Biography
The following interview on April 26, 2002 is with Elizabeth Derieux who lives at 2025 Ashley Street Gladewater, Texas it will become a part of the oral history project at The interviewer is William Daniels.
Biography Attorney. Judge Parker, Judge Steger, Judge Guthrie, Judge Justice, Judge Hannah (hand written on interview cover page). The interviewer is William D. Daniel, and the interviewee is Elizabeth DeRieux.
WD - William D. Daniel
ED - Elizabeth DeRieux
Transcript
WD: First of all I would like to ask what you think Judge Parker is like?
ED: He is wonderful. He's intelligent. He's very much a big picture person. He's always thinking about the bigger implications of decisions, always thinking of where the law and society ought to be going. Not where are we right now but where are we going. And he also has the capacity to be in any group of people, in a group of lawyers or in a courtroom, you always have the feeling like he is five steps ahead of everybody else in the courtroom. In terms of preparation and raw intelligence, I think that his intelligence and just the way he views the world, that big picture view of the world, those two things that kind of define him. I think the other thing that you really have to understand about Judge is his capacity to read and understand people. Part of that is flat charm, he was a trial lawyer and juries loved him and he was very successful and he brought that with him to the bench and was able to use that ability to read and understand people, and their needs and motivations, all that is just so important in resolving litigation, getting cases, some of them he would be instrumental in them to get big cases settled or disposed of if that is what he to be done. The other thing that I think is very central to who he is, is ability to make a decision and go on. He wanted all the information; he wanted all the factors on the table, he wanted to study them and understand them and then he decided. And in ten minutes later if you wanted to talk about it again or worry about it or bring it back up, he would say, "that has been decided. We have other decisions to make." He would never spend any energy or time looking back or regretting or second-guessing himself. He had that ability to decide and once the decision was made to go forward in all of that.
WD: He was very purposeful in what he done?
ED: Oh, that ability of decision making was, I suspect that was one of the most important things I learned from him. To make the very best decision he could, to get everything he needed together and make a decision but once you made it go on.
WD: How had Judge Parker influenced your career?
ED: I spent ten years with Judge, I was just over thirty when I started to work for him and was a little bit unusual in the sense that I had already practiced law and been out of law school for eight years and practiced law. So I wasn't a baby lawyer right out of school but the lawyer that I was before I went to work for him was in many ways the baby lawyer because I had so much to learn and every day I learned from him. Substant legal concept and ways to think about the law and arguments about politics and I learned about cooking and raising chickens and baking bread and choosing wine, he was such a universal impact on not just my legal career but my whole life. I just learned from him. He had the passion for every area of life for people and learning, reading you can't help but learn something every time you're in the room with him. And I just think that the whole way the he embraced life might have been the most important thing I learned from him just to go at it a hundred miles an hour.
WD: Go at it, but live it while you're able?
ED: Live it to the fullest I think that capacity just to be in the room with him just the opportunity to do that every working day for ten years was just a wonderful opportunity for me.
WD: What other Judges have been influential to you?
ED: When you work in the Tyler federal court house, the court house is very much a family and I know that sounds like a cliché but the clerk's office and the judge's chambers it's hard to describe because it's different than maybe the Houston federal court house or the Dallas courthouse where it's so big you can't know everybody, everybody knew everybody and anytime that someone was ill or had a birthday or a child was born or somebody retired, a court wide celebration and so we were very very fortunate to have good strong relationships with everybody in the court house. Judge Steger is a delight. He is one of my favorite people in the whole world. Judge Judith Guthrie also just bright, strong wonderful woman. When Judge Parker was on the District Bench, Judge Justice was in the courthouse as well, and Judge Justice had those very famous breakfast meetings, you could go down and eat cinnamon rolls and drink coffee in the morning with Judge Justice and his crew and he would be there reading the newspaper. Whatever was in the new or whatever anybody was reading, all of that was on the table for discussion and have the opportunity to talk in that kind of setting about world events with a person of that stature was just a great opportunity. But Judge Justice was there, later after Judge Parker went on the sixth circuit, Judge Hannah was appointed to the bench and he of course was on the district bench after Judge Parker was on the circuit bench and Judge Hannah was there at the courthouse and he was a wonderful man.
WD: What influential cases have you been associated with?
