WILKINSON, WILLIAM SCOTT

WILKINSON, WILLIAM SCOTT (1895-1985) served in the Louisiana state legislature as Caddo Parish representative, 1920-24, and chairman of the Shreveport Housing Authority, in 1940 and 1941. He was associated with Lee National Life Insurance Co., the Hunter Co., Inc., Gulf Coast Exploration Co., Inc., Kansas City, Shreveport, & Gulf Terminal Co., Holiday in Dixie, Inc., and Gulf States Realty Co. He served in both World War I and World War II.

Scott Wilkinson was born in Coushatta, Red River Parish, Louisiana, February 5, 1895, son of John Dallas Wilkinson (1867-1929) and Alice Mai Scott (died 1956), the daughter of a judge, Nelson Jackson Scott. The family moved to Shreveport, Caddo Parish, in 1900, where his father joined Toliver Alexander in the law firm of Alexander and Wilkinson. His father was a delegate to the Louisiana Constitutional Convention of 1898. His mother later participated in the Constitutional Convention of 1921. Wilkinson was educated in Shreveport public schools. He attended the Texarkana Annex School, the precursor of the Line Avenue elementary school, and Shreveport High School on Texas Avenue. He went to Louisiana State University in 1911 and received his law degree in 1917.*

After returning from World War I, Scott Wilkinson began the practice of law with his father, under the firm name of Wilkinson, Lewis & Wilkinson, later Wilkinson, Lewis, Woods and Carmody. He served as a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1920 to 1924 as a Democrat. He served as President of the Shreveport Bar Association, the Shreveport YMCA, the Shreveport Chamber of Commerce, and also as Chairman of the Board of Dodd College, Shreveport. He married Margaret West on April 9, 1919. They had two daughters, Susybelle and Margaret.

W. Scott Wilkinson died June 19, 1985, in Shreveport.

*Most sources state that Wilkinson graduated from Culver Military Academy in 1912. He states in his interview that he graduated from Shreveport High School in 1911 and went to LSU that same year. Though he may have attended Culver Military Academy for one year, he does not mention it in his interview.

Bibliography: W. Scott Wilkinson, interview by Hubert D. Humphreys, October 26, 1976, interview OH6, transcript, Oral History Collection, Northwest Louisiana Archives, Louisiana State University, Shreveport, LA; "The Wilkinson Family," The Lyons Family Tree, accessed 04/25/16, https://lyonsfamilytree.com/2007/11/20/the-wilkinson-family/; Lilla McLure and J. Ed Howe, History of Shreveport and Shreveport Builders (Shreveport, LA: 1937), 442.

Citation

The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.

"WILLIAM SCOTT WILKINSON" Handbook of North Louisiana Online (http://www…….), accessed …………. Published by LSU-Shreveport.