Thomas Williams Davenport
Haughton, LA – Thomas Williams Davenport, Jr. of Haughton, Louisiana died on April 27, 2018 following a brief illness. He was born April 10, 1941 in Monroe, Louisiana to Thomas Williams Davenport and Eula Brown Davenport and attended public schools in Monroe, graduating from Neville High School in 1959.
He attended the College of William and Mary from 1959 until 1962, but his college education was interrupted by the untimely death of his father. He returned to Louisiana and graduated from LSU Law School in 1965.
After clerking for Judge Edward L. Gladney and the Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeal in Shreveport, he returned to Monroe in 1966 and joined the firm of Davenport, Farr and Kelly. He remained with the firm which later changed its name to Davenport, Files and Kelly, until his retirement in 2006.
Tom served as President of the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel (2003) and was an instructor and on the faculties of the NITA Southern Regional Programs, the LSU Law School Trial Advocacy Programs, the LADC Trial Academy and the LADC CLE Seminars.
He was a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association House of Delegates and the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys. He was admitted to practice before all courts in Louisiana, the United States 5th Circuit Court of Appeal and the United States Supreme Court.
He was a Fellow Emeritus of the American College of Trial Lawyers, an honor limited to the top one percent of the total population of attorneys in each state.
Tom was a mentor to many and developed lifelong friendships with persons from all walks of life. He was noted for his inquisitive mind, his generous spirit and for the genuine interest he expressed in everyone he met. For many years Tom trained and showed Paso Fino horses and during his retirement years enjoyed having more time for hunting and fishing.
He was preceded in death by his parents and is survived by his wife, Kathryn Vick Davenport, of Haughton, Louisiana; two daughters, Meredith L. Davenport of Rochester, New York and Molly B. Davenport of Denver, Colorado; his step daughter, Kim Stone Smith, and her husband, Shane Smith, of Haughton, Louisiana; one granddaughter, McKenzie Stone Smith, of Haughton, Louisiana; his sister, Mary Jo Lusk and her husband, John R. Lusk, of Surprise, Arizona; his mother-in-law, Willie M. Vick of Bossier City, Louisiana; his sisters in law, Susan V. Tudor and her husband, Michael, of Pineville, Louisiana and Monnita V. Brasher, and husband Phillip, of Waxahachie, Texas; and several nieces and nephews.
For more than forty years Tom considered the attorneys and staff at Davenport, Files and Kelly his extended family.
In accordance with Tom’s wishes there will be no funeral service. The family will celebrate his life with a private memorial service.