ED: On the district bench Judge Parker was very involved with the asbestos litigation, We of course, Judge Parker, was not involved in the appeal of that because he had handled it on the district bench so not at the appellant level so probably from the eastern district of Texas from that aspect probably that asbestos litigation was probably the biggest one. But there were others that were important in other ways, he tried a very very early death penalty case. The defendant's name was Villareal. He was involved in an early fourth amendment, early in a fourth amendment issue concerning, there is some technology called FLIR Technology and I believe it stands for Forward Looking Infrared it's a way law enforcement to pick up heat waves that are inside a house and there are some questions on whether or not that is a search and Judge Parker wrote a continuance on the district bench. Very much against the weight of other authorities that was out there and his position would eventually prevail so that was a very very interesting thing to be involved in.
WD: Right.
ED: And I love fourth amendment law, actually, I'm the little fourth amendment geek that sits in the back of the office. And I had a, I have now a criminal practice so I have a big interest in a lot of the criminal issues and on the district bench and also on the appellant bench. The docket was both criminal and civil though you could get a good mix.
WD: Sure. What type of work did you traditionally do before the court? What was the work you've done personally?
ED: Oh, what did I do for the court? I was a law clerk from the moment I walked in to the moment I walked out. They called me a career clerk or an elbow clerk and on the district bench the law clerks job includes researching on civil cases you have, motions for summary judgment and assists the Judge in writing the opinion that particularly devoted granted higher judgments write very thorough opinions that going to dispose of the whole case. If you have a trial, law clerks are often involved in research and preparing any legal issues concerning jury charges or any, you know, kind of technical legal thing that needs to be sorted out. I will say as Judge Parker's law clerk we didn't have a lot of opportunity to work on things like, although these are legal questions, like evidentiary calls because Judge Parker had us so far ahead of everybody in the courtroom that by the time someone had finished saying their objection, "objection you honor 403". I am the little law clerk going flip, flip, flip 403, 403 and I'm going to read it. And he has already ruled it and we are on the next question. Because he has such grasp of that, he very seldom required law clerk assistance on you know on research of those kinds of issues, but any legal technical issue our job is primarily researching and writing on legal issues that were presented to the court. And I would describe by job, I was actually paid money to read and think and write and argue with my Judge and I every day got up and said "I can't believe they pay me to do this. It was so wonderful." I really sat in a little room, on the district bench, I actually sat in the library and at the time we did some research in the books and then some on the computer and it evolved over time to where we did more on the computer and less in the books. But if you can imagine this little book worm farm girl, sitting at a job where you went every day and sat in a library and read books and you thought about the ideas and then you wrote legal, you know, memos to the Judge or drafted opinions for the Judge and then if it was a big issue or a difficult issue the Judge would often assign more than one law clerk to the issue and everybody would research and think about it a write about it and then get around a table and we would all argue and wave our arms and shout at each other sometimes there was a little cussing and slamming going on. We get pretty excited but in the way we would hammer out like all the different angles but look at all the different issues that would come before the court and of course when everybody had gone through that exercise the judge would then make a final decision. And sometime you were assigned to write opinions or memos or take positions, that wouldn't have been your position but it was the judge's ruling and that was the way it was written but that was all such an interesting process to see how that decision making happened inside chambers to see that exchange of ideas of course on the district bench you had a lot of interaction with attorneys too. Attorneys would either go in open court and make their arguments occasionally attorneys would come in to chambers like all the parties and their attorneys would come into chambers and would make arguments before the judge in that setting so often we would have a whole room full of lawyers arguing and shouting and waving their arms around. So, yeah it was very exciting.
WD: What Judges that you've dealt with do you feel like have affected the community and daily life in general?
