Edgar H. Lancaster, Jr.

Edgar Hunter Lancaster Jr. (June 13, 1918 – October 12, 2009) was a lawyer from Tallulah, Louisiana, who was from 1952 to 1968 a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for Madison Parish in the northeastern corner of his state. Lancaster was one of three children of Edgar Sr. (1889–1983), and the former Willie Butler (1897–1983) of Madison Parish; the couple died a month apart. He graduated from Tallulah High School, now Madison High School. He played football on the Tallulah Class B winning state team in 1935. He then graduated from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston and Louisiana State University Law Center in Baton Rouge. He was a United States Army soldier during World War II, which delayed his legal studies. Lancaster was engaged in his law practice from 1948 until the time of his death at the age of ninety-one. As a House member for four terms, he served under Governors Robert F. Kennon, Earl Kemp Long, Jimmie Davis, and John McKeithen. He was the chairman of the Judiciary A Committee. Outside the legislature, Lancaster was an organizer, member of the board of directors, and attorney of Southern National Bank at Tallulah. In 1986, he was named "Attorney of the Year" by the Louisiana Bar Foundation. A year later, he was inducted into the LSU Law Center Hall of Fame. From 1992 to 1993, Lancaster served as judge pro tempore of the Louisiana 6th Judicial District on appointment from the Louisiana Supreme Court. For fifty years, he was affiliated with the Louisiana Law Institute and was active as well in the Louisiana State Bar Association. For sixty-five years, Lancaster was married to the former Beverly Vedros (1921-2013), a native of Lutcher in St. James Parish in South Louisiana. The couple had three children, Judge Michael E. Lancaster and his wife, Becky, of Tallulah; Patricia Ann "Patsy" Clapp and her husband, Billy Clapp, of Ocala, Florida; and Edgar Hunter Lancaster III and his wife Terri of Monroe. The Lancasters' daughter, as Patsy Forcier, the wife of Ray Forcier, she was an employee of the city of Shreveport, an authority on sewer matters and the administrative assistant from 1977 to 1978 under then Public Utilities Commissioner Billy Guin. The Lancasters, both generations, are interred at Silver Cross Cemetery in Tallulah. Honorary pallbearers at Representative Lancaster's funeral included Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, whom Lancaster swore into office in 2008; a former legislative colleague, L.D. "Buddy" Napper of Ruston, and Henry Sevier Jr., son of the legislator whom Lancaster succeeded in 1952. Caldwell called Lancaster, "the gold standard" for the legal profession, the legislature, the family and community, and as a judge and athlete.