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Charlie McClendon
December 8, 2001
Tigers' football coach led some of the school's greatest teams
Charlie McClendon, the legendary LSU football coach who guided the Tigers through their longest run of success, died Friday in Baton Rouge.
McClendon, 78, fought a long battle with cancer.
Renowned as a defensive mastermind, McClendon was the head coach at LSU for 18 seasons, the longest tenure of any coach in the Tigers' 108 seasons of football. Between 1962 and 1979, McClendon, a folksy and straight-shooting Arkansan known throughout college football circles as "Charlie Mac, " coached the Tigers to 137 victories, nearly 30 percent of all LSU victories at the time of his retirement in 1979.
He also:
-- Coached 17 of LSU's 40 first-team All-Americans.
-- Led LSU to 13 bowl games.
-- Was named Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year twice and National Coach of the Year once.
-- Coached two of the most noteworthy LSU teams of all-time, the 1969 and ‘70 Tigers.
The ‘69 Tigers may have been the best squad in LSU annals, an incredibly balanced 9-1 team that averaged almost 35 points a game offensively, and whose defense yielded just 384 rushing yards all season, second best in that category in the 69-year history of the SEC. The 1970 conference championship team yielded 574 rushing yards, an average yield of 52.2, fifth best in the league's history.
LSU hired McClendon as an assistant for Coach Gaynell Tinsley in 1953, and he stayed to become first assistant for Tinsley's successor, Paul Dietzel. Together, Dietzel and McClendon helped forge the national championship team of 1958, of which McClendon's defense was a major force. He took over when Dietzel left for West Point in 1962 and coached the Bayou Bengals to a 137-59-7 record, a nearly 70 percent victory ratio.
There was plenty of success in the early years, including a memorable defeat of Texas in the 1963 Cotton Bowl and a stunning upset in the ‘66 Cotton Bowl of an Arkansas team on a 22-game victory streak and close to a national championship. McClendon also guided a stirring 20-13 comeback against a third undefeated team, Wyoming, in the 1968 Sugar Bowl. Then for five consecutive season from 1969 through ‘73, the Tigers won nine games a season.
Forced out of Tiger Town
Although McClendon was successful, he was not always given full credit by some vocal fans, mainly because of two factors. He never was able to give them what they wanted most: another unbeaten team. And Tigers fans were displeased with his record against his old mentor, Alabama's Bear Bryant, for whom McClendon played at the University of Kentucky. Not many teams had success against Bryant in the 1960s and ‘70s, but LSU's 2-14 record against the Crimson Tide in that period was a prime factor in McClendon being eased out of his job.
"There were some mighty good teams around the South that experienced the same problem, " said Bud Johnson, former LSU sports information director, "and a lot of them were healthy football teams." The reference was to the fact that McClendon had to play rivals Ole Miss, then at its football zenith, and Alabama five consecutive years without the Tigers' No. 1 quarterback. "It was hard enough beating teams like that with your best quarterback, " Johnson said. "Somehow, that seemed to be a difficult notion to grasp for some LSU fans."
When the program dipped in 1975, after McClendon finished his worst season of 5-6, the LSU Board of Supervisors kept McClendon sitting in a car during a rainstorm while they discussed his fate at a meeting at the University of New Orleans.
"It was a classless act, " said an angry Paul Manasseh, then LSU sports information director, "and humiliating."
The options that came out of the meeting were to either allow the board to buy out McClendon's contract or let him coach two more seasons before stepping aside. Because his assistants' lives were affected, McClendon accepted the latter option. He later got a third season when Dietzel returned to LSU as athletic director.
"You know, I'm somebody everywhere but Baton Rouge, " McClendon said in 1979. "Hell, I can go to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, anywhere and be on top. But Baton Rouge, it's a little bit different. Sometimes I think a man needs to be a horse's back end to grab the attention.
"Some say if I had politicked a little, things might have been different. But if it made a difference, I didn't want any part of it. I have been proud to say I've done whatever is best for LSU and not what is best for Charlie McClendon. And so, therefore, I don't have any apology to make. Disappointment, but no bitterness. . . . But I'll probably be dead before the next man wins as many games as I have."