ED: I would say certainly Judge Parker the most. I obviously have no objectivity in this question, but with the answer I think that he has had the opportunity after he was appointed to the circuit bench to shape the law in a very very important way. And sometimes the important thing that a judge can do is stick to an unpopular decision or to write a decent or special concurrent and not follow what the majority is doing. I think that can be very important as well to be the lone voice and that can be a very frustrating position to be in particularly with the fifth circuit. If you have a majority on the court that has a particular, you know, agenda or political view or view of the law. For an individual to say I disagree with that no matter how strongly I articulate it or no matter how right I am, my view is not going to prevail, its not going to change who wins this law suit. But to none the less get out there and say it, to have it in writing to publish it and stick by it and not to let that majority be the only voice that's heard and I think that's very very important. In terms of issues I would say that Judge Parker has been instrumental in the evolution of civil litigation he served on committees in Washington D.C. that shaped legislation and wrote litigation he had a very strong view that litigants, ordinary middle class people ought to be able to afford to have their disputes resolved in a public forum and he has strong concern that because of the excessive delay in the litigation that civil litigation is by enlarge outside the realm of possibility for ordinary people anymore. It is now that product of big corporations like insurance companies and indigents who for whatever reasons are in the courts without attorneys or in some way is subsidized by the taxpayer but the vast majority of just ordinary working people don't have access to court and I think he has done a lot work in that realm that really moved the court in that direction. I think that, in terms of what's happened that's impacted the ordinary lives of Americans. I would say that is the most important thing. He was also, as I said before, very involved in that asbestos litigation. Thinking about innovative ways not just to litigate it but to settle it and to create ways for people to have their disputes resolved in that personal injury setting. So that, he, he would be my one. Certainly Judge Justice got a lot of very interesting litigation during the time he was there he done some very important things and I need to say that, earlier, before I got there this wasn't something that I was involved in but I feel as if I was kind of personally involved. Judge Parker integrated the public school system in Beaumont, Texas. At some great personal cost to himself, politically that was a very unpopular decision the reason I've kind of taken that as my own is that South Park High School is my alma mater. I even got to South Park High School after the integration of course South Park doesn't exist anymore. I've always kidded Judge that he had made my class ring a collector's item and maybe at some point a rich woman because I actually own a South Park High School class ring. Although that hasn't materialized and I'm still practicing law but the fact that he handled that litigation before I ever got to court so I wasn't personally involved in it, but certainly that had a huge impact.
WD: Sure. Just an example of how he wasn't influenced by public opinion.
ED: He did what he thought was right, absolutely.
WD: How do you think as a whole that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, how the law changes have resulted in a change in this area?
ED: How the court has influenced our community kind of?
WD: Yes.
ED: Well, in addition to integrating our public schools they've certainly cleaned up our prison system. I think was critical, that we have a concern about that prison system being run in ways that are sane and fare and humane and the federal court system has been very instrumental in that. I think in moving toward opening the court to civil litigants who need to have disputes resolved. And also to explore ways to mediate cases not just an adversarial resolution of cases that particularly Judge Guthrie has been very involved and is often assigned to mediate civil cases and at no cost to the litigant.
WD: Right
ED: Taxpayer provided mediation services which is mediation, if you've ever done any mediation, can be very very costly because you have to pay, not only the attorney involved, but the private mediator as well by providing a public mediator if you have an opportunity to mediate without paying, otherwise it would be very expensive to mediate. So you get more hands, money in the hands of the litigates rather than the attorneys, maybe in the hands of the litigates.
WD: What direction do you see this, the court moving in? Do you see a direction that of maybe, I guess you have by what you've stated, being more litigate, middle class oriented?
ED: I think that is certainly a goal. Whether or not that's going to happen and the reality, I mean that's a goal and an important first goal. Where we're going to be twenty five years from now on that goal if we will have achieved that or moved into the right direction it's hard to say. I don't know. I think that what will happen is as just, I mean that is just a function of the system and we're going to see a particular court, or a particular Judge as favorable or unfavorable to their position then the litigates will make choices in terms of court selections. They'll file to have the case entered, say the court district, they could have filed in federal court or vice versa but they will file in a particular division, the Marshall division verses the Tyler division. There's law that lets, those are the Judge of choices that litigants and their attorneys have to make in fact you see no only the court making decisions but in part the community but then you see the community kind of responding.
WD: Right
ED: By making those kind of choices. And so a docket perhaps if you see Beaumont for a long time had their reputation for having very liberal jury's, so people wanted to file his cases in Beaumont. With a community with a lot of Union organizations, and a very strong Democratic Party they were, juries in Beaumont were perceived as very favorable to plaintiffs. So, plaintiffs filed a lot of suits in Beaumont and in Marshall and fewer in Tyler. If you had a choice you would never file a suit in Tyler and choose a counter juror or a Tyler division jury. So, you see that as well, but you see the, then the judge who is assigned to Tyler or to Beaumont or to Marshall has a particular kind of docket that they have an opportunity to litigate, those kind of cases if you are a district judge and you don't love Texas then you better love criminal law and drugs because that, I mean you have a lot of your docket is primarily litigated criminal charges against alleged drug dealers. So I mean, so what happens is that you get to view those as individual base be assigned to a particular federal bench and then regardless as whether that person has an interest in criminal law or has interest in civil litigation that's the docket you get. So sometimes, the judges careers are influenced by what kind of opportunities they get, what kind of litigation comes before them that they get to resolve.
