Pat Screen
Encyclopedia
James Patrick Screen, Jr., known as Pat Screen (May 13, 1943 – September 12, 1994), was a Louisiana State University
quarterback
from New Orleans
, Louisiana
, who served as the Democratic
Mayor
-President of East Baton Rouge Parish
from 1981–1988.
in Jefferson Parish
outside New Orleans at the time of his death, exactly three months after the passing of their son, Pat Screen.
Pat Screen excelled in football
as a high school sophomore
at Jesuit High School
in New Orleans, where he played in the 1958, 1959, and 1960 seasons, having led his team to state championships. He continued this success at LSU in Baton Rouge, but in 1963, he sustained a separated shoulder in the fourth game against the University of Miami
. He played in the Cotton Bowl on January 1, 1966, in competition with the University of Arkansas
at Fayetteville
, Screen took over for the injured Nelson Stokley and directed the LSU Tigers
to a 14–7 upset victory over the heavily favored and second-ranked and unbeaten Razorbacks at the post-season game played in Dallas
, Texas
. In 1965, Screen was drafted in the tenth round by the Cleveland Browns
.
Screen, however, did not play professionally but earned an LSU law degree and began his practice in Baton Rouge in 1970. One of his law partners was City Judge Ossie Brown
, who was elected East Baton Rouge Parish district attorney
in 1972.
, W.W. Dumas of Baker
. Reelected in 1984, Screen hired a personal friend, Walter Monsour, a Republican
, as his chief administrative officer. The two had first met at a high school football game and renewed their friendship at LSU and continued their association through law school. Monsour, from C.E. Byrd High School in Shreveport
, was an LSU cheerleader, a highly prized position. Mansour was considered to have been so successful in alleviating fiscal problems in the second Screen administration that he was brought back to the CAO position two decades later in 2005 by newly-elected Democratic Mayor Melvin "Kip" Holden
, for whom Monsour had not even voted.
Having lost the two previous mayor-president elections, Holden in 2004 upset the incumbent Republican Mayor-President Bobby Simpson
, Monsour told Holden that he could no longer function as an African American
legislator but must act as a mayor for all citizens: "Fine. I want you to do for me what you did for Pat Screen," Holden told Monsour.
In 1987, Screen and Mary Oliver Pierson, his aide during his first term, were indicted
on one count each of malfeasance
in the misapplication of road project funds prior to the successful reelection campaign in 1984. Screen and Pierson maintained their innocence. Screen said that he had followed the directions of the city attorney and had no idea what crime could have been committed. State Attorney General William Guste later dismissed the charges on legal grounds.
Screen did not seek a third term in 1988, when he was succeeded by fellow Democrat and later Republican convert Tom Ed McHugh
, a descendant of an old-line family whose earliest members founded the East Baton Rouge city of Zachary
.
and, in his second term, drugs
. Mansour said that Screen slowly succumbed to "inner demons". Screen was found dead from a drug overdose in 1994 at the age of fifty-one in a New Orleans hotel
on the Monday after Labor Day
. It was unclear why he was in a New Orleans hotel, for his parents were still living at the time in nearby Metairie. Two days earlier, LSU had defeated, 44–24, Mississippi State University
of Starkville
in a game played in Baton Rouge. At Screen’s funeral, Monsour called his fallen friend, "the most talented, passionate person I ever knew, who, unfortunately, was conflicted."
Pat Screen and his wife, the former Kathleen Clare McCall (born 1945), had one daughter and two sons; Mary Shannon Screen Beacham (born 1969) of (Baton Rouge, LA) and James P. Screen, III (born 1970) of Austin
, Texas, the husband of the former Danielle Dimisa (born 1972), and Thomas McCall "Tommy" Screen (born 1975) of New Orleans. Tommy Screen was named in 2008 as the director of the Loyola University
Institute of Politics in New Orleans. Tommy Screen is a protégé of former Democratic U.S. Senator John Breaux
of Louisiana and the Democratic political activist James Carville
, a Georgia native reared in Carville. He succeeded Ed Renwick, who had directed the institute for four decades.
Screen, who was Roman Catholic, is interred in Baton Rouge at Resthaven Gardens of Memories and Mausoleum.
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...
quarterback
Quarterback
Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
from New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, who served as the Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
Mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
-President of East Baton Rouge Parish
East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana
East Baton Rouge Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Baton Rouge, Louisiana's state capital. As of the 2010 census, the population was 440,171. The parish has a total area of , of which is land and is water. It is the most populous parish in the state...
from 1981–1988.
