Byron L. Ballard
Michigan, A Centennial History of the State and Its People, Edited by George N. Fuller, Ph.D. Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1939, 503-504



BYRON L. BALLARD, member of the law firm of Shields, Ballard, Jennings & Taber, of Lansing, is a leading representative of the legal profession in this city who has here successfully engaged in practice for nearly twenty-five years. Born at Fort Worth, Texas, February 21, 1890, he is a son of Dr. Walter E. and Jennie (Peden) Ballard. The father, a native of Holly Springs, Mississippi, was a physician of Corsicana, Texas, prior to his removal to McLean, that State, where he has now engaged in medical practice for a quarter of a century. His wife, who was born at Fort Worth, passed away in 1931.

Following the completion of his high school course at Dallas, Texas, Byron L. Ballard began specific preparation for a professional career as a student at Washington and Lee University of Lexington, Virginia, which conferred upon him the degree Bachelor of Laws in 1912. His initial experience in the field of law practice was gained at Nashville, Tennessee, where he remained for three years, after which he spent a year in Pendleton, Oregon. It was in 1916 that he took up his permanent abode in Lansing, Michigan, where in the following year he formed a law partnership with Charles H. Hayden, under the firm style of Hayden & Ballard, which was thus maintained for ten years, until 1927, when the firm became Hayden, Ballard & Hubbard. In 1929 he entered upon his present partnership relations as a member of the firm of Shields, Ballard, Jennings & Taber, with offices in the Olds Tower Building. Mr. Ballard served as chairman of the State Board of Law Examiners for three years prior to 1939, when he was reappointed for a five-year term, and his name is on the membership rolls of the American, Michigan State and Ingham County Bar associations.

On the 16th of February, 1916, Mr. Ballard was united in marriage to Lucille Juzek, daughter of Thomas J. and Nettie (Moore) Juzek, the latter a native of Ypsilanti, Michigan. Her father, who was born in Virginia and is of French-Austrian descent, is engaged in the wholesale jewelry business at Elgin, Illinois. Mrs. Ballard departed this life March 24, 1939, leaving two children: Joan S., born February 27, 1917; and Thomas B., born July 5, 1921, who has graduated from St. John's Military Academy in June, 1939, and is now attending the Peddie School at Hightstown, New Jersey.

Mr. Ballard has always been a stalwart supporter of the Democratic party and for two years served as treasurer of the Democratic State Central Committee. He occupied the presidency of the Lansing Rotary Club in 1933, also has membership in the Chamber of Commerce and likewise belongs to the Lansing Country Club, the City Club, Press Club and the Lansing Automobile Club, the latter having forty members. Trout fishing and horseback riding are his recreational interests. Fraternally he is a Knight Templar Mason, an Elk and Knight of Pythias, and he also belongs to Sigma Phi Epsilon, while his religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Episcopal church, of which he has served as vestryman for two terms.

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