After leaving LSU, McClendon became director of the Florida Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Fla., site of his last victory, in what was then known as the Tangerine Bowl, and helped build it into a bigger postseason game. He was also director of the American Football Coaches Association.
He remained an avid Tigers fan, even planning his chemotherapy treatments around LSU home games as recently as two months ago. McClendon died six days after LSU's last home game and one day before the Tigers play in the SEC championship game in Atlanta.
Respected by his peers
"There are certain traditions at every school that will live forever, and Coach Mac embodies that at LSU, " Tigers coach Nick Saban said. "I have never met a finer gentleman, and he has been a great friend to me since I've been at LSU. I have tremendous respect for him and his accomplishments."
Coaching contemporaries in the SEC remembered Charlie Mac as one of the country's most renowned college football coaches but also as a regular guy who once said: "I guess I'm a little bit like Mae West. I never met a man I didn't like."
Georgia athletic director Vince Dooley said: "He was a player's coach, a guy down in the trenches. You couldn't help but love Charlie Mac. That's just the way he was. He grew up under coach Bryant, but they were different because coach Bryant could be very aloof from the players and even the rest of his coaches. But Charlie was with them all of the time. A great guy, and like so many of us coaches, his greatest asset was his wife, " Dorothy Faye McClendon.
Arkansas athletic director Frank Broyles said: "I never heard an unkind word said about him in his life, and I don't think he ever said an unkind word about anybody. I don't think I've seen a happier coach than the day they beat us in the Cotton Bowl and knocked us out of the national championship."
McClendon's survivors include his wife; a son, Scott; a daughter, Dolores Kaye Alberty; and three grandchildren. A funeral will be Monday at University Baptist Church in Baton Rouge. Burial will be Tuesday in Stephens, Ark.
MARTIN, DAVID YOUNG 'DAVE' JR
September 18, 2002
Dave Martin, owner of Martin Wine Cellar
David Young "Dave" Martin Jr., who turned a small Uptown shop into one of New Orleans' most successful wine and food businesses, died Saturday of complications from Parkinson's disease at Touro Infirmary. He was 82.
Mr. Martin, known in his TV commercials as "the steely eyed wine merchant, " was born in Birmingham, Ala., and lived in New Orleans for the past 57 years.
He opened Martin Wine Cellar in 1946 at Baronne and Gen. Taylor streets.
"It was a great location, " Mr. Martin recalled many years later. "There was Henry's barbershop across the street, the Fine Arts Theater a block away on Constantinople, the best bakery in town on Baronne, the grocery that was later Louvier's, Weide's pharmacy, the White Star meat market, a Chinese laundry."
But it took a while for Mr. Martin's business to thrive.
"The day we opened, I didn't have a cash register. I had a cigar box, " he said in a 1992 interview. On that first day, May 24, 1946, he took in $29.51.
"No running water, no toilet, " Mr. Martin recalled. "I'd go over to Mr. Henry's to use the bathroom. We also had a warehouse -- 3 feet by 15 feet -- but all we had in there was one case of Canada Dry soda. Everything else was out front."
The young wine merchant came up with ingenious measures to help make ends meet.
"Money was so tight that I would sit on the stoop and, when someone came along, I would run inside to turn on the lights so they wouldn't think I didn't have any customers, " Mr. Martin said.
"My grandparents, who lived at Prytania and Marengo, were in the wine business, and I knew the trade I wanted -- the Uptown, money people. I didn't want to sell to the guy who drinks muscatel.
"I succeeded because I had a strong back and a weak mind. Anybody who'd go to work seven days a week has got to be crazy. And we were so far ahead of the rest of the country going into the wine business; wine was cheap, cheap, cheap then."
The business soon began growing. Mr. Martin started a wholesale wine and spirits business in 1953, added "fancy groceries" to his shelves, expanded the Baronne Street store significantly in 1968, and opened a delicatessen in the store in 1977, because "I always wanted to be in the food business, and this way no one has to go out to lunch."