WD: Right
ED: It's all very saradistict. I mean the judge makes an impact on the community, but then again the community comes, sometimes shapes the judges opportunities and career.
WD: Right
ED: So that is kind of interesting to watch.
WD: Give and take though.
ED: That's right.
WD: Well, do you think that Judge Parker was shaped by the court system? Or do you think the court system was shaped by him?
ED: I think both. I think he was appointed to the federal bench as a very young man as federal judges go. And I think that, had he not been on the bench, through several presidential administrations and through many title changes, in other words he had opportunities, people brought disputes to him to resolve. And in resolving them and learning about them and working himself in those disputes he learned and grew in ways, that if he had just been a lawyer out there litigating cases he would have learned something different. Or turned his attention to learn something different. So I think yeah, I think he was very much shaped by his opportunities to become a federal judge as a very young man and to spend the bulk of his career as a servant. I mean he could have been a litigator all of his life. Certainly there were financial advantage to do that. Instead he choose to serve us as a judge for the bulk of his career. So I think all those all things shaped him and shaped how, you know, how his career turned out.
WD: Can I ask you now on a personal level of him, tell me an unusual story you might have about him. Do you have any, anything unusual, quirky, that might be of interest?
ED: I have a thousand, if I could. It's so hard to choose one. I could tell Judge Parker stories for a week. Judge Parker, for several years was very involved in raising chickens, he had a chicken house out behind his back and there was a young woman who was a news paper reporter for the local news paper, who had a young son and because of the type of person or kind of people the judge and Freda Parker were, she was as welcome in their home as any kindred. And she would go out and visit them. And her little boy was about, probably three or four years old, was so delighted by the chicken house and about the fact that there, that eggs coming in cartons in the grocery store that the eggs came from underneath these chickens. And the judge would take the little boy out there and help him find the eggs and carry the eggs in a basket back in to Freda in the kitchen where she would make up something. And so the little boy called them judge's eggs, homemade eggs. And I just love that but judge and his family would talk about, if you were baking a particular egg dish or something whether or not you were making them with homemade eggs or grocery store eggs. And judge also have had over the years, beautiful, beautiful gardens, bring us tomatoes and he would cook for us, and he was just so full of life and he just loved to eat, and tell stories, and that was something of my very, very best memories. A lovely, lovely lady Freda was a wonderful cook and she would prepare meals for us and would have the staff eat with Freda and maybe go there at lunch and she would have made homemade pimento cheese from scratch and she would make these homemade pimento sandwiches on homemade bread. I mean, their lives were so wonderful and full of the very best of what life has to offer. And I think that is the kind of life the kind of love someone who spends time with judge that would just, not even about the law necessarily we were about, you know, homemade eggs.
WD: First of all, I would like to ask what did you think Judge Parker is like?
ED: He was wonderful, yes (laughs). He uh, he was intelligent. He was very much a deep picture person. Always thinking about the bigger implications. Always thinking about where the law and society ought to be going, not just, where we are right now but where we are going. He also has the capacity to be in a group of law or in a courtroom you always had the sense that he was ahead of everybody else in the courtroom just in terms of preparation and well intelligent. I think that he was intelligent in the way that he viewed the world the big picture way that he viewed it. And, I think that those two things really define him. The other thing that you really have to understand about judge is his capacity to read and understand people and part of that was just flat charm. He was a trial lawyer and Judge Ulrich liked him and he was very successful, and brought that with him to the bench, and use that ability to read and understand people and needs and motivation. All of that was just so important in resolving litigation and get cases some of them he would eventually get big cases settled and the others he did what had to be done. The other thing that I think was very essential to who he was his ability to just make a decision and move on. He wanted all of the information and he wanted all of the factors on the table. He wanted to study them and understand them and then he decided. And ten minutes later if you wanted to talk about it again or worry about it, he would say that that's been decided he had other decisions to make he would never spend any energy or time worrying or second-guessing himself. He had that ability to decide and once that decision was made, he would go forward with that.
WD: He was very purposeful in what he had done
ED: Oh, that ability of decision-making was I expect that was one of the most important things I learned from him. To make the very best decision you could make get everything together but once you've made it to go on.
