James Levy, 85, Bunkie

Funeral services for James "Jim" Roy Levy, Sr. will be Friday, November 27, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. in the chapel of Melancon Funeral Home with Rabbi Barry Weinstein of Temple Shalom of Lafayette and Rev. Stephen Scott Chemino, V.G. Burial services for Mr. Levy will be Sunday, November 29, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. in the Leger Community Cemetery in Rayne with Rabbi Barry Weinstein officiating. Arrangements are under the direction of Melancon Funeral Home, Bunkie.

The family requests that visitation be observed at Melancon Funeral Home on Friday, November 27, 2020 from 9:30 a.m. - 12 noon.

Mr. Levy, age 86, of Bunkie, passed away on Monday, November 23, 2020 at the Bailey Place in Bunkie. He was born in Lake Charles on March 18, 1934, to Minnie Pearl Williams Levy and Florian Levy of Lake Charles, both deceased. He was born in Lake Charles on Mar. 18, 1934, to Minnie Pearl Williams Levy and Florian Levy of Lake Charles, both deceased.

James Roy Levy, Sr., served as the youngest president of the Louisiana Press Association at the age of 35 and was also past president of Congregation Gemiluth Chassodim, Temple Shalom, the Bunkie Rotary Club, Bunkie Chamber of Commerce, Evangeline Lodge of B'Nai B 'Rith of New Iberia and of LSU Alumni Associations in Avoyelles and Iberia Parishes.

He was Bunkie's Citizen of the Year in 1967, served as a director of the Public Affairs Research Council ( PAR) and of the Bunkie Industrial Development Corp. (BIDCO) and was involved in numerous other organizations including serving on Temple Shalom's board of governors.

All of the Levy children helped their parents build The Bunkie Record one of Louisiana's smallest weekly newspapers into a consistent award winner which also provided the funds for all five of their college degrees. The family also co-owned the Oakdale Journal, created the Avoyelles Moneysaver shopping guide and Jim Levy and Associates, which produced special sections for over 100 newspapers in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Florida.

He began his newspaper career nights at the Lake Charles American Press at 16 as a sportswriter while he was in high school, in between jobs delivering milk, retrieving lay-a-ways from storage at the The Fair department store and as a playground director for the city. In the summer of 1952 he covered a news "beat" for the Press.

After working the summer of 1955 at The Daily Iberian covering the unsuccessful raids and trials of State Police Commander Roy Grevemberg, he received his LSU journalism degree. A U.S. Army veteran, he served as sports editor of the Ft. Bliss News in El Paso and after honorable discharge entered LSU graduate school and joined the Morning Advocate sports staff, covering the Tigers' first national football championship in 1958.

After the season he returned to the Iberian and in 1960 as city editor won the American Political Association Award for Distinguished Reporting of State and Local government. He and a dozen other young journalist prizewinners representing their Southern states were sent to a secluded dude ranch outside Austin at Eagle Rock, Texas, for a week-long closed session of private interviews of the nation's newsmakers, who were financed and flown in by the Ford Foundation. Appointed in 1969 by Gov. John McKeithen to the Louisiana Senate Investigating (Mafia) Committee On Organized Crime following an expose by Life Magazine, he filed a dissenting report disputing the committee's findings after the year-long investigation.

He was appointed the press secretary to Democratic gubernatorial nominee Louis Lambert in 1979-80 and was a delegate to two Louisiana Democratic conventions.
Survivors are his wife of sixty-three years, Lois Elizabeth David Levy of Bunkie; three daughters, Lynda Ann Levy of Kenner, Suzanne Marie Levy (Stan Park) of New Orleans and Elizabeth Faye Levy of Santa Barbara, CA; two sons, David Baer Levy of New Iberia and Jim Levy, Jr., (Irene Rampino) of Baton Rouge; and six grandchildren, Ashton Julian Levy-Park, Tristan David Levy-Park, Stella Jane Levy, Render Baer Gonzales, Graylan Harold Gonzales and Airo Lozen Gonzales; and one brother, William Armand Levy of Sulphur.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the Endowment Fund of Temple Shalom, Post Office Box 53711, Lafayette, La., 70505.