Charlton Havard Lyons Jr.

1921 - 2019

Charlton Havard Lyons, Jr.

Shreveport - Charlton Havard Lyons, Jr., after a long, full and exceptionally happy life, died at home on August 1, 2019. Following a private family graveside service and interment, an Episcopal service in celebration of the gift of life will be held at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, Tuesday, August 6 at 11:00, the officiant to be The Very Reverend Alston B. Johnson with The Reverend Dr. Rowena White. Charlton's family will be happy to visit with friends at the church following the service.

On December 11, 1921, five days before the death of Camille Saint-Saens, Charlton was born to Marjorie Hall Lyons and Charlton Havard Lyons. He graduated from South Highlands Grammar School in 1935, from The Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, New Jersey, in 1940, from Yale University in 1943 and from Tulane University Law School in 1948.

As was common among the boys of his generation, soon after Pearl Harbor Charlton volunteered to serve in the Army of the United States, which he did, first as an enlisted man and later as an officer, including wartime duty in Europe as an artillery forward observer with the Tenth Armored Division.

Charlton was a lifelong communicant of St. Mark's Episcopal Church, with service on its vestry and as chairman of its Every Member Canvass. His involvement in the educational and social service life of Shreveport included service to Centenary College, of which in 2013 he was made an Honorary Alumnus. Much earlier he had served as a trustee on Centenary's Board of Trustees and for a time as its Secretary. Also, as a young man he had been a member of the board of the old Community Chest, predecessor to the present United Way, serving that board also as a chairman of its annual fund drive.

And, through membership on their boards, he also served the Genevieve Orphanage, American Red Cross (Caddo Parish Chapter), The Courtyard Players (a Shreveport theatre-in-the-round of more than sixty years ago) and the Shreveport Country Club. He also enjoyed many years of playing bridge with his friends on the third floor of the Shreveport Club. He was a founding partner of The Strand Partners and, in the early 1950's, while serving as a member of the Board of Directors of the Shreveport YMCA, worked closely with Mr. M. E. Mischler, its then Secretary, in the planning of a major enlargement of the services and facilities of that organization, Charlton having himself drafted and secured the passage of the amendment to its articles of incorporation resulting in the first Metropolitan YMCA. Long, long ago, he served actively on the boards of the Shreveport Symphony and of the Shreveport Opera Association, having acted as President of the latter in its infancy.

Charlton's life was filled with an abiding love for music and reading and theatre. He first walked out on stage locally in 1933, playing the speaking role of "A Boy With An Accordion" in The Crime At Blossoms at The Shreveport Little Theatre. His final appearance as an actor was at the Marjorie Lyons Playhouse at Centenary College in the summer of 2004 and his final appearance as a vocalist was on August 17, 2008, when he appeared as a soloist at a concert of The Shreveport Summer Music Festival, thus ending a span of some seventy-five years as a performer on local stages. He was also the author of a published memoir, Songs I Heard My Mother Sing, of a produced stage play, Under Hunter's Moon, and of a critique of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, titled Illegal immigration - The Consequence of Misplaced Trust.

From the summer of 1948 until the last of his several previously abortive attempts at an early retirement—that final and ultimately successful attempt having not been made until 2000—Charlton labored in the oil patch. Despite engagement in several other disparate business ventures, he was, by his own lights, at all times just an old fashioned oilman, working with his many close office friends at Lyons Petroleum, digging for buried treasure, all too often where there was none to be found.

On August 12, 1944, at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in New York City, Charlton was married to Susybelle Wilkinson and from their union six children were born, all of whom survive: Susybelle Lyons Gosslee, Stafford Lyons, wife of Henry P. Offermann, Charlton Havard Lyons, III, husband of Dianne Lewis Lyons, Sally Scott Lyons Wood, Laurie Wilkinson Lyons, wife of Henry C. Walker, and Marian Lyons McGoldrick, wife of Bruce M. McGoldrick. Charlton's sole sibling, his brother Hall McCord Lyons, predeceased him.

On November 23, 1974, at St. Mark's Church, Charlton was married to Peggy McClure, for whom Charlton's great love and need was plainly there for all to see.

Also surviving him are ten of his eleven grandchildren: M. Scott Gosslee (Susan), Susybelle Gosslee, Charlton Havard Lyons, IV (Nellie), Peter Lyons (Michael Maloney), Alden Lyons Murphy, Lewis W. Lyons (Carly), Parker H. Lyons (Jess), Stafford Wood, Micheal Ryan Parks and Alston Lyons Walker (Lauren). He was predeceased by his much beloved eldest grandchild, John Gosslee.

Charlton's ten great grandchildren are: Michael Duke Gosslee, Mason Wagner Gosslee, Mira Margaret Gosslee, John Parker Zook, Susybelle Harper Leigh Zook, Stafford Roemer Lyons, John Ross Murphy, David Grant Murphy, Quinn Elizabeth Kendall, Steven Nicholas Kendall, Alston Lyons Walker, Jr. and Alden Knight Lyons.

In addition to these descendants Charlton also chose to regard as his grandchildren Clay Walker and his wife, Sherry, and M. Grey Walker and as his great grandchildren, Zoe Elizabeth Walker and her brother Alexander Reed Walker. He is also survived by his brother-in-law and sister-in-law Curt and Mary Carol McClure and numerous nieces and nephews.

Honoring Charlton as pallbearers will be his grandsons, they to be joined, by two godsons, Charles T. McCord, III and Dr. Barron J. O'Neal.

The family wishes to thank all of the caregivers who provided comfort and companionship to Charlton, including Dr. Dan Moller and his staff, and the caregivers and staff of Preferred Care at Home, STAT Home Health Care, and St. Joseph Hospice. Special appreciation is extended to Marie Ray, Toray Roberson and Gregg Lyrse for their friendship and service through the years.

Should they wish, those seeking some especially appropriate way of commemorating Charlton's life might consider a gift to The Shreveport Symphony, The Shreveport Opera, St. Mark's Cathedral or Centenary College as an addition to the "Charlton H. Lyons Endowed Fund". The endowment was created by Charlton more than forty years ago to provide financial support for summer research by faculty and which, in accordance with Charlton's wishes, now stands as yet one more monument to the honored memory of Sgt. Robin V. Fell, a young man to whom, from the day he volunteered for military duty, all of us have owed so much, as it was on that day that Robin Fell stepped out of the crowd to take our place over there in Baghdad. Up there on the front lines, where our men went. The place where he was shot by a sniper. While on patrol. Killed as he was handing out candy to the children over there. Over there in the streets of Baghdad and far away from home.