In 1981, he bought the old Fine Arts theater to house his thriving holiday wine-and-cheese gift basket operation.
Another former movie house, the Sena Mall Theatre, became the site of the family-owned business's Metairie store, which opened in 1989.
"My father educated people about wine, " said Mr. Martin's son, Cedric. "He started wine tastings. He insisted on the best for his customers."
Mr. Martin attended the University of Alabama. He was an Army veteran of World War II and was awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious service in campaigns in France, Belgium and Germany.
He was a member of the Wines and Spirits Guild of America and was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 1985 by Market Watch, a publication of the wine, spirits and beer industry.
Survivors include his wife, Margot H. Martin; a son, Cedric David Martin; a daughter, Monique Martin Duncan; and four grandchildren.
Services will be private. Bultman Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Archie C. Lyles Jr.
September 29, 2002
Archie C. Lyles, 77, business activist
Archie C. Lyles Jr., a retired director of governmental affairs for construction company Brown & Root Inc., died Wednesday at West Jefferson Medical Center. He was 77.
Mr. Lyles was born in Oberlin and lived in New Orleans for most of his life.
He was active in Louisiana politics, business and industry for more than half a century. He served on several state boards and commissions appointed by Govs. McKeithen, Roemer, Foster and Secretary of State Fox McKeithen.
"He was one of the few guys who got together and established a course of action so that business could have a voice in politics, " said his son, Mark T. Lyles. "When he started out, organized labor controlled politics, and business didn't have much of a voice."
Mr. Lyles started his political career as a page in the state House of Representatives in 1938. He was involved in business legislation such as Right to Work and prevailing wage, workers compensation, unemployment compensation, and tort and fiscal reform.
After his retirement from Brown & Root in 1992, Mr. Lyles served as the company's consultant and political and business adviser.
Mr. Lyles was an appointed member of the Louisiana Board of Commerce and Industry and served as chairman from 1996 to 2000.
Mr. Lyles was an appointed member of the Louisiana State Archives Commission. He was a founding member and former chairman of the board of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, former chairman of SouthPac, founding member and former chairman of the Louisiana Right to Work Committee, and a former executive committee member of the Plaquemines Parish Chamber of Commerce.
He was a founding member and president of the Associated Builders and Contractors Bayou Chapter, and he received the organization's Member of the Year Award in 1973, Man of the Year Award in 1988 and Lifetime Membership Award in 1992.
He was a Navy veteran of World War II, serving in the South Pacific.
Mr. Lyles was a former lieutenant with Louisiana State Police Troop D in Lake Charles.
Survivors include his wife, Josie M. Lyles; a son, Mark T. Lyles; two daughters, Mary Lyles Adair and Lisa Lyles Kirwin; a sister, Katherine Kingery; six grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.
A Mass will be said Tuesday at 1 p.m. at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd. Visitation will be Monday from 6 to 9 p.m. and Tuesday beginning at 10 a.m. There also will be visitation Wednesday from 9 a.m. to noon at Ardoin Funeral Home, 301 S. Sixth St., Oberlin. Burial will be in Lyles cemetery in Oberlin.
Wendell W. Lovitt, Bunny Bread exec, 79
December 1, 2002
Wendell William Lovitt, longtime president of Bunny Bread and Greater New Orleans Executive Association man of the year in 1979, died Thursday at his Metairie home. He was 79.
Mr. Lovitt was born in Gravity, Iowa, and lived in Metairie for the past 36 years.
A Dale Carnegie graduate and teacher, Mr. Lovitt also served as general manager of Bunny Bread from 1966 until 1981, until the company was sold to Flowers Foods of Thomasville, Ga.
Thereafter, Mr. Lovitt made an unsuccessful attempt to revive the floundering Reising French Bread Co., before retiring in 1984.
A charismatic salesman and promoter, Mr. Lovitt was "Mr. Dale Carnegie, very enthusiastic, " according to his son, Randy Lovitt.
"He'd talk to anybody about anything, anytime, " Randy Lovitt said. "You couldn't stand in a grocery line without him knowing your whole life story."
