Ed Ware

Edwin Oswald "Ed" Ware, III
District Attorney for the Louisiana 9th Judicial District Court (Rapides Parish)
In office
January 1, 1967 – December 31, 1984
Succeeded by Charles F. Wagner
Personal details
Born (1927-09-10)September 10, 1927
Alexandria, Louisiana, USA
Spouse(s) Barbara Fritchie Ware (married 1953)
Relations Edwin O. Ware, Sr. (grandfather)
Children

Nell Alice Ware Lawrence Timothy Fortson Ware

Edwin Oswald "Wynn" Ware, IV

James Scott Ware
Parents Edwin, Jr., and Mary Louella Pierce Ware
Residence Alexandria Garden District
Alma mater

Bolton High School
Louisiana College

Louisiana State University Law Center
Occupation Attorney
Religion Presbyterian
Military service
Service/branch

United States Navy

Navy Reserve
Rank Lieutenant commander

Edwin Oswald Ware, III, known as Ed Ware (born September 10, 1927), is a lawyer from Alexandria, Louisiana who from 1967 until 1984 was the district attorney of the 9th Judicial District Court for his native Rapides Parish in Central Louisiana.

Background

Ware's grandfather, Edwin O. Ware, Sr., a clergyman originally from Kentucky, was a founder and first president of the Southern Baptist-affiliated Louisiana College in Pineville, Louisiana,[1] from which Ware obtained his undergraduate degree in 1948. Ware, however, is not Baptist, but Presbyterian.[2] Ware's father, Edwin, Jr., was born in Alexandria in 1897; his mother, the former Mary Louella Pierce (1902-1992), was from Calcasieu Parish. The couple married in 1922 and lived in Alexandria.[3]

Ware was the third of five children. His only brother, William Eaton "Bill" Ware (1930-2013) of Haughton in Bossier Parish in northwestern Louisiana, served in the United States Air Force and was stationed in the Pacific Proving Grounds during the nuclear testing on Bikini Island. He later worked for General Motors in Shreveport.[4] Ware's three sisters, all deceased, were Dorothy Ruth Brown (1924-1966), who died at the age of forty-two in Fort Worth, Texas;[5] Jewel Ware Dean (1925-2011), an English teacher in Livingston Parish near Baton Rouge,[6] and Mary Louella Ware Dvorak (1933-2009) of Blanchard in McClain County, Oklahoma.[7]

After Ware graduated from Bolton High School in Alexandria, he served stateside as an enlisted man from 1945 to 1946 in the United States Navy. He was thereafter a lieutenant commander in the Navy Reserve.[2]

In 1953, Ware married the former Barbara Fritchie (born November 1929).[2] The couple lives in the Alexandria Garden District.

Legal and political life

Ware obtained his legal credentials in 1951 from the Louisiana State University Law Center in Baton Rouge, where he was affiliated with Lambda Chi Alpha.[2] His law school classmates included other later Alexandria political figures U.S. Representative Gillis William Long of Louisiana's 8th congressional district, since disbanded; 9th Judicial District Judge Guy Humphries, State Representative Lloyd George Teekell,[8] and Ware's law partner and assistant DA, Gus Voltz, Jr. (c. 1922-2008).[9] Also in the class were later state Representatives George B. Holstead of Ruston and Risley C. Triche of Napoleonville in Assumption Parish.[8]

Ware and Voltz established their long-term practice, Voltz and Ware, in downtown Alexandria.[10] From 1955 to 1957, he was an assistant district attorney for Rapides Parish. He was elected three times as DA in 1966, 1972, and 1978.[2] Voltz was his first assistant DA during all of those years. In his capacity as DA, Ware was frequently involved in high-profile legal cases. In 1969, he was the defendant in Snyder v. Ware, et al., in which later Alexandria Mayor John K. Snyder sued regarding a criminal defamation charged brought against him.[11] In the spring of 1977, Ware felt compelled to deny a charge by Mayor Snyder, who was then seeking reelection in his failed campaign against Carroll E. Lanier, that Ware was for all practical purposes "running" the city police department and undercutting the mayor's position.[12]

In 1970, Ware as DA defended the Rapides Parish School Board from a challenge that public schools were still largely segregated despite federal court orders. The suit noted that half of the schools in Wards 1 and 8 were still predominantly African-American. The plaintiffs sought a greater degree of racial integration than then required by federal courts.[13] The suit continued to be litigated after Ware left the DA's office. In 2006, Judge Dee D. Drell of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana declared Rapides schools racially unitary and closed the long-term litigation.[14]

In his 1978 race, Ware defeated a challenge waged by his fellow Democrat, Arnold Jack Rosenthal, a lawyer-businessman who was the last-serving of the finance and utilities commissioners for the City of Alexandria and a persistent critic of John K. Snyder.[15] Ware did not seek a fourth term in 1984 but returned full-time to Voltz and Ware.

Ware was president of the Louisiana District Attorney's Association from 1974-1975. From 1975 to 1983, he was a board member of the National District Attorneys Association. He also served as chairman of the Louisiana District Attorney's Retirement Board. Ware was a member from 1964 to 1968 of the Rapides Parish Democratic Executive Committee and from 1968 to 1980 of the Louisiana State Democratic Central Committee.[2] Ware is a former member of the Louisiana Board of Ethics, which acts as the Supervisory Committee for Campaign Finance Disclosure.[16]

Active in civic affairs too, Ware in 1955 was named the "Outstanding State Vice-President" by the Junior Chamber International. In 1976, the DA was named "Outstanding Lawman" by the Alexandria Exchange Club. In 1979, he received a "Distinguished Service Award" from the National District Attorney's Association. He is a member of the Louisiana Bar Association, the American Legion, and Kiwanis International.[2]

References

  1. ↑ "Ware, Edwin O.". A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography by Louisiana Historical Association. 1988. p. 825. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Louisiana: Edwin O. Ware, III", Who's Who in American Politics, 2007-2008 (Marquis Who's Who: New Providence, New Jersey, 2007), pp. 674-675
  3. ↑ "Louella Ware". search.ancestry.com. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  4. ↑ "William Eaton "Bill" Ware". The Alexandria Town Talk. April 26, 2013. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  5. ↑ "Dorothy Ruth Ware". search.ancestry.com. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Jewell Dean". obits.dignitymemorial.com. September 5, 2011. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Mary Louella Ware Dvorak". Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: The Daily Oklahoman. March 11, 2009. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  8. 1 2 "Louisiana State University Gumbo yearbook, 1951". e-yearbook.com. Retrieved July 3, 2013.
  9. ↑ "Gus Voltz, Jr.". The Alexandria Town Talk. August 28, 2008. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  10. ↑ "Edwin O. Ware, III". martindale.com. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  11. ↑ "John K. Snyder v. Edwin O. Ware, III". leagle.com. October 13, 1970. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  12. ↑ "From the Past". The Alexandria Town Talk. April 18, 1977. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  13. ↑ "Virgie Lee Valley, et al. v. Rapides Parish School Board, et al.". leagle.com. March 6, 1970. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  14. ↑ Mandy M. Goodnight (September 28, 2006). "School milestone called "great day" for Rapides Parish". The Alexandria Town Talk. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  15. ↑ Steve Coco. "Arnold Jack Rosenthal Passes Away". cenlanews.com. Retrieved January 7, 2011.
  16. ↑ "Ethics Board Docket". February 10, 2005. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
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