John Ardis Cawthon

John Ardis Cawthon
John Ardis Cawthon as secondary education department chairman at Louisiana Tech University (1966)
Born	(1907-03-16)March 16, 1907 Bossier Parish Louisiana, USA
Died	October 5, 1984(1984-10-05) (aged 77) Ruston, Lincoln Parish Louisiana
Resting place	Mt. Zion Lutheran Cemetery in Mission Valley, Texas
Residence	Ruston, Louisiana
Alma mater	Louisiana Tech University Louisiana State University University of Texas at Austin
Occupation	Historian Education Professor at Louisiana Tech University
Spouse(s)	Eleanora Albrecht Cawthon (1948-1984, his death)
Children	Elisabeth Albrecht Cawthon Saunders Two grandchildren

Eleanora Albrecht Cawthon
Eleanor Cawthon as placement director at Louisiana Tech University
Born	(1917-12-06)December 6, 1917 Mission Valley, Victoria County Texas, USA
Died	June 1, 2014(2014-06-01) (aged 96) Carrollton, Denton County, Texas
Resting place	Mt. Zion Lutheran Cemetery in Mission Valley, Texas
Residence	Russellville, Arkansas (1948-1954) Ruston, Lincoln Parish Louisiana (1954-1999) Mission Valley, Texas (1999-c. 2014)
Alma mater	Patti Welder High School Victoria College University of Texas at Austin
Occupation	University administrator
Spouse(s)	John Ardis Cawthon (married 1948-1984, his death)
Children	Elisabeth Albrecht Cawthon Saunders Two grandchildren

Louisiana Tech University
Louisiana State University

Elisabeth Albrecht Cawthon Saunders

John Ardis Cawthon (March 16, 1907 – October 5, 1984) was an educator and regional historian from Ruston in Lincoln Parish in north Louisiana, who was affiliated with Louisiana Tech University from 1939–1940, 1948, and from January 12, 1954, until retirement on May 31, 1972. Cawthon was a frequent contributor to North Louisiana History, which named its John Ardis Cawthon Memorial Printing Fund in his honor.

Cawthon was born in south Bossier Parish to James Alexander Cawthon (1878–1961), a native of the McDade community, and the former Maggie Mae Dance (1878–1968), originally from nearby Webster Parish. He was named for a family friend, John Houston Sibley, and the Reverend H. Z. Ardis, a pioneer Baptist minister who had taught at the early Mount Lebanon College in Bienville Parish. He hence shared his father's initials, "J. A." He was first home-schooled by his mother, who had attended Athens Academy in Claiborne Parish. From the fifth through the eighth grades, Cawthon attended the one-room school in the Koran community of south Bossier Parish. The family then relocated to Doyline in south Webster Parish, where John Cawthon completed high school.

James and Maggie Cawthon married in 1905 in Athens in southern Claiborne Parish. Cawthon had a brother, James Dance Cawthon (1915–2011) of Shreveport, who taught briefly at Springhill High School in Springhill in northern Webster Parish before he began a long career in the accounting department of the United Gas and Pennzoil companies. James Dance Cawthon, who served as the business administrator for a decade of the First Presbyterian Church of Shreveport, also did some historical writing which was published by the North Louisiana Historical Association. Cawthon had two sisters, Maggie Lee McIntyre (1911–2007) of Doyline, a state social work supervisor from 1935 to 1976, based in Minden, and Miss Annis Ella Cawthon (1909–1999), a former educator in Springhill. In 1950, Annis Cawthon was elected president of the Webster Parish Classroom Teachers Association. She later taught mathematics at Louisiana Tech from 1959-1974. Cawthon's parents and sisters are interred at Doyline Cemetery. All of the Cawthon siblings graduated from Louisiana Tech.