The Life of Homer Lucas
Written By Justin D. Lamb
Photo courtesy of the Lucas Family
Homer Cage Lucas was born on December 4, 1896 in Benton on the corner of Fourteenth and Main Streets to A.T. Lucas and Hettie Kinney Lucas. When Lucas was a small child, his parents divorced and his mother went to work as one of the first operators for the Bell Phone Company in Benton. Lucas attended school at Benton and he got a part-time job as a stock boy at Nelson’s Drug Store to help his family.
War eventually took Lucas to France where he spent nineteen months during World War I. He earned the rank of Sergeant in the United State Army Air Corp. and was honorably discharged on June 13, 1919. Lucas returned home to Marshall County and married Miss Mala Faughn on April 16, 1922 in Benton. The couple had three children together: Winifred and Sue Edward, both whom died as infants, and Betty Carolyn.
During the summer of 1922, the United States witnessed one of the largest railroad strikes in history when the Railroad Labor Board announced the cut of hourly wages for thousands of railroad workers. The Great Railroad Strike of 1922, as it came to be called, saw the strike of nearly four hundred thousand railroad workers across the nation. Hostilities developed when railroads began hiring strikebreakers to fill the positions of the striking workers and by the end of July 1922, United States National Guard troops were on duty in seven states including Kentucky and almost three thousand Deputy United States Marshals were needed to actively clamp down on the pickets. With the need for more deputy marshals, Homer Lucas went to Central City and was sworn in a Deputy United States Marshal for the Western District of Kentucky. Lucas served for ten months monitoring the trains and ensuring that mail routes were not interrupted.
After his time as Deputy Marshal, Lucas received a job as Border Patrol officer in Jacksonville and Tampa, Florida. However, the pay was very little, and Lucas found it very difficult to keep a home in Florida and Kentucky, so he quit and returned home to Marshall County. After returning home, Lucas became the night policeman for the City of Benton. In 1929, Lucas entered the political arena when he declared his candidacy for County Judge as a Republican. Despite his popularity, Lucas could not overcome the Democratic advantage, and he lost in a landslide to his Democratic opponent, Will Gibson. On April 13, 1931, Lucas’ wife, Mala, passed away after a month battle with tuberculosis. A few years later, Lucas married Molene Henson and together they had two children: Hannah Ann and Ronald.
After his defeat, Lucas became a Deputy Sheriff under Sheriff Louis Lilly and years later, Lucas would also serve as Deputy Sheriff during Sheriff Sam Myers’ first term. After the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, Lucas obtained a liquor license and opened a liquor store in Benton. However, with the passage of the local option law in Marshall County in 1937, Lucas was forced out of business. Lucas went to Detroit and worked for a few months and later returned to Marshall County when he was appointed as Probation and Parole officer for McCracken and Marshall Counties by Circuit Judge Price. In the late 1930s, Lucas opened a furniture store in Benton which was in business for nearly thirty years. Lucas often boasted, “I sold half the people of Marshall County at least one item of furniture over the years.”
After his retirement in 1967, Lucas went to work as a part-time dispatcher for the City of Benton and was later appointed Judge Pro-Tem for County Judge Mike Miller where he held traffic court on Saturdays and would regularly attend the fiscal court meetings. On December 1, 1986, Lucas passed away just a few days short of his ninetieth birthday. He was laid to rest in Fairdealing Cemetery.