Grove Stafford
| David Grove Stafford, Sr. | |
Louisiana State Senator
for Rapides Parish | |
| In office 1940–1948 | |
| Preceded by | George W. Lee |
|---|---|
| Succeeded by | Crawford Hugh "Sammy" Downs |
Louisiana State Senate
President Pro Tempore | |
| In office 1944–1948 | |
| Preceded by | Frank B. Ellis |
| Succeeded by | Dudley J. LeBlanc |
| Born | September 26, 1897 Alexandria, Rapides Parish Louisiana, USA |
| Died | June 21, 1975 (aged 77) Alexandria, Louisiana |
| Resting place | Greenwood Memorial Park in Pineville, Louisiana |
| Nationality | American |
| Political party | Democrat |
| Spouse(s) | Emily Gaiennie Stafford Children: |
| Residence | Alexandria, Louisiana |
| Occupation | Attorney |
David Grove Stafford, Sr., known as Grove Stafford (September 26, 1897 – June 21, 1975), was an attorney from Alexandria, Louisiana, who represented Rapides Parish as a Democrat in the Louisiana State Senate for two terms from 1940 to 1948 during the administrations of Governors Sam Houston Jones and Jimmie Davis. Under Davis, Stafford was the State Senate President Pro Tempore.[1]
Background
Stafford was descended from two prominent families, the fifth of eight children of Leroy Augustus Stafford, Jr. (1869-1923), an Alexandria native and a graduate of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. His grandfather, also named Leroy Augustus Stafford (1822-1864), was a brigadier general for the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War who was mortally wounded in Battle of the Wilderness. His uncle, David Theophilus Stafford, was a four-term Rapides Parish sheriff from 1888 to 1904.[2] Stafford's mother, the former Bertha Moore Hyams (1870-1959), was a granddaughter of Louisiana Civil War Governor Thomas Overton Moore (1804-1876). The youngest of Stafford's siblings, Thomas Overton Moore Stafford (1905-1973),[3] was an uncle by marriage of the late U.S. Representative Harold Barnett McSween (1926-2002) of Louisiana's since disbanded 8th congressional district.[4]
Grove Stafford and his wife, the former Emily Gaiennie (1903-1974), had four children. A son, David Grove "Red" Stafford, Jr. (1928-2017), was a graduate of the Tulane University Law School in New Orleans and member of the Alexandria firm Stafford, Stewart & Potter, formerly Stafford & Pitts. He served on the Louisiana Board of Ethics and the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel, of which he was the president in 1981.[5] The three other children were Emily Stafford Brame McNeely (1926-1997); Margaret "Patti" Daniel, and George Mason Graham Stafford (1940-1987),[6] with the Alexandria firm Stafford, Stewart and Potter,[7]
Emily McNeely was first married to Frank Thebault Brame, Jr. (1919-1992) of Alexandria,[8] the nephew of Scott Miller Brame (1881-1947),[9] for whom the Scott M. Brame Middle School in Alexandria is named. Frank Brame's younger brother, Scott Overton Brame (1928-2019), was another prominent Alexandrian, who in 1993 retired as the chief executive officer of the Central Louisiana Electric Company, for which he worked for forty-three years. CLECO honored Brame in 2010 by renaming the Rodemacher power station in Boyce in northwestern Rapides Parish as the Brame Energy Center. CLECO also established the Scott O. Brame/CLECO Endowed Chair in Finance at Louisiana State University at Alexandria.[10]
After Frank Brame's death, his widow, Emily, wed the Crowley physician, Thomas Ludlow McNeely, Jr., a native of Colfax in Grant Parish, a graduate of the LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, and a two-term member of the Crowley City Council, who died on his ninetieth birthday on October 26, 2016.[11] Stafford's namesake grandson, Grove Stafford Brame, the sixth of seven children of Frank and Emily Brame, was a Dr Pepper executive in Dallas and Houston, who died in July 2017 at the age of fifty-nine in Boerne, west of San Antonio, Texas.[12]
Political life
Stafford was succeeded in the state Senate in 1948 by Crawford Hugh "Sammy" Downs (1911-1985), the father of later Rapides Parish District Attorney James Crawford "Jam" Downs and a brother of J. Earl Downs, a former member of the Shreveport city commission government. Sammy Downs entered the Senate with the return of Earl Kemp Long to the governorship.[1] Stafford subsequently served on the Louisiana State University Board of Supervisors in the administration of Long's second successor, Robert F. Kennon. He was a defendant in the appeal of a suit brought forth from 1953 to 1955 against LSU by the African-American civil rights attorney Alexander Pierre Tureaud, Sr. (1899-1972) of New Orleans.[13]
Stafford died in Alexandria at the age of seventy-eight, He is interred alongside his wife in Pineville at Greenwood Memorial Park.[6]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Membership of the Louisiana State Senate, 1880-Present: Rapides Parish. senate.la.gov. Retrieved on June 23, 2015.
- ↑ Leroy Augustus Stafford, Jr. (the father of Grove Stafford). Findagrave.com. Retrieved on July 12, 2015.
- ↑ Bertha Moore Hyams Stafford (mother of Grove Stafford). findagrave.com. Retrieved on July 12, 2015.
- ↑ Alice McSween Stafford (sister-in-law of Grove Stafford). findagrave.com. Retrieved on July 12, 2015.
- ↑ David Grove Stafford, Jr.. Alexandria Town Talk (December 10, 2017). Retrieved on February 6, 2018.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 David Grove Stafford, Sr.. findagrave.com. Retrieved on July 12, 2015.
- ↑ David G. Stafford. intelius.com. Retrieved on July 12, 2015.
- ↑ Frank Thebault Brame, Jr. (son-in-law of Grove Stafford). Findagrave.com. Retrieved on July 13, 2017.
- ↑ Scott Miller Brame. Findagrave.com. Retrieved on July 13, 2017.
- ↑ Scott Overton Brame. The Alexandria Town Talk (April 3, 2019). Retrieved on April 9, 2019.
- ↑ Thomas Ludlow McNeely, Jr.. Findagrave.co. Retrieved on July 15, 2017.
- ↑ Grove Stafford Brame obituary. The Alexandria Town Talk (July 12, 2017). Retrieved on July 13, 2017.
- ↑ Board of Supervisors of Louisiana State University Agricultural and Mechanical et al, Appellants, v. Alexander P. Tureaud, Jr., a Minor, by Alexander P. Tureaud, Sr., his father, Appellee. openjurist.org. Retrieved on July 12, 2015.
