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Ms 008 John H. Tucker Jr. Papers, Lewis F. Powell Jr. Archives, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA
John H. Tucker, Jr. was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas in 1891. He received his B.A. from Washington and Lee University in 1910, and his law degree from Louisiana State University in 1920. That same year, he began his law practice with the firm of Smitherman & Tucker. At the time of his death in 1984, he was the senior partner of Tucker, Jeter & Jackson. Tucker married Hortense Rigby, a native of Mansfield, Ohio, in 1924.
Tucker began his service with the U.S. Army on the Mexican border in 1916. During World War I, he served as aide-de-camp to General W.P. Richardson in France and northern Russia. He was recalled to active service in 1940 as provost-marshal of Camp Beauregard. In World War II he served in the Army Air Forces where he earned the rank of full Colonel. He retired from the Army in 1951.
When the state legislature created the Louisiana State Law Institute in 1938, Tucker was elected its first president, a post he held until 1965. The institute worked to modernize civil procedure and codify criminal law. Tucker was considered an authority on the Napoleonic Code and authored Sources Books of Louisiana Law. Active on civic boards and a trustee of the First Presbyterian Church of Shreveport, Tucker received numerous awards and honorary degrees, including an honorary doctor of laws degree from Washington and Lee in 1958.
Tucker amassed a 12,000 volume personal law library which was donated to the Louisiana State University Law School. Because of his love of legal literature, and in recognition of his $2.75 million bequest to Washington and Lee, the University designated the faculty library in the School of Law as the Hortense Rigby and John H. Tucker, Jr. Faculty Law Library in 1985.
These papers are arranged in two series: 1) Personal Papers, 1938-1940 and 2) U.S. Army Papers, 1916-1942. The Personal Papers include the subseries Biographical Materials (1 folder); General Correspondence, 1918-1981 (bulk 1940-1943); "Some Notes on Guns, Shooting and Hunting," 1946-1947; 1 folder .75 cu.ft.; Printed Materials; and Photographs. The U.S. Army Papers series includes the subseries World War I, Camp Beauregard, and World War II. Each of these subseries contain several of the following forms of materials: orders, memoranda, training materials, clippings, and photos. The Camp Beauregard subseries also contains a diary kept by Tucker.
These papers, which treat only a small fragment of Tucker's life, most heavily document his Army experiences in both World War I and World War II. Tucker was also involved in the vital training exercises in Louisiana that prepared U.S. troops for combat in the time immediately preceding America's entry into World War II. Some of this activity is documented in the Camp Beauregard portion of these papers which includes Tucker's diary from that time.
The personal correspondence contains a few letters from the World War I period and some from post-World War II. The preponderance of this series, however, is from the time immediately preceding United States entry into World War II and during the first year of American involvement in that war. Though there are some carbon copy letters of reply by Tucker, most of the letters are incoming. Though many letters deal with the military and the war, there is a range of subjects treated including: Tucker's law firm business and individual cases in which he was interested; business of the Louisiana State Law Institute; personal business; and family matters.
The photographs include almost 350 prints of German aerial reconnaissance of western Europe during World War I. There is no record of how Tucker came into possession of these photos. The maps are primarily military situation maps from World War I (France and Archangel, Russia) and 1940 U.S. Army maneuvers.