WD: How had Judge Parker influenced your career?
ED: I spent ten years with judge. I was just over thirty when I started working with him. And, was a little unusual that I had already practiced law before I came to him. I had been out of law school for eight years, and so I wasn't a baby lawyer right out of school. But, the lawyer that I worked with before I worked with him was in many ways a baby lawyer because I had so much to learn but every day I learned from him. But his sense, his goals, concepts and ways to think about the law and arguments about politics, I learned about cooking and raising chickens and baking break and choosing wine. He was such a, just a universal impact on not just my legal career but, just my whole life. He had a passion for every area of life, for people, in reading and learning. You can't just help but to learn something when you are in the room with him. And, I don't think that that whole way that he embraced life might have been the most important thing that I learned from him just go at it a 100 miles an hour just go at it.
WD: Just go at it.
ED: Live it to the fullest and I think that capacity to just be in the room with him. To just work with him every day was just a wonderful opportunity with him.
WD: What other judges have been influential to you?
ED: Hum, when you work in a Tyler Federal Courthouse, the courthouse in very much a family, and I know that sounds very much like a cliché. But the court process and the judge's chambers, it is hard to describe because it is different from maybe the Dallas or Houston courthouse where they are so big that you can't know everybody but here everybody knew everybody. Anytime anybody was ill or had a birthday or a child was born or somebody retired, we had a courthouse-wide celebration. So we were very very fortunate to have good strong relationships with everybody in the courthouse. Judge Steger is a delight he was one of my favorite people in the world. Judge Jude Guthrie, also a strong, strong wonderful lawyer. When Judge Carter was on the fifth circuit bench, Judge Justice was in the courthouse as well. And Judge Justice had those famous breakfast meetings. Where you could go down and eat cinnamon rolls and drink coffee with Judge Justice and his crew. Whatever was in the news or whatever anyone was reading. To have the opportunity to talk about world events with a person of that statue was just a great honor to me. So Judge Justice was there. Later after Judge Parker was appointed to the fifth circuit Judge Hanover was appointed to the bench and he of course was on the bench after Judge (mumbles…)
WD: What cases have you been associated with?
ED: On the Districts bench, Judge Parker was very involved with the asbestos litigation. We, of course, Judge Parker was not involved with the appeal of that because he had handled it on the district bench. So not on the appellate level. There probably in the eastern district of Texas from that probably that that asbestos litigation. "Hum, would probably be the biggest one, but there were others that were important in other ways, he trialed a very early death penalty case. Hum, the defendants name was Gullory Young, he hum was involved in an early 4th amendment issue concerning, use of technology called forward looking infrared it was a way for law enforcement to pick up heat waves inside a house and the question was whether or not that was a search and Judge Parker wrote an opinion on the district bench. Against the wave against what was out there and his position was eventually…(mumbles). That was a very interesting thing to be involved in. And I have now a criminal practice, so I have a big interest in a lot of the criminal issues. Hum, and on the district bench and also on the appellate bench, the docket was both criminal and civil, you get a good mix.
WD: Sure. What type of work did you traditionally do before the court? What was the work that you did personally?
