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Leland Garland Mims (February 7, 1901 – September 4, 1979)〔Tombstone inscription, Minden Cemetery〕 was a businessman and civic leader from Minden, Louisiana, who served as a member of the Webster Parish Police Jury (equivalent to county commission in other states) from 1953 to 1976 and as president of the body from 1956〔"Mims Named Police Jury President", ''Minden Herald'', June 7, 1956, p. 1〕 to 1973. In 1965 and 1966, he was elected by his colleagues statewide as president of the Police Jury Association of Louisiana. He also served on the executive committee of the statewide organization. On October 5, 1976, Minden observed "Leland Mims Day".〔''Shreveport Journal'', October 6, 1976〕 ==Webster Parish Police Jury== In February 1953, Governor Robert F. Kennon, a former mayor of Minden, appointed Mims to the police jury, the 12-member parish governing council, to fill the vacancy created by the death of Mims' distant cousin, Gilbert Calhoun Garland (1880-1953), who had begun serving on the police jury in 1925〔"Mims Will Not Seek Another Term", ''Minden Press-Herald'', undated 1975 article〕 under appointment from Governor Henry Fuqua. Garland had served on every committee of the police jury but was best known for his work on the road committee. He missed only one meeting in his twenty-eight years on the board. At the time, the members were elected at-large by wards. Mims campaigned door-to-door in each Democratic primary election, beginning in 1956. He usually led the field with a healthy majority. Four members were elected from the former Ward 4, which covered the immediate Minden area. A Ward 4 colleague, businessman William N. "Nick" Love (1909–2000), was also a strong votegetter in police jury races. The lower-polling candidates wound up either being defeated outright or placed into runoff elections among themselves. During his tenure on the police jury, Mims ultimately served on each committee. In 1959, he was elected president of the organization of police jurors for Louisiana's 4th congressional district. The group representing seven parishes met in Homer to make the selection.〔"Mims Elected President of Fourth District Jurors", ''Minden Herald'', February 19, 1959, p. 1〕 In 1962, he was elected to his seventh term as police jury president.〔"Leland Mims Reelected to Seventh Term as President of Police Jury", ''Minden Herald'', June 6, 1962, p. 1〕 Mims was the third vice-president,〔"Mims Elected to High State Police Jury Position", ''Minden Herald'', April 26, 1962, p. 1〕 then second vice-president, and first vice-president of the state Police Jury Association, headquartered in Baton Rouge. He served from April 20, 1965, to April 2, 1967, as the president of the state organization, the only Webster Parish juror thus far to have headed the association. In 1973, partly as a result of health problems of his wife, Mims relinquished the police jury presidency to the first vice-president Morris W. McClary (1917–1988) of Sarepta, then a 17-year member of the body.〔 When he, and McClary as well, retired from the body in 1976, the Police Jury Association of the Fourth Congressional District adopted a resolution recognizing Mims for his "excellent, energetic, and intelligent service."〔 James Tenney "Jim" Branch, Jr. (1927–2010), a Minden businessman originally from St. Louis, Missouri, who succeeded McClary as jury president〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=James Tenney "Jim" Branch, Jr. )〕 and himself lost the 1982 race for Minden mayor to Noel Byars, said that he had "never known any juror () to be more honest, sincere, and knowledgeable ... Years ago, the jury found itself to be in bad financial shape. Then he became president, and today it is in great shape due to the financial abilities of Mr. Mims."〔 In addition to his watch over fiscal matters, Mims took an interest in all parish roads, including some of the lesser-travelled ones. He made sure that all such thoroughfares were well-maintained and that planning be undertaken before new roads were authorized. Daughter Linda Lee Martin (October 4, 1937 – January 23, 2011)〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Linda Lee Martin )〕 recalled her father being a "people person. He really loved people and enjoyed working with them. He spoke with plain words and from the heart. He was easy-going and a peacemaker by nature, but he never hesitated to take a stand for what he believed was right."〔Statement of Linda Lee Mims Martin of Houston, Texas, daughter of Leland G. and Rubye Lowe Mims, 2008〕 Mims served until July 1, 1976, having declined to seek another term in the single-member District 8 seat created earlier by court-ordered reapportionment. Outgoing Webster Parish Clerk of Court Clarence Douglas Wiley (1909–1976)〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Social Security Death Index )〕 was handily elected to succeed Mims, but Wiley never joined the panel, having died as police juror-elect four months before he was to have taken office. Instead a special election was held, and the Webster Parish school administrator, Ralph Lamar Rentz, Sr. (1930–1995), defeated Minden businessman Stewart Covington (1930–1997), later of Doyline, by three votes for the right to succeed Leland Mims. Earlier Rentz had finished a close third in the 1971 Democratic primary for the Webster Parish seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives, a position won by Judge R. Harmon Drew, Sr., of Minden and held at the time by Parey Branton of Shongaloo, who ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor. Drew in a runoff defeated former Mayor Charles McConnell of Springhill〔〔Louisiana Democratic primary election returns, November and December 1971〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Leland G. Mims」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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