Lew Maddox

L.W. "Lew" Maddox served as a State Representative for 18 years, according to long-time friend and associate Rep. Terry Swinger, D-Caruthersville. Maddox passed away Monday, April 28, 2008, at Southeast Missouri Hospital at Cape Girardeau, Mo.

"Lew was probably the most positive person I ever met in my life," Swinger added. "His mind was always thinking about how to do things more positively."

Swinger relates a story regarding a conversation he had with Maddox's wife, Becky. "I said to her [Becky] one time," Swinger said, "How does he always have such a positive attitude? I would like to be able to be that way."

She replied, if he happened to wake up in a bad mood he might later get a telephone call. When he would answer and be asked how he was doing, he'd always describe how good he was doing that day. Then he would get up and get dressed and leave for the day with his positive attitude.

Retired judge and long-time Kennett resident Flake McHaney described Maddox has having "served his area well and making a positive contribution to his district."

Long-time friend and associate and former state representative Vic Downing, who had been friends with Maddox for 40 years, he said, said, "I always thought a lot of Lew. He and I served together in the legislature and, I think, voted just alike most of the time because we had very similar districts."

Downing added, "We'll really miss him."

Swinger said he and Maddox were really good friends for more than 20 years, "and he is a big reason why I'm here [in the state legislature]. He used to tell me that he thought his job in the legislature was to make sure no bad legislation every passed."

Maddox was educated in the Gideon elementary and high schools and lived in Clarkton, Mo. While serving in the legislature, Maddox was the chairman of the Legislative Research Committee, vice chairman of the Commerce Committee, and served on the Agri-Business and State Institutions and Property committees, according to the Official Manual of the State of Missouri.

He was born March 25, 1924, in Houston, Texas, son of the late Luther Eagle and Orpha Jane Lawson Maddox. He was a farmer and founded Maco Construction. He was elected to the Missouri State House of Representatives in 1970, where he served for 18 years.

He was an elder at the First Presbyterian Church in Clarkton, and was a member of the Shrine Club and served as director of various organizations and boards.

On July 3, 1953, in Los Angeles, Calif., he married Rebecca Irene James, who survives.

Survivors also include his children, Jeanne Maree Bailey and husband, Phillip, of Hot Springs, Ark., John Warren Maddox and wife, Candi, of Malden, Mo., James Kendall Maddox and wife, Francis, of Clarkton and LuAnn Jeffries and husband, Jerry, of Naylor, Mo; one sister, Alene Gillean, of Fosk, Mo.; one brother, Chad Maddox, of Essex, Mo.; a sister-in-law, Helen Maddox, of San Diego, Calif.; nine grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by two brothers, Homer Carl and George Maddox and one sister, Crystena Hasty.

Visitation will be from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., today, Wednesday, April 30, at the Landess Funeral Home in Malden.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m., Thursday, May 1, at the Landess Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. Paul Williams officiating.

Burial will follow in the Stanfield Cemetery at Clarkton.

Memorials may be made to the American Cancer Society, St. Jude or the First Presbyterian Church.