ED: Oh, what did I do in court? I was a law clerk from the moment I walked in until the moment I walked out. They call me a career clerk or an elbow clerk. And on the district bench, a law clerk's job includes researching, or filling papers that you have motions for summary judgment and often researches legal issues on motions for summary judgment and assist the judge in writing the opinion that particularly…(mumbles). If you have a trial, law clerks are generally involved in researching and preparing, any legal issues concerning jury charges or hum, any you kind or technical legal thing that needs to be sorted out. I will say in Judge Parker's court room we didn't have a lot of opportunity to work on things like legal questions like evidentiary calls, because, Judge Parker as I said was so ahead of everybody in the courtroom that by the time someone had finished saying their objection. "Objection your honor 483." And I'm the law clerk going, what is 483 and I am going to read it and he's already ruled and we're on the next question. Um, because he had such grasp of that the very seldom required law clerk assistance on; you know researching those kinds of issues. But any legal paper work issue our job was primarily researching and writing or legal issues what were presented in the court. I mean, I always described my job as hum, I my job; I was actually paid money to read and think, and write and argue with my judge. And I, every day that I was there, I would say, "I can't believe they pay me to do this." It was so wonderful; I worked out of a little room, on a different bench I actually sat in the library. We did some research in the books and then some on the computer and it evolved overtime to where we did more on the computers and less in the books. But if you can imagine for the little bookworm girl, to get a job where you went everyday and you sat in the library, read books and you thought about the ideas, and then you wrote legal either memos to the judge or drafted opinions for the judge and hum, then if it was a big issue or a difficult issue the judge would often assign more than one law clerk to the issue and everybody would research, think about it, and write about it, and then we would get around a table and then we would all argue and wave our arms and shout at each other, uh, sometimes there was a little cursing and slamming going on, (laughs). We would get pretty excited, but in that way we would hammer out all different angles of, look at all the issues that would come before the court, of course then when everybody had gone through the exercise the Judge would make a final decision and sometimes we were required to write memos or take positions that wouldn't have been your position but it was the judge's ruling and that's the way it was written. I was such an interesting process to see how that decision making happened inside chambers to see that exchange of ideas, um, of course on a different bench you had a lot of interaction with attorneys too. Attorneys would either go in a court and make their argument and occasionally, an attorney would come into chambers and all the parties and their attorneys would come into chambers and would make arguments before the Judge in that setting, so often we would have a whole room full of lawyers, arguing and shouting and waving their arms around. So yeah, it was very exciting.
WD: What areas that you dealt with that you feel affected the community in daily life in general?
ED: I would say Judge Parker. I obviously have no idea (mumbles). I think that he had, had the opportunity after he was appointed to the circuit bench to shape the law in a very important way. And sometimes the most important thing that a judge can do is pick an unpopular position or concurrent and not follow what the majority is doing, and I think that that would be very important as well to be the lone voice and that could be a very frustrating position to be in. Particularly, with the fifth circuit um, if you have a majority on the court that has a particular agenda or political view, or view of the law. For me to say that I disagree and no matter how strongly I articulated or how right I am, view is not going to prevail, it is not going to change who wins this lawsuit. But to none the less get out there and say it, to have it in writing to publish it, and to stick by it and not let that majority to be the only voice that was heard, I think that's very, very important. In terms of issue, um, I would say Judge Parker has been instrumental in, uh, the evolution of civil litigation, he served on a committee in Washington, D.C. that shaped legislation as well as litigation, hum, he had a very strong view that litigants, ordinary middle class people ought to be able to afford to have their day in the public forum and he had a strong concern because the expense in providing civil litigation that civil litigation is marked outside the row of possibilities for ordinary people. It is now the product of big corporations, like insurance companies and indigents who for whatever reason are in the court hum without attorneys or in some ways subsidized by the companies but the vast majority of just ordinary people do not have access to the courts and I think that he had done a lot of work in that arena, to move the court to that direction. In terms of having it impact the ordinary lives of Americans, I would say that that's the most important thing. He was also as I said before very involved in the asbestos litigation, hum thinking about innovative ways not just to litigate it but to settle it. And to create ways hum, for people to have their disputes resolved in that personal injury setting, he would be my one. Certainly Judge Justice got a lot of very interesting ligation during the time he was there and I meant to say this earlier, before I got there, this wasn't something that I was involved in but it was still kind of personally involved. Judge Parker integrated in Beaumont at some great personal costs to himself, it was virtually scary. And the reason that I have a part in that of my own is that South Park High School is my alma mater I was a South Park High School girl only after the integration of course South Park because of the existing order. You know that he would jest that he had made my class ring a collector's item and maybe at some time a rich woman, because I actually have it. Although that would have to mature a lot. Hum, because of that, he handled the litigation before I ever got into courts I wasn't personally involved in this but certainly, that had a huge impact.
WD: Sure, just an example of how he wasn't influenced by public opinion.
ED: He did what he thought was right, absolutely.
WD: How do you think as a whole the U.S. District Court for the eastern district of Texas, how have those changes affected the courts in this area?
ED: How the court has influenced our community kind of?
WD: Yes.
ED: Hum, well in addition to integrating our public school, they certainly cleaned up our federal prison system. I think as citizens we have concern about that prison system being run in ways that are safe, fair, and humane and the federal court system has been very instrumental in that. I think in hum, moving toward hum, opening the court to civil litigants who need to have disputes resolved. And also to hum, explore ways to mediate cases not just adversarial resolution of cases but hum, particularly Judge Guthrie who has been very involved offers to mediate civil cases and at no cost to the litigants. Taxpayer provided mediation services, mediation, I don't know if you've ever done any mediation can be very costly because you have to pay not only the attorney involved but also the private mediator as well providing uh, a public mediator if you have the opportunity to mediate they would pay (mumbles) so you get more hands, money in the hands of the litigants.
