District Attorney and Then Judge
In 1930, Kennon won the election for district attorney of Bossier and Webster parishes, a position that he held for ten years and one month. His successor in the post was his law partner, Graydon K. Kitchens, Sr. (1903–1988), a native of Stamps, Arkansas, who held the seat until January 13, 1942. DA Kennon attained the rank of lieutenant colonel in the National Guard, making him one of the highest-ranked officers. Further active with the Masonic Lodge, Kennon was named "Grand Master" of the organization in 1936.
Kennon took advantage of his growing circle of influential friends and in 1940 ran for justice of the state's Second Circuit Court of Appeal, based in Shreveport. With 46 percent of the ballots, he nearly won outright in the first primary. In the Democratic runoff, he faced the incumbent judge, Harmon Caldwell Drew, a fellow resident of Minden. The Drew family, one of the first to live in Webster Parish long before its establishment, has held judicial positions in north Louisiana for five generations, including besides H. C. Drew, Richard Maxwell Drew, Richard Cleveland Drew, R. Harmon Drew, Sr., and current Circuit Judge Harmon Drew, Jr.. The Kennon-Drew race was vigorously contested with considerable mudslinging. Kennon won by a margin of nine thousand votes, but he did not carry either his home parish of Webster or neighboring Bossier Parish.
The circuit judgeship would not become vacant until 1942. At the time in Louisiana, it was customary to allow more than a year between election and the beginning of judicial terms. As an active member of the National Guard, Kennon was soon called to duty in 1941 as colonel of the XIII Corps of the Ninth Army. He could not hence assume the circuit judgeship until he returned from duty in World War II in May 1945. Drew continued to serve as justice until Kennon returned to claim his seat, part of that time under appointment to the Louisiana Supreme Court, where he served from 1945–1947, having replaced A. T. Higgins.
Read more about this topic: Robert F. Kennon
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