Spencer Myrick

Background

Myrick was one of ten children born in Simpson County in south central Mississippi, to tenant farmers James Martin "Jim" Myrick and his wife, the former Allie Artimissa Parker. Prior to the Great Depression, the family relocated to West Carroll Parish, where they purchased a 100-acre (0.40 km²) farm near Oak Grove. Myrick dropped out of school in the third grade to help his parents to work the farm. One of his living brothers is Billie E. "Bill" Myrick, a Country music figure from Odessa, Texas.

Myrick was the fourth great grandson of Major Samuel Earle, III, born c. 1690 in the Cople Parish of Westmoreland County, Virginia. An early graduate of William & Mary College, Earle became an attorney. He was elected the first member of the Virginia House of Burgesses from Frederick County, having held the seat that would later be occupied by first U.S. President George Washington. Earle owned land adjoining that of George Washingtgon's father, Augustine Washington. Earle's plantation housed the Yeocomico Episcopal Church, which the Washington and Ball families attended. (Major) Samuel Earle, III's first wife was Anna Sorrell with whom he had several children including his first son to be named Samuel Earle, IV who was born in 1727 and died abt. 1752 and, after the death of Anna Sorrell, married second wife Elizabeth Holbrook, over thirty years his junior, with whom he had several children including his second son to be named Samuel Earle, IV, (RS,) born: 1760 at Town Run Estates, Fauquier County, Virginia, died: 1845 in Mobile, Alabama, who fought in the Revolutionary War as did a nephew of the same name also born in 1760. The second Samuel Earle, IV, (RS,) was the third great grandfather of W. Spencer Myrick and his siblings. The Earle lineage is descended from the Earle/de Erleigh/Earleigh men known as "The White Knights" including Sir John Erleigh/de Earleigh who was closely associated with William Marshall and Sir John de Erleigh's wife Margaret de Bryan/Brienne, daughter of Sir Guy de Bryan/Brienne, K.G. - Knight of the Garter, also direct ancestral grandparents of Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales. Sir John Earle, I/Sr., born: ca. 1614 at Somerton Estate, Nye, Winscomb, Somerton, Somersetshire, England, and his first wife Mary Symons, born: abt. 1618 in Gloucestershire, England, were the seventh great grandparents of W. Spencer Myrick and the first immigrants to America in this lineage. Sir John Earle, I/Sr. arrived in St. Mary's County, Maryland in 1649 immediately moving into Northumberland County, Virginia where he settled Yeocomico/Yeocomoco Plantation after acquiring it from the Yeocomico Indians. There he built the family estate "Spring Neck" on Earle's Creek as the first of several family plantations.

Myrick was descended from numerous ancestral grandfathers from England who arrived early in the Virginia colony. His ancestors were of royal and noble bloodlines, including the Tudors, whose descendants would be part of the major plantation-owning citizens of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia and later into Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Many of them lost their land and fortunes during the American Civil War, and many became tenant farmers—as did Myrick's parents, who purchased their land and sat about restoration for their families.

Political life

Myrick first entered state politics as an elected member of the House of Representatives, having served from 1956 to 1960 during the final administration of Governor Earl Kemp Long. During the following second administration of Governor Jimmie Davis, Myrick was an investigator for the since defunct Louisiana Sovereignty Commission, which monitored civil rights activists and communist infiltrators within the state. The panel was headed by Frank Voelker, Jr., a Tulane University Law School graduate and the former city attorney in his native Lake Providence in East Carroll Parish, located due east of Myrick's own West Carroll Parish. Voelker ran in the 1963 Democratic gubernatorial primary but polled few votes. In that same election, Myrick was nominated and then elected without opposition to the Louisiana State Senate. He served a single term from 1964 to 1968.

Myrick did not seek reelection to the Senate in 1967. Instead, he ran unsuccessfully statewide for Louisiana insurance commissioner against the one-term incumbent Dudley A. Guglielmo. Myrick also worked periodically as an aide to Governor Earl Long, a confidant and friend.

After his legislative years, Myrick and his wife, the former Marie Gammill (May 13, 1918–June 19, 1998) resided in Baton Rouge, where Myrick died. Mrs. Myrick died in Monroe, where she was then residing. The couple is survived by two sons, Jimmy Love Myrick and Ronnie Myrick, grandchildren, Nancy Love Myrick, Leigh Anna Myrick, Kimberly Myrick Favaloro, and Michael Myrick, and great grandchildren Laine Eckles, Carly Love Herrin, John Sinclair Myrick, Guy Jeffrey Favaloro, and Kathryn Marie Favaloro.