Football
Screen was the son of James P. Screen, Sr. (1914–1994) and Rosemary T. Screen (1921–2002). The senior Screen was residing with his wife in MetairieMetairie, Louisiana
Metairie is a census-designated place in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States and is a major part of the New Orleans Metropolitan Area. Metairie is the largest community in Jefferson Parish. It is an unincorporated area that would be larger than most of the state's cities if it were...
in Jefferson Parish
Jefferson Parish, Louisiana
Jefferson Parish is a parish in Louisiana, United States that includes most of the suburbs of New Orleans. The seat of parish government is Gretna....
outside New Orleans at the time of his death, exactly three months after the passing of their son, Pat Screen.
Pat Screen excelled in football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
as a high school sophomore
Sophomore
Sophomore is a term used in the United States to describe a student in the second year of study at high school or university.The word is also used as a synonym for "second", for the second album or EP released by a musician or group, the second movie of a director, or the second season of a...
at Jesuit High School
Jesuit High School (New Orleans)
Jesuit High School is an all-male Catholic high school in New Orleans, Louisiana. The school was founded in 1847. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans....
in New Orleans, where he played in the 1958, 1959, and 1960 seasons, having led his team to state championships. He continued this success at LSU in Baton Rouge, but in 1963, he sustained a separated shoulder in the fourth game against the University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
. He played in the Cotton Bowl on January 1, 1966, in competition with the University of Arkansas
University of Arkansas
The University of Arkansas is a public, co-educational, land-grant, space-grant, research university. It is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a research university with very high research activity. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and is located in...
at Fayetteville
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Fayetteville is the county seat of Washington County, and the third largest city in Arkansas. The city is centrally located within the county and is home to the University of Arkansas. Fayetteville is also deep in the Boston Mountains, a subset of The Ozarks...
, Screen took over for the injured Nelson Stokley and directed the LSU Tigers
LSU Tigers
The LSU Tigers are the athletic teams of Louisiana State University. They participate in the NCAA's Division I, in the Southeastern Conference. It fields teams in 14 varsity sports . Its official team nickname is the Fighting Tigers and the school mascot is Mike the Tiger...
to a 14–7 upset victory over the heavily favored and second-ranked and unbeaten Razorbacks at the post-season game played in Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. In 1965, Screen was drafted in the tenth round by the Cleveland Browns
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are a professional football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
.
Screen, however, did not play professionally but earned an LSU law degree and began his practice in Baton Rouge in 1970. One of his law partners was City Judge Ossie Brown
Ossie Brown
Ossie B. Brown was a Baton Rouge Democrat who served two six-year terms as district attorney of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, from 1972—1984. In 1970, he successfully defended United States Army Sergeant David Mitchell in the My Lai Massacre cases...
, who was elected East Baton Rouge Parish district attorney
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...
in 1972.
The political arena
In 1980, Screen won the mayoral position, a combined municipal-parish office in Baton Rouge, to succeed the Democratic incumbentIncumbent
The incumbent, in politics, is the existing holder of a political office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent. For example, in the 2004 United States presidential election, George W...
, W.W. Dumas of Baker
Baker, Louisiana
Baker is a city in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, United States, and a part of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 13,793 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Baker is located at...
. Reelected in 1984, Screen hired a personal friend, Walter Monsour, a Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
, as his chief administrative officer. The two had first met at a high school football game and renewed their friendship at LSU and continued their association through law school. Monsour, from C.E. Byrd High School in Shreveport
Shreveport, Louisiana
Shreveport is the third largest city in Louisiana. It is the principal city of the fourth largest metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana and is the 109th-largest city in the United States....
, was an LSU cheerleader, a highly prized position. Mansour was considered to have been so successful in alleviating fiscal problems in the second Screen administration that he was brought back to the CAO position two decades later in 2005 by newly-elected Democratic Mayor Melvin "Kip" Holden
Kip Holden
Melvin L. "Kip" Holden is the Democratic Mayor-President of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. The parish includes the state capitol of Baton Rouge and smaller suburban cities like Baker, Central City and Zachary. He was elected the city's mayor on November 3, 2004. He unseated the Republican...
, for whom Monsour had not even voted.
