PARRISH, LUCIEN WALTON (1878-1922). Lucien Walton Parrish, lawyer and congressman, the son of Jefferson C. and Mattie (Hanna) Parrish, was born on January 10, 1878, in Sister Grove. When he was nine the family moved to Clay County, and his parents operated a ranch just outside Joy, where he attended school. He trained as a teacher at North Texas Normal School (now the University of North Texas) and returned to Clay County, where he taught in the rural school system for two years. With the savings earned from teaching, he enrolled at the University of Texas. After graduating in 1906, he entered the law program and received M.A. and law degrees in 1909. At UT Parrish served as president of the Political and Economic Association and of the Student Association. He was admitted to the bar in 1909 and began his law practice at Henrietta, the county seat of Clay County. For a decade he practiced law with William Wantland. During this time he married Gladys Edwards; they had two children. A lifelong Democrat, Parrish ran for the thirteenth District Congressional seat in 1918 and was elected to the Sixty-sixth Congress. He took his seat in the House on March 4, 1919. He died in a traffic accident at Wichita Falls on March 27, 1922, and was buried at Hope Cemetery in Henrietta.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: William Charles Taylor, A History of Clay County (Austin: Jenkins, 1972).