Obituaries: James Andrew Gaulden, 1996, Winn Parish, LA
Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483
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From: February 28, 1996 Winn Parish Enterprise News-American

High School Principal, James Gaulden, Dies

J. Andrew Gaulden

by Vernon Ray Davenport, Sr.

Funeral services were held in Grambling recently for former Pinecrest High
School Principal, James Andrew Gaulden.

Gaulden, who was the principal of the old Winn Training School when it was
renamed Pinecrest High School in 1956, died recently at Lincoln General
Hospital in Ruston of natural causes.  Family members said his health had been
declining in recent years.  He was 79 years old.

Gaulden was the principal of the local school from 1946-1956.  He was a
pioneer journalist and one of the first African-American journalists in North
and Central Louisiana.

As a student at then La. Negro Normal and Industrial Institute in the mid-
1930s, Gaulden put together the school's first newspaper, The Normal Observer,
which was later renamed The Gramblinite. 

Prior to becoming principal in Winnfield he worked as a journalist in a
variety of jobs related to the media.  He was also editor of several
publications, magazines, and newspapers.

Gaulden received a master of arts degree in Public School Administration form
the University of Denver, in Colorado, when he graduated cum laude in 1955. 
He graduated cum laude in 1937 from Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte,
N. C., with a degree in social science.

During his career, Gaulden was the principal of three public schools:
Englewood Elementary of Shreveport, Abbeville Public School, and Pinecrest
High School in Winnfield, respectively.  He worked hard for equal salaries and
equal rights for Louisiana black school teachers as Field Secretary during the
pre-desegregation era.

Gaulden was employed as Program Director for the Economic Opportunity Board of
Riverside County, California.  He was Grambling State's first Public Relations
Director and was responsible for publishing the University's first newspaper
and the first yearbook.  He retired from Grambling State University in 1981 as
its first Historian.

Gaulden was a published author of both fiction and non-fiction short stories. 
He was also a featured columnist for several newspapers, namely The Houston
Informer, The Shreveport Sun, The Los Angeles Sentinel, and The Denver Sun.

Gaulden is survived by his wife, Winn Parish native, Helen Norsworthy Gaulden,
for 58 years; his son, Jimmy Frank of Houston, Texas, and his daughter,
Barbara Ann Gaulden, of Grambling; granddaughter, Daphne; grandson, Mark.  He
also leaves two brothers, Reuben Gaulden and Edwin Prescott; two sisters,
Milby Ford and Rosemary Montgomery.