James E. Bolin

Infobox_Officeholder
name= James Edwin Bolin, Sr.
caption= James E. Bolin
office= Louisiana State Representative from Webster Parish
term_start=1940
term_end=1944
preceded=D.R. Boucher
succeeded=C.W. Thompson
office2=Judge, 26th Judicial District Court of Louisiana
term_start2=1952
term_end2=1960
office3=Judge, Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeal
term_start3=1960
term_end3=1978
birth_date= birth date |1914|8|26
birth_place= Doyline, Webster Parish, Louisiana, USA
death_date= death date and age|2002|3|25|1914|8|26
death_place=Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana
spouse= Mary Eloise Martin Bolin (1913-2007; married, 1937-his death)
children= Sons: James Bolin, Jr.; Bruce M. Bolin Daughters: Beth Bolin Falk; Becky Bolin Maupin
party= Democratic
religion=
occupation= Attorney
footnotes=(1) Bolin and his son, Bruce M. Bolin, held the positions of Louisiana state representative and judge of the 26th Judicial Court – thirty-eight years apart. (2) Bolin, who obtained a Bronze Star in the United States Army, was among several Louisiana state legislators who left their posts for military duty during World War II.

James Edwin Bolin, Sr. (August 26 1914 – March 25 2002 [http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi Social Security Death Index Interactive Search ] ] ) was an American jurist and politician who served as a judge of the Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeal and Louisiana Supreme Court as well as a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from Minden, the seat of Webster Parish in the northwestern part of his state.

In 1975, U.S. Representative Joseph David "Joe D." Waggonner, Jr., of Plain Dealing in Bossier Parish, urged then U.S. President Gerald R. Ford, Jr., to nominate Judge Bolin to the United States Supreme Court. Waggonner said that his fellow Louisianian exhibited the "highest degree of judicial excellence." Ford, however, tapped Chicago jurist John Paul Stevens for the seat vacated by William O. Douglas. ["Minden Press-Herald", November 18, 1975, p. 1]

Bolin was born in Doyline in south Webster Parish and attended school there and later in Minden, where he graduated in 1931 from Minden High School as the class president. His name was misspelled “Bolen” on the graduation program. [Minden High School, 1931 yearbook, Minden, Louisiana] Bolin then procured his undergraduate degree in 1935 from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He obtained his legal degree from the LSU Law Center in 1937 and maintained a private practice in Minden from 1937-1942 and again from 1946-1952. From 1942-1946, while still a state representative for two years remaining in his term, Bolin served in the European Theatre of World War II. He received the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the French Croix de Guerre, the Combat Infantry Badge, and the ETO Ribbon with four battle stars. [http://www.lasc.org/community_outreach/in_memoriam/bolin_james.asp bolin_james.asp ] ] In September 1952, Bolin was elected to the 26th Judicial District Court bench and reelected without opposition in 1954. In 1954, Bolin sentenced Minden Mayor John T. David to 120 days on the Webster Parish Penal Farm for two bootlegging misdemeanors. The convictions were upheld by the Louisiana Supreme Court. ["Minden Herald", February 24, 1955, p. 1] Bolin was subsequently elected to the Second Circuit Court of Appeal, where he served from 1960 until his retirement in 1978.

His younger son, Bruce Martin Bolin (born 1950), also of Minden, served in the same Louisiana House seat which Bolin had previously held. Bruce Bolin was a representative from 1978, when he won a special election to succeed the retiring R. Harmon Drew, Sr., until 1990, when he resigned from the House to begin his tenure in the same district court judgeship previously held by his father. Bolin's older son, James E. Bolin, Jr. (born September 10 1941), is a practicing attorney in Shreveport. [ [http://pview.findlaw.com/view/1875163_1?noconfirm=0 James E. Bolin Jr. - a Shreveport, Louisiana (LA) Personal Injury - Defense Lawyer ] ]

Bolin opposed antiwar demonstrators at the height of the Vietnam War. In an address before a civic group entitled "The Spirit of Rebellion", the judge decried the breakdown in law and order across the nation stemming in part from discontent over the controversial war. ["Bolin Civitan Guest", "Minden Press-Herald", September 17, 1969, p. 1]

In 1937, Bolin wed his 1931 Minden High School classmate, the former Mary Eloise Martin (October 30 1913 — September 20 2007). She was a former high school English teacher and a 1935 graduate of Louisiana Tech University in Ruston. The Bolins also had two daughters, Beth Bolin Falk and Becky Bolin Maupin. Bolin died in an assisted living facility in Shreveport. ["Minden Press-Herald": http://www.nwlanews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5822&Itemid=33]

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