was issued to test thirty thousand preschool children to determine how many qualified for expanded special education under terms of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, signed into law by [[U.S. President]] [[Gerald Ford]] in 1975. All three were found guilty of defrauding the taxpayers, lost their appeals before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in [[New Orleans]], and served prison sentences.<ref name=courtcase>{{cite web|url=http://openjurist.org/706/f2d/523/united-states-v-g-ackal-l-ce|title=UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Edward G. ACKAL, Henry L. Smith and C. E. "Ed" Thompson, Defendants-Appellants. No. 82-3243. United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit. May 23, 1983. Rehearings and Rehearing En Banc Denied July 18, 1983|publisher=openjurist.org|accessdate=March 10, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bop.gov/inmateloc/|title=Click Edward G. Ackal, Henry L. Smith, and Charles E. Thompson for prison release dates of December 20, 1985, January 2, 1986, and January 23, 1986, respectively|publisher=Federal Bureau of Prisons|accessdate=March 10, 2014}}</ref><ref>Billy Hathorn, "Education in Tensas Parish, Louisiana: Desegregation, Re-Segregation, and the Continuing Decline in School Enrollments, 1970-2017" ''North Louisiana History,'' Vol. 49 (Winter-Spring 2018), pp. 34-35, 44.</ref>

 

==Defeat in 1983==​

==Defeat in 1983==​

The creation science dispute and the Thompson-Smith-Ackal scandal may have worked against Nix politically. He was unseated as superintendent in the primary election held on October 22, 1983, by his previous rival, Thomas Clausen. Since leaving the superintendency in 1984, Nix became the president of J. Kelly Nix and Associates, a firm involved in commercial real estate in both Louisiana and [[Mississippi]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.linkedin.com/in/jkellynix|title=J. Kelly Nix's overview|publisher=linkedin.com|accessdate=October 7, 2013}}</ref>​

The creation science dispute and the Thompson-Smith-Ackal scandal may have worked against Nix politically. He was unseated as superintendent in the primary election held on October 22, 1983, by his previous rival, Thomas Clausen. In that same election Edwin Edwards unseated Republican David Treen for the governorship. Upon leaving the superintendency in 1984, Nix became the president of J. Kelly Nix and Associates, a firm involved in commercial real estate in both Louisiana and [[Mississippi]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.linkedin.com/in/jkellynix|title=J. Kelly Nix's overview|publisher=linkedin.com|accessdate=October 7, 2013}}</ref>​

For his work in supporting the preservation in Louisiana of [[France|French]] culture received the National Order of Merit from Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the president of [[France]] from 1974 to 1981.<ref name=coxfuneralhome/>

For his work in supporting the preservation in Louisiana of [[France|French]] culture received the National Order of Merit from Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the president of [[France]] from 1974 to 1981.<ref name=coxfuneralhome/>