James C. Gardner

Who was James C. Gardner?

James Creswell Gardner, I, known as Jim Gardner, was a power company executive best known as the mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana, who served a single term from 1954 to 1958.

Sometimes called Shreveport's "First Citizen," Jim Gardner was twenty-nine when elected mayor and thirty when he assumed the office. His progressive and independent politics in a decade of general conservatism may have impacted his defeat for a second term in 1958 by fellow Democrat Clyde Edward Fant, Sr.

In 1959, Gardner joined the administration of Southwestern Electric Power Company, which serves parts of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. He retired as company vice president in 1987. He penned a two-volume personal and political autobiography of his life in Shreveport, entitled Jim Gardner and Shreveport. Vol. I covers 1924 to1958; Vol. II, 1959 to 2006.