Jamar Adcock

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Jamar William Adcock (August 9, 1917 -- December 22, 1991) was a high-profile banker and a Democratic state senator from Monroe, Louisiana, who served from 1960-1972. He was Senate president pro tempore in his third term from 1968-1972.

Adcock attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where he met two future political giants, John Julian McKeithen and Russell B. Long, both a year his junior.

He served in the United States Army as major in the infantry during World War II.

1 Running for lieutenant governor, 1971
2 Successful banker
3 Last rites
4 Coincidence of names
5 References

[edit] Running for lieutenant governor, 1971

Adcock relinquished his Senate seat to seek his party's nomination for lieutenant governor in the 1971 primary. He was seeking to succeed three-term Lieutenant Governor Clarence C. "Taddy" Aycock of Franklin in St. Mary Parish. Aycock was running for governor but was not in the top tier of candidates. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco is one of the rare Louisiana lieutenant governors to win the governorship from the number-two office.

Adcock ran strongly enough in the first primary to gain a runoff berth with the front-running former New Orleans city councilman James Edward "Jimmy" Fitzmorris, Jr. In fact, with 250,850 votes, he trailed Fitzmorris by just over 6,000 votes. Eliminated in the primary were two candidates from Webster Parish east of Shreveport, state Representative Parey Pershing Branton, Sr., of Shongaloo and Francis Edward Kennon, Jr., a Minden contractor and a nephew of former Governor Robert F. Kennon. But Fitzmorris was a convincing winner in the second Democratic primary and went on to win all sixty-four parishes in his race with the Republican candidate, former State Representative Morley A. Hudson of Shreveport, in the general election held on February 1, 1972.

Ironically, both Fitzmorris and Adcock later left the Democratic Party and became Republicans.

[edit] Successful banker

Adcock and his long-time friend and associate, William R. "Billy" Boles, Sr. (born 1927), launched the American Bank in Monroe, which ultimately became Regions Bank. Adcock and Boles also started Fidelity Bank in Slidell, the Colonial Bank in New Orleans, and Progressive Bank in Metairie in Jefferson Parish. They bought into the Bossier Bank and Trust Company in Bossier City and the Jena Bank in Jena in La Salle Parish. Boles met Adcock when they were LSU students. At the time of his election, Boles was the youngest member of the Louisiana State Senate. He represented Richland Parish from 1952-1956, and then he returned full-time to northeast Louisiana to practice law. Boles, a behind-the-scenes political insider for a half century, was friendly with both Governors McKeithen and Edwin Washington Edwards.

Adcock was also a past chairman of the Louisiana Tax Commission.

[edit] Last rites

Adcock died at the age of seventy-four at Saint Frances Medical Center in Monroe. Services were held on Christmas eve morning, 1991, at the Northminster Church in Monroe with the Reverends Harold D. Hughens and Donald W. Nixon officiating. Burial was in the Mulhearn Memorial Park Cemetery in Monroe.

Adcock was survived by his wife, the former Frances Aycock (born 1921) of Monroe; a daughter and son-in-law, Jan Adcock Melton (born 1943) and Paul Anders Melton (born 1942) of Baton Rouge, and two grandsons, Jamar Adcock Melton (born 1970) and Paul A. Melton, Jr., (born 1972).

Adcock and a group of friends formed the Northminster Church in 1989. It is closely affiliated with the Alliance of Baptists, a fellowship dedicated to the preservation of historic Baptist principles and freedoms. He was a Sunday school teacher and a deacon. In September 1998, after Adcock's passing, the congregation voted unanimously to withdraw from the theologically conservative Southern Baptist Convention.

Billy Boles, in a 2004 interview with Sam Hanna, Jr., of the weekly newspaper, the Ouachita Citizen in Monroe, recalled his friend Jamar Adcock: "I miss Jamar every day. He was just a great friend. There was not one thing that I could ask and he wouldn't do."

[edit] Coincidence of names

Jamar Adcock was attempting to succeed outgoing Lieutenant Governor C.C. "Taddy" Aycock (1915-1987) in the 1971 primary. And Adcock's wife's maiden name is Aycock.