T.A. Miller, former executive with Wolf Baking Co. in Baton Rouge and a friend of Mr. Lovitt's for 36 years, said Mr. Lovitt was single-handedly responsible for expanding Bunny Bread's regional market from its New Orleans base.
"Wendell was a fine salesperson, very easy to get along with, " Miller said.
A founding member of the Greater New Orleans Executive Association, Mr. Lovitt also was a founding member of the John Calvin Presbyterian Church in Metairie.
He was a 32nd Degree Mason, a member of the Riverlands Country Club and the New Orleans Real Estate Association.
During World War II, Mr. Lovitt served in the Marine Corps and the Navy.
Survivors include his wife, Beverly Jo Anderson Lovitt; a son, Randy Dean Lovitt; a daughter, Shelly Lovitt Chryssoverges; a brother, Wayne Lovitt of Gravity; two sisters, Alyene McMahill of Bedford, Iowa, and Irene Downs of Omaha, Neb.; and four grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Monday at Leitz-Eagan Funeral Home, 4747 Veterans Memorial Blvd. Visitation will begin at 9 a.m. Burial will be in Garden of Memories cemetery.
LOVE, THERESA RICE
September 26, 2002
Theresa Rice Love, English professor
Theresa Rice Love, a retired professor of English, died Thursday at her home. She was 81.
Dr. Love was born in Baton Rouge and lived in New Orleans for the past four years.
She graduated from Southern University and received a master's degree from the University of Iowa and a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin.
She joined the Southern University faculty in 1953 after teaching at Alabama State College and Central State College in Ohio.
While at Southern, Dr. Love was asked by the U.S. government to take on an assignment at the University of Liberia in Monrovia. She taught remedial English and other subjects in Liberia, leading to the establishment of a communications center at the university there.
Also while at Southern, she formed the Baton Rouge chapter of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.
She later became a professor at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and taught there until 1995.
Dr. Love was the author of many articles and books, including "Dickens and the Seven Deadly Sins, " and had a special interest in English as a second language for African-Americans and the use of black dialect. She wrote and published curriculum materials on this subject.
She was a former member of First Presbyterian Church in Edwardsville.
Survivors include two daughters, Lucy Love of Africa and Juanita Love Thomas; two grandchildren; and a great-grandchild. Dr. Love also was the aunt of Condoleezza Rice, national security adviser to President Bush.
A funeral will be held Friday at noon at First Presbyterian Church of Scotlandville, 1246 Rosenwald Road, Baton Rouge. Visitation will begin at 10 a.m. Burial will be in Southern Memorial Gardens. Gaskin, Southall, Gordon & Gordon Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.
Lester Love Sr., 82
October 04, 2001
Lester "The Special Man" Love Sr., a retired salesman with Frankie and Johnnie's Furniture Store, died Saturday at Memorial Medical Center. He was 82.
Mr. Love was born in Tylertown, Miss., and lived in New Orleans for many years.
He worked as a salesman for Frankie and Johnnie's Furniture Store for many years. He was once named the "Greatest Salesman in the Country" and was famous for two television commercial campaigns: "You Can't Do it -- You Just Can't Do It" and "Let ‘em Have It."
Mr. Love was a member of Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church and Greater Antioch Full Gospel Baptist Church.
Survivors include his wife, Evelyn Love; 14 sons, Charles Roosevelt Peters, Charles Ray Hawthorne, Chris Russell, Ellria Love, Elton Love, George Russell, Hartford Branson, Joe Kelly Love, John Love, Joseph Russell, Lester Love Jr., Monroe Love, Seymore Love and William Russell; eight daughters, Charlene Arnold, Deloris Young, Lanett Hawthorne, Leola Bridges, Magalean Williams, Maggie Meeks, Rose Mary Corser and Ruth Love; a brother, HiLee Love; a sister, Earline Holmes; and many grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.
A funeral will be held Friday at 11 a.m. at Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church, 2308 S. Liberty St. Visitation will begin at 10 a.m. Burial will be in Providence Memorial Park. Washington Funeral Services in Tylertown is in charge of arrangements.