Having lost the two previous mayor-president elections, Holden in 2004 upset the incumbent Republican Mayor-President Bobby Simpson
Bobby Simpson (Louisiana politician)
Bobby Ray Simpson is an educator who served as the Republican Mayor-President, a combined municipal-parish office of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, from 2001-2004...
, Monsour told Holden that he could no longer function as an African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
legislator but must act as a mayor for all citizens: "Fine. I want you to do for me what you did for Pat Screen," Holden told Monsour.
In 1987, Screen and Mary Oliver Pierson, his aide during his first term, were indicted
Indictment
An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...
on one count each of malfeasance
Malfeasance
The expressions misfeasance and nonfeasance, and occasionally malfeasance, are used in English law with reference to the discharge of public obligations existing by common law, custom or statute.-Definition and relevant rules of law:...
in the misapplication of road project funds prior to the successful reelection campaign in 1984. Screen and Pierson maintained their innocence. Screen said that he had followed the directions of the city attorney and had no idea what crime could have been committed. State Attorney General William Guste later dismissed the charges on legal grounds.
Screen did not seek a third term in 1988, when he was succeeded by fellow Democrat and later Republican convert Tom Ed McHugh
Tom Ed McHugh
Thomas Edward McHugh, known as Tom Ed McHugh , has since 2001 been the executive director of the Louisiana Municipal Association. McHugh is a former Mayor-President, a combined municipal-parish position, of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. A resident of Zachary in East Baton Rouge Parish, McHugh...
, a descendant of an old-line family whose earliest members founded the East Baton Rouge city of Zachary
Zachary, Louisiana
Zachary is a city in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, United States, in the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 11,275 at the 2000 census.-History:...
.
Personal life
Screen was considered to have possible statewide political potential, but his outlook was marred by dependence on alcoholAlcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
and, in his second term, drugs
DRUGS
Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows are an American post-hardcore band formed in 2010. They released their debut self-titled album on February 22, 2011.- Formation :...
. Mansour said that Screen slowly succumbed to "inner demons". Screen was found dead from a drug overdose in 1994 at the age of fifty-one in a New Orleans hotel
Hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
on the Monday after Labor Day
Labor Day
Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September that celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers.-History:...
. It was unclear why he was in a New Orleans hotel, for his parents were still living at the time in nearby Metairie. Two days earlier, LSU had defeated, 44–24, Mississippi State University
Mississippi State University
The Mississippi State University of Agriculture and Applied Science commonly known as Mississippi State University is a land-grant university located in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi, United States, partially in the town of Starkville and partially in an unincorporated area...
of Starkville
Starkville, Mississippi
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 21,869 people, 9,462 households, and 4,721 families residing in the city. The population density was 851.4 people per square mile . There were 10,191 housing units at an average density of 396.7 per square mile...
in a game played in Baton Rouge. At Screen’s funeral, Monsour called his fallen friend, "the most talented, passionate person I ever knew, who, unfortunately, was conflicted."
Pat Screen and his wife, the former Kathleen Clare McCall (born 1945), had one daughter and two sons; Mary Shannon Screen Beacham (born 1969) of (Baton Rouge, LA) and James P. Screen, III (born 1970) of Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, Texas, the husband of the former Danielle Dimisa (born 1972), and Thomas McCall "Tommy" Screen (born 1975) of New Orleans. Tommy Screen was named in 2008 as the director of the Loyola University
Loyola University New Orleans
Loyola University New Orleans is a private, co-educational and Jesuit university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Originally established as Loyola College in 1904, the institution was chartered as a university in 1912. It bears the name of the Jesuit patron, Saint Ignatius of Loyola...
Institute of Politics in New Orleans. Tommy Screen is a protégé of former Democratic U.S. Senator John Breaux
John Breaux
John Berlinger Breaux is a former United States senator from Louisiana who served from 1987 until 2005. He was also a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1972 to 1987. He was considered one of the more conservative national legislators from the Democratic Party...
of Louisiana and the Democratic political activist James Carville
James Carville
Chester James Carville, Jr. is an American political consultant, commentator, educator, actor, attorney, media personality, and prominent liberal pundit. Carville gained national attention for his work as the lead strategist of the successful presidential campaign of then-Arkansas governor Bill...
, a Georgia native reared in Carville. He succeeded Ed Renwick, who had directed the institute for four decades.
Screen, who was Roman Catholic, is interred in Baton Rouge at Resthaven Gardens of Memories and Mausoleum.