KD Kilpatrick

Early years, education, family business

Kilpatrick was born in Farmerville in Union Parish, Louisiana, to Edgar Noel Kilpatrick and the former Effie Mae Hicks. Edgar Kilpatrick began a small funeral business in Farmerville in 1927; he also worked as a letter carrier. In 1935, the company opened another funeral home in Bernice, also in Union Parish. On Thanksgiving Day 1944, E.N. Kilpatrick was felled by a stroke and left paralyzed for the last decade of his life. K.D. and his younger brother, Tex R. Kilpatrick, thereafter worked with their mother in the family business. K.D. recalls that the stroke "left my father an invalid, although he was to live for ten more years. [Because of] his paralysis, I was forced to become a man overnight. It was during World War II, and there were no adult men to help us. So, as a teenager, I joined my mother in rearing my sister and brother, and in keeping our business together."

Leader in the funeral industry

Kilpatrick graduated from Farmerville High School and attended Louisiana Tech University in Ruston. He graduated from the Landig College of Mortuary Science in Houston, Texas. He was the co-owner of Kilpatrick Funeral Homes, Inc., Central American Life Insurance Company, Inc., and Ashley Life Insurance Company, Inc., prior to his retirement in 2001. The four Kilpatrick funeral homes, in Farmerville, Monroe, West Monroe, and Ruston, are now operated by Tex Kilpatrick of Monroe, who holds a degree in chemistry from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and turned down a medical career to join his brother in the management of the funeral home. The Kilpatricks acquired the West Monroe outlet in the 1950s and the Monroe facility in 1977.

K.D. Kilpatrick exerted impact on the funeral industry regionally and nationally. He was a board member of the National Selected Morticians, a past president of the North Louisiana Funeral Directors Association and the Louisiana Funeral Directors Association, and a former member of the National Association of Funeral Directors.

He was named "Outstanding Young Man of the Year" by the Farmerville Jaycees. He was a former president of the Farmerville and the Ruston-Lincoln Chamber of Commerce organizations. He was active in the Trinity United Methodist Church of Ruston. He was a co-founder of Ducks Unlimited in Lincoln Parish. For more than thirty-five years, he was affiliated with the Ruston Kiwanis Club. He was also a member of the Masonic lodge and the Shriners and served on the board of two banks and the Louisiana Tech Alumni Foundation.

Kilpatrick was elected to the state Senate in 1972, succeeding fellow Democrat Charles C. Barham, an attorney in Ruston and a son of former Lieutenant Governor C.E. "Cap" Barham. Charles Barham reclaimed the seat in 1976, having won a heated runoff election against fellow Democrat Louise B. Johnson, a businesswoman from Bernice. Charles Barham died in Shreveport less than two months after the passing of Kilpatrick.

Death and legacy

Kilpatrick's first wife was the former Mildred Sue Barmore (1930–2009), also known as Sue B. Cook of Shreveport. Her first husband was William Cook. Kilpatrick died March 14, 2010. He was survived by his second wife, the former Anne Burford of Ruston, formerly of Mississippi; four children, K.D. Kilpatrick, Jr., and wife Mitzie of Shreveport, Paula Kilpatrick Kirk and husband, Les, also of Shreveport, Richard Barham Kilpatrick of Farmerville, and Melanie Kilpatrick Jarrell Willets and husband David Willets of Tulsa, Oklahoma; a brother: Tex R. Kilpatrick and wife Carole of Monroe; a sister, Johnnie Nell "Sis" Gorton of West Monroe; thirteen grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

Services for Kilpatrick were held on March 17, 2010, at Trinity United Methodist Church. Honorary pallbearers included current State Senator Neil Riser, a mortician from Columbia in Caldwell Parish, former Senator Randy Ewing of Quitman in Jackson Parish, and Farmerville Mayor Stein Baughman.

Mayor Baughman, a longtime Kilpatrick friend, said that the former senator was "a great friend to many people and he was so well respected in all areas with a cross-section of people. . . . He was the kind of guy that you didn't have to see him or talk to him everyday [sic], but you knew he was there. K.D. was a man's man and he's going to be missed by so many people who he had helped in so many ways that none of us even knew about."

Ryan Kilpatrick said that his grandfather "never missed an opportunity to teach his children and grandchildren a life lesson. He always wanted us to work hard and be our best. He had a passion for life and for people. Papaw treated everyone he met with respect and compassion, no matter who they were or where they were from. One of his favorite sayings was ‘leave it better than you found it.’ My grandfather did that in life. He left it better than he found it, and I’m better and we’re better because we found him.”