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Hold Your Head High By Dennis Stewart |
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Sonny Stephens died on February 7, 2009.
I first met Mr. Sonny at Temple Baptist Church in Winnsboro when I was a child. I may have mentioned before that my parents took me to Temple every Sunday morning and every Sunday evening for the first fourteen years of my life. We Baptists have our own pew, and woe be unto any stranger who sits in your pew. Mr. Sonny’s family’s pew was directly in front of ours. I can still remember the weekend in the 1960's when Mr. Sonny’s son Jimbo, who is now a Fifth District Judge, lost his arm in a lawnmower accident. I like to tell people that I knew Jimbo way back when he was even-handed. I returned to Franklin Parish in 1985, to hang up my shingle and practice law. Mr. Sonny had been elected judge in 1978, and he also returned to a private practice in 1985. During my first years in Franklin Parish, he gave me much encouragement and support. Those were tough times for me. I was going through my second divorce and I was pretty well disgusted with myself for repeating the same mistakes twice. I was also wallowing in self-pity. Mr. Sonny proved to be a good friend. He rented me a house to live in, at the very reasonable rate of $50 a month. He boosted my self-confidence by telling me how well versed in the law I was, and how I could have a really successful practice if I just learned how to take the butt-chewings. This advice has really come in handy in my job as a Hearing Officer where I deal with angry, unhappy people every day. After five years in this job, my philosophy has become, if both sides leave the courtroom mad at me, then I probably made the right decision. One day will always stand out in my mind. I was helping Mr. Sonny in a very contentious custody case in another judicial district. You might say the judge there was somewhat hostile toward us. The judge had made several decisions in that case, we had appealed those decisions to the Second Circuit Court of Appeal, and we had won reversals of every decision. The judge was not real happy with us. As we entered the courthouse for yet another hearing before this angry judge, Mr. Sonny told the family, "No matter what happens today, no matter what the judge says, when you leave the courtroom, you hold your heads high." That has stuck with me for twenty years now. Mr. Sonny was 76. He will not be forgotten.
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Judge Sonny Stephens |
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