Jack C. Watson

Jack Crozier Watson (born September 17, 1928) was a Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court from 1979 to 1996.[1][2]

Born in Jonesville, Louisiana, Watson received his undergraduate degree from the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette) in 1949, and joined the United States Air Force the following year, serving in the Philippines, Japan and Korea during the Korean War.[1] He was discharged in 1954, and received a Juris Doctor from Louisiana State University Law School in 1956.[1] Watson was thereafter a lawyer in Lake Charles, Louisiana, until 1960, when he became a prosecutor in that city, becoming an Assistant District Attorney for Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana from 1961 to 1964, and then a judge for the Louisiana District Court for Parishes of Calcasieu and Cameron from 1964 to 1972. Watson then served on the 1st and 3rd Circuit Courts of Appeal between 1972 and 1979, when Governor Edwin Edwards appointed Watson to a seat on the Louisiana Supreme Court vacated by the Albert Tate, the latter having been appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.[3]

On September 21, 1996, Watson was defeated in his bid for reelection by fellow Democrat Jeannette Knoll, 102,560 (54.7%) to 84,861 (45.3%), losing by a three-to-one margin in Avoyelles Parish.[4]