Robert Floyd Kennon

Robert Kennon was a model student and athlete. As an undergraduate at LSU, Kennon was a champion tennis player and football player, and he won the Alumni Award for having the best scholastic record in the school. Kennon also served in the National Guard and became a Captain of the Minden Company.

Kennon was also quite accomplished as a mason. While in school, he joined the Minden Lodge No. 51, where he was initiated an Entered Apprentice in August 1923, passed to the degree of Fellowcraft in December, and raised to Master Mason in April of 1924. In 1929 and 1931, he served as Worshipful Master of that lodge. Kennon was also Commander of Crusader Commandery of the Knights Templar, a Royal Arch Mason and High Priest of his Royal Arch Mason chapter, a 32d Degree Scottish Rite Mason, and Illustrious Master of a Council of Royal and Select Masters. Kennon was elected Grand Junior Warden in 1932, and then Most Worshipful Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Louisiana in 1936.

In his civic life, Kennon was elected Mayor of Minden the year after he finished law school. In 1930, he was elected District Attorney of the Bossier-Webster District, where he served for 12 years. Kennon was elected to serve on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeal in 1940, but did not take his seat until 1945, after returning from his service in World War II. He was not able to serve out his term as an appellate court judge, however, because he was appointed to fill a vacancy on the bench of the Louisiana Supreme Court.

As governor, Kennon reinstituted a dismantled Civil Service System and advocated to reduce the executive powers in the state constitution. He sought to fight organized crime by curtailing gambling and prostitution, reformed Louisiana's prison system, and ensured the presence of voting machines in every voting precinct in the state. After serving as governor, Kennon practiced law in Baton Rouge, where he died in 1988.