Stanley Maxwell

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, May 9, 2007

NATCHEZ — Services celebrating the life of Stanley Meserve Maxwell, 93, who died Saturday, May 5, 2007, at his home at Manilla Plantation on Lake St. John, were 10 a.m. Monday, May 7, 2007, at Greenlawn Memorial Park with the Rev. Dr. Robert N. Cooper officiating.

Burial followed under the direction of Young’s Funeral Home, Ferriday.

After graduation from Louisiana State University with a degree in forestry and business administration, Mr. Maxwell and his bride, Ann Jane Shaw of Bastrop, lived for a time in a log cabin on Manilla where he farmed Manilla and Canebrake plantations. In his 93 years, he saw and reflected on many events. He rode steamboats with his father, Lyle Maxwell, to New Orleans to market cotton. During the flood of 1927, he patrolled levees on horseback.

Mr. Maxwell was employed with International Paper in the Woodland Division, and was a Farm Bureau agent for 20 years. Dedicated to preservation of wildlife and the environment, he served on the board of the Tensas-Concordia Soil Conservation District.

Mr. Maxwell was a graduate of Waterproof High School and Marion Military Institute. While at Louisiana State University, he was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity and the Tiger Band. He was a member of Grace Mission Episcopal Church of Waterproof.

In a ceremony in the 1930s, Mr. Maxwell, his father, Lyle, and brother, John, were awarded the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America, the only time in the history of the organization that a father and two sons together attained this distinction.

Survivors include his wife of 70 years; his daughters, Frances Maxwell Cox of Monroe and Susan Shaw Maxwell of New Orleans; grandchildren, Ann Jane Campbell Cox of Dallas and Gary Maxwell Cox and wife, Christy, both of Monroe; a niece, Lillian Shaw Loewenbaum of Austin; and nephews, Edward Driscoll Shaw III of Monroe, John Halstead Maxwell of Tulsa, Okla., Barry Lyle Maxwell of Canebrake Plantation and Stephen Lucky Maxwell of Little Rock, Ark.

The family suggests planned memorials may be made to the Boys Scouts of America, Grace Mission Episcopal Church or the American Cancer Society.