W. Scott Wilkinson

Who was W. Scott Wilkinson?

William Scott Wilkinson was an attorney from Shreveport, Louisiana, who served a single term as a Democrat from Caddo Parish in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1920–1924.

Wilkinson was born in Coushatta, the seat of Red River Parish, south of Shreveport, to John Dallas and Alice Mai Wilkinson, He attended Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana, and Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where he was president of his senior class. He obtained his law degree from LSU in 1917. Wilkinson served in the United States Army in both World War I and World War II. He was affiliated with the state, national, and international bar associations. In 1962, he was inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers. He was a senior partner in the firm, Wilkinson, Carmody and Gilliam. He was a director and chairman of the board of Lee National Life Insurance Company and the vice president of the Hunter Company. In the late 1950s, he allied with the states rights movement and took a leading role in the court battles regarding tidelands petroleum revenues and opposition to school desegregation.

He was affiliated with the Shreveport Chamber of Commerce, the Young Men's Christian Association, Rotary International, and the LSU Foundation. On April 9, 1919, he married the former Margaret West, then of Corsicana, the seat of Navarro County south of Dallas, Texas. The Wilkinsons had two daughters, Susybelle Wilkinson Lyons and Margaret Wilkinson Wilson. Susybelle, a Shreveport socialite and Republican political activist, married Charlton H. Lyons, Jr., son of the Louisiana state GOP figure Charlton H. Lyons, Sr., both Shreveport oil businessmen.