Lanneau Durant Lide (1876-1953)

From the Florence Morning News, January 18, 1953.

"Close scrutiny of the public and private life of the Honorable Lanneau Durant Lide reveals a character above reproach and a man endowed with the inspiration of genius for the law.  A man who had always commanded the highest esteem of admiration, he came early before the bar and acquired rare excellence as a councellor, advocate, and jurist."

   Such was the memorial given to Judge Lanneau D. Lide in the second volume of The Story of the South Carolina Lowcountry. For four decades a prominent name in Florence County, South Carolina political life, Lanneau Durant Lide was admitted to the state bar in the early 1900s and first entered politics in 1918 with his election to the state house of representatives. He would serve one term in that body, and later won election to three terms in the state senate. Lide would resign in 1938 following his election as Circuit Court Judge for South Carolina's 12th Judicial district, and served a decade on the bench. The son of William H. and Gertrude (Durant) Lide, Lanneau Durant Lide was born in Marion, South Carolina on November 29, 1876.

  Lanneau Lide's youth was spent on his family's farm and attended schools local to his hometown of Marion. In the early 1890s, he enrolled at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, and studied here until 1893. Lide first entered public service in the 1890s as deputy clerk of courts for Marion County and for one year served as secretary to state supreme court justice Charles Albert Woods (1852-1925). Lide began reading law during this period and was admitted to the state bar in 1902. 

  Lide operated his law practice in Marion from 1904-1938 and was a member of the firm of Lide and McCandlish, partnering with Howard McCandlish. Their partnership extended well into the 1930s and was retained as counsel for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Marion, and the Atlantic Coast Labor Corporation.

  Lanneau D. Lide married in Marion in April 1907 to Fleetwood Montgomery (1877-1954). The couple's near five-decade marriage produced two children, Lanneau Durant Jr. (1914-1986) and Jane Montgomery, who died aged one in 1918. 

  In 1918 Lide made his first run for elective office when he became a candidate for the state house of representatives. Hoping to represent his home county of Marion, Lide won that election and after taking his seat at the start of the 1919-21 term was named to the committee on Free Conference. Following his term, he returned to his law practice, "specializing in corporation and timber law." 

  Lide refrained from political candidacy until his nomination for a seat in the state senate in 1932. He would prove successful at the polls and served consecutive terms in that body until January 1938 when he was elected as a judge for South Carolina's 12th judicial circuit. Succeeding Judge Samuel Wilds Gillespie Shipp, who had died a few days previously, Lide sat on the bench until resigning in November 1948, at age 72. His decade long tenure saw Lide acknowledged as a concise and impartial judge, with the South Carolina Bar Association remarking:

"As a Trial Judge, he was one of the finest ever to grace the bench in South Carolina. The fairness of his rulings, his understanding of the facts and his knowledge of the law resulted in the conduct of the trial of each case in such a manner that both the attorney of the successful litigant and the losing party were aware of the fairness of the trial which had been concluded. He had a remarkable record of having decisions rendered by him and the trials conducted by him affirmed when in rare instances these matters were appealed to the supreme court. If such is used as an indication of his competency as a Trial Judge, his record is unexcelled in South Carolina up to the present time."

Portrait courtesy of Findagrave.

   After leaving the bench Lide continued prominence in state law circles, taking the position of "legal consultant" to many of South Carolina's leading legal lights. At various times he would be called to serve as a special circuit court judge and supreme court justice at the behest of the Chief Justice of the state supreme court. Two years prior to his death Lide was selected as a member of the National Committee of the Freedom Foundation, and later authored a retrospective of his time as a judge, titled "The Trial Judge In South Carolina." Through the efforts of his wife Fleetwood, this work was published following Lide's death in 1953, and later was regarded as a "practical trial handbook useful alike to the bench and bar."

   In January 1953 Lide was admitted to the McLeod Infirmary in Florence, South Carolina for an emergency operation. Following surgery, he died at that hospital on January 17, aged 76. His wife  Fleetwood survived her husband by just one year, dying on December 6, 1954. Both were interred at the Rose Hill Cemetery in Marion. 

From the Florence Morning News, January 18, 1953.