Obituaries: William Jesse Avery, 1945, Winn Parish, LA
Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483
**********************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm
**********************************************


 




From: September 20, 1945 Winn Parish Enterprise

W. J. Avery, 68, Widely Known Educator, Dies

Former Principal Local High School Succumbs

William Jesse Avery, 68, resident of Alexandria, and well known educator
throughout the state of Louisiana, died at the Baptist Hospital Tuesday
morning, September 18.

The son of the late Joseph Marshall Avery and the former Edna Frances Davis of
Jackson Parish, La., his lifelong ambition was to become a teacher, and with
that end in view he attended the public schools of Louisiana State Normal
College, the University of Chicago, and Louisiana State University.

He occupied the position of principal of the high schools at Lafayette,
Winnfield, and Bastrop and went to Rapides as assistant superintendent of
parish schools later advancing to the position of parish superintendent.

In 1933 he became a member of the faculty of the State Normal College at
Natchitoches as head of the Extension Department from which position he
retired in July, 1941.  In May, 1943, he returned to Alexandria to live.

Mr. Avery was a member of the Emmanuel Baptist Church and the Masonic Lodge
and a past president of the Louisiana Teachers Association in which capacity
he worked diligently for teacher tenure and retirement laws in the state.

He is survived by his wife, the former Miss Nellie Gertrude Larrabee to whom
he was married June 12, 1906; one son, W. J., Jr., who is serving with the U.
S. Coast Guard; one daughter, Mrs. W. J. Erwin, Lake Providence; three
grandchildren, two brothers, and three sisters.

Funeral services were held in Alexandria Wednesday, September 19, at 4 p.m.
with interment in Greenwood Memorial Park, Pineville, La.