WD: What direction do you see the court moving in? Do you see a direction of maybe, I guess you have by what you've stated, being more litigant, more middle class oriented?
ED: I think that it's certainly a goal hum, whether or not that's going to come, ever a reality, I mean I think that that's a goal, where are we going to be twenty-five years from now on that goal is that we will have achieved that or moved into the right direction is hard to say, I don't know. Hum, I think that what will happen is, now this is just a function of the system, is we can see a particular court or Judge as federal or un federal in their position. ***train in background could not understand speaker*** The law that, those are the general choices that litigants have to make, and so you see that not only the court has decisions towards the community but they also need to see the community kind of respond to violations and those kinds of choices and if you see, Beaumont has a reputation for hang very liberal juries and so…wanted to file their cases in Beaumont. Was a community with a lot of union organizations, very strong Democratic Party and the juries in Beaumont were perceived as very hum, faithful, confident, so they filed a lot of suits in Beaumont and Marshall, fewer in Tyler, if he had a choice he would never file in Tyler, and choose a Smith county juror. So you see that as well then Dash who is assigned to Tyler had a particular kind of docket and had an opportunity to look at different kind of cases. If you are a District Judge in Del Rio, Texas you better love uh, criminal law and drugs, I mean, because you have a lot of, your docket is primarily litigating cases against alleged drug dealers. So what happened is you get up to, you as an individual may be assigned to particular federal bench and then regardless of whether that person has a particular interest in criminal law or civil litigation that's the docket you get. So sometimes judges careers are influenced by what kind of opportunities they get, what kind of litigation comes before them, that they get to resolve. It's all very…the judge makes an impact on the community but the community can sometimes shape the judges opportunity and career, so that's kind of interesting.
WD: Well, do you think, uh, Judge Parker was shaped by the court system or was the court system shaped by him?
ED: I think both. I think that he was appointed to the federal bench as a young man as federal judges go, and I think that had he not been on the bench through several presidential administrations and through the time changes, he had opportunities people brought issues to him for him to resolve, and in resolving them and learning about them and immersing himself in those disputes, he learned and grew in ways that if he'd have just been a lawyer out there litigating cases, he would have learned something different or turned his attention to learn something different. So, yeah, I think that he was very much by his opportunity to become a federal judge as a young man and to spend the bulk of his career as a servant. I mean he could have been a litigator all of his life and certainly there are financial advantages to do that and instead he chose to go on as a judge for the bulk of his career. And I think all of us think it shaped him and how his career turned out.
WD: Can I ask on a personal level, tell an unusual story that you may have about him. Do you have anything unusual, quirky? Maybe you've already answered.
ED: I have a thousand. (Laughs) Hum, it is so hard to choose one, I could tell you Judge Parker stories for a week, hum, Judge Parker was very involved with raising chickens, he had a chicken house. Hum, there was a young woman who was a newspaper reporter for the newspaper, who had a young son, and because of the type of person that or the kind of people, he was as welcome in their home as any king and she would go out and visit them and her little boy was probably 3 or 4 years old, was so delighted by this chicken house and about the fact that instead of the eggs coming in a carton like at the grocery store these eggs came from underneath the chickens. The Judge would the little boy out there and help him find the eggs and carry the eggs inside and give the.. in the kitchen and the little boy called Judge's eggs homemade eggs and…His family would take about if you made something for someone and it had eggs they were homemade eggs and not grocery store eggs. Hum, and Judge Parker had had over the years beautiful gardens, with tomatoes and he would cook for us and hum, he was just so full of life and loved to eat and tell stories and (mumbles) he was a wonderful cook and his wife was also. We would go over there and she would have made homemade hum pimento cheese from scratch. She would have made these homemade pimento cheese sandwiches on homemade bread just their life was just so wonderful and full of you know the very best that life had to offer. I think that's kind of my warm memories of my time with the Judge. (laughs).
WD: This concludes the interview with Elizabeth Derieux. It will become a part of the Oral History Project of the Department of History of the University of Texas at Tyler in Tyler, Texas. The interviewer was William Daniel.