Obituaries: George Moncure Wallace, 1963, 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: January 3, 1963 Winn Parish Enterprise News-American George Wallace, Winn Native, Dies In Baton Rouge Funeral services were held Monday, December 31, 1962, for George M. Wallace, 74, Winn native and a top legal adviser and troubleshooter for several Louisiana governors. He was the son of the late James T. Wallace and Olive Peters Wallace, members of early families of Winn Parish. Wallace, a 32nd Degree Mason and veteran of World War I, died Sunday in a Baton Rouge hospital after a long illness. He was a member of the Caddo Lodge No. 179, F. & A. M., the Shreveport Consistory, and Karubah Shrine. Wallace went to the capital city at the call of the late Huey P. Long. He was named secretary of the Louisiana Tax Commission. He served every governor including Gov. Jimmie H. Davis during both of Davis' terms as a drafter of key legislation. Wallace last served as the governor's legal counsel for the late Earl K. Long, 1948-1952, and later moved into the office of Secretary of State Wade O. Martin as an attorney. He never retired. Gov. Davis, in a final tribute, said Wallace had one of Louisiana's most penetrating legal minds. Services were held at Welsh Funeral Home, Baton Rouge. State officials, members of the East Baton Rouge Parish Bar Association, and officers and directors of the Fidelity National Bank were honorary pallbearers. Burial was in Roselawn Memorial Park, Baton Rouge, with Masonic rites at the graveside. He leaves his wife, the former Eleanor Murphy of Baton Rouge; a son, Thompson Wallace of Baton Rouge; two daughters, Mrs. W. Leroy Ward, Jr., and Mrs. Thomas W. Jones, Baton Rouge; and four sisters, Mrs. Ethel Farber, Baton Rouge, Mrs. Bertha Kidd, Mrs. Belle Mosley, and Mrs. Net Smith, all of Winnfield. Contributed To Winn Historical Paper Mr. Wallace prepared and contributed a valuable document on the Acts that created Winn parish for the Centennial Edition of the Winn Parish Enterprise that was published in 1952. This edition of The Enterprise is still widely used by high school and college students in the study of the history of this area. For nearly 31 years the cool, dour Wallace used his legal talents in public service. Never Retired Despise his age, he never was retired and was still a legal associate on the staff of Secretary of State Wade O. Martin. Wallace last served as legal counsel for the late Gov. Earl K. Long during Long's 194801952 regime and later moved into the secretary of state's office where governors still continued to draft his services as legal troubleshooter. His services were still used by Gov. Davis during this administration and he was Davis' legal counsel when Davis was governor 1944-48. Gov. Davis said of Wallace, "Louisiana has lost one of its most penetrating legal minds." "Many governors, including me," Davis said, "have had good reason to rely on George Wallace's legal judgement and advice. A great accumulation of legal knowledge, acquired during a lifetime of public service, leaves Louisiana with his passing." Secretary of State Martin, a law partner with Wallace in the early 1940s, the only period Wallace was out of public service for any length of time, said, "George Wallace will be missed by many because of his loyalty to his friends and his great contributions to state service. "He has doubtless contributed more than any other attorneys in the drafting and preparation of important laws affecting not only Louisiana but setting judicial precedents in practically all states." Wallace was noted as a technician who could frame legislation that would stick. And, helpful to newsmen over the years, he often was labeled privately the attorney general for the pressroom. Wallace once remarked in a touch of humor he could bring to focus, "I'd draft a bill about the Ten Commandments if a legislator asked me to. And I'd try to make it constitutional." The veteran state servant once balked at an order from Huey P. Long. A Baton Rouge judge was talking so long to render a certain decision, Huey felt, that he called Wallace and told him to get the judge to rule the next day, or else. "I told Huey to go tell the judge himself," Wallace recalled at one time. "I told him I intended practicing law in this state, and I wasn't going to tell a judge any such thing." Wallace hung up on the Kingfish. Wallace was an assistant attorney general then. Wallace was born and reared in Winnfield, the hometown of those who built the Long dynasty. Young George became an authority on the constitution without the benefit of a college education. He was admitted to the bar when 30. A free lancer at the 1921 Constitutional Convention, Wallace once described how he wrote bills "for Tom, Dick, and Harry." Since then, Wallace has been responsible for the construction of hundreds of legislative bills, many of them key administration proposals. Huey brought him to Baton Rouge in 1929 at secretary of the Louisiana Tax Commission. Next year, he became the Kingfish's secretary, and held that post until Long marched to the U. S. Senate in 1932. Wallace did a four-year hitch as an assistant attorney general and became the first governor's official legal counsel in 1936 when former Gov. Richard Leche created the post. After Leche resigned, Wallace remained with Earl K. Long in the state capitol. With the election of Gov. Sam Jones in 1940, Wallace returned to private law. But by 1942, Jones, an attorney himself, pulled Wallace back into the harness, as director of Commerce and Industry. In 1945, Davis, during his first term as chief executive, named Wallace legal counsel again. When Earl K. Long came back in 1948, Earl's nephew, now U. S. Senator Russell B. Long, briefly took over as legal counsel. But Russell soon departed for the U. S. Senate and Wallace was called back. State officials said they recalled, Wallace could have remained as executive counsel to Gov. Robert Kennon, but Wallace moved into his final post as an attorney in Martin's office. Kennon's administration used Wallace's talents right along.