LIUZZA, PETER JOHN
December 5, 2001
Peter John Liuzza, restaurant owner, 79
Peter John Liuzza, a retired co-owner of Liuzza's Restaurant & Bar and Cucos Mexican Restaurants, died Tuesday at his home. He was 79.
Mr. Liuzza was born in Baton Rouge and lived in New Orleans all his life.
The Liuzza family has been in the restaurant business since 1938, when Jasper and Felicia Liuzza opened Liuzza's Restaurant and Bar on Bienville Street in Mid-City. Mr. Liuzza and his brothers Vincent and Nick bought the restaurant from their parents in 1946 and sold it about a decade later.
The Liuzza family later owned Sizzler Family Steakhouse franchises in the New Orleans area and created the Cucos Mexican Restaurant chain in 1981.
Mr. Liuzza was a parishioner of St. Dominic Catholic Church.
Survivors include his wife, Cora Picataci Liuzza.
A Mass will be said today at 1 p.m. at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd. Visitation will be at 11 a.m. Burial will be in All Saints Mausoleum.
Jesse Littlejohn Jr., funeral home owner
December 1, 2002
Jesse B. Littlejohn Jr., owner of Littlejohn Funeral Home and a longtime civil-rights advocate, died of lung cancer Wednesday at his home in New Orleans. He was 64.
Mr. Littlejohn was born in Waco, Texas, and lived in New Orleans for the past 34 years. After attending high school in Waco, he received a bachelor's degree in business administration from Denver University. He later took graduate courses at Southern University in Baton Rouge.
In his early 20s, Mr. Littlejohn became active in the civil-rights movement. In 1960, he took a job with the U.S. Housing and Home Finance Administration in Chicago, where he worked in redevelopment and slum-clearance programs.
Seven years later, Mr. Littlejohn moved to New Orleans to investigate discrimination complaints on behalf of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He served that agency as an investigator for 20 years.
Later, Mr. Littlejohn supervised anti-discrimination programs in housing and education for the U.S. Department of Justice. He also worked for the federal Department of Transportation, ensuring that civil-rights regulations, among others, were being followed.
In 1994, Mr. Littlejohn began a second career when he realized a lifelong dream of opening a funeral home. He experimented with a variety of locations for his new venture before settling on permanent homes on St. Bernard Avenue and on Earhart Boulevard.
Former and current employees described Mr. Littlejohn as a scrupulous and generous boss.
"He was a very kind person, very liberal, " said the Rev. Joseph Tilly, who worked for Mr. Littlejohn for five years before opening his own mortuary. "He was kind to his employees. We got along very well."
Calvin Johnson, who worked for Mr. Littlejohn for the past four years, said his boss empathized with those who patronized his business.
"He was real respectful, " Johnson said. "Even the people who didn't have the ways and means to bury their loved ones, he would try to find a way to help them do it. He was very generous and very well-respected."
Mr. Littlejohn served in the U.S. Army Reserve. He was an active member of the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club. He was also a member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity; the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; the Community Relations Council; the Minority Government Employees Association; the Urban League; New Orleans Jaycees; and the Louisiana Education Association.
Survivors include his wife, Peggy Lawson Langley Littlejohn; a stepdaughter, Janice Langley-DeArmas; his mother, Mildred Williams Littlejohn; three brothers, Samuel Littlejohn of Los Angeles, Israel Ben Yehudit of Beersheba, Israel, and Kenneth Littlejohn of Waukegan, Ill.; and four sisters, Macie Jean Taylor and Vivian McCoy of Waco, Texas, Jo Marian Ross of El Paso, Texas, and Patricia Hartman of Dallas.
A Mass will be said Thursday at 11 a.m. at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, 4423 LaSalle St. Visitation will begin at 9:30 a.m at the church.
Visitation also will be held Wednesday from noon to 3 p.m. at Littlejohn Funeral Home, 2163 Aubry St., and from 4 to 7 p.m. at the funeral home's location at 7818 Earhart Blvd. A wake will follow at 7 p.m. Burial will be in Lake Lawn cemetery.
