Alexander McIntrye Leary, Sr. (1873-1937)

Alexander McIntrye Leary, Sr., known as A. M. Leary (April 30, 1873 – September 19, 1937), was a businessman who served from 1903 to 1905 as the mayor of his native Minden, Louisiana.

Biographical sketch
Leary was the son of William Penn Leary, Jr. (1847-1930), and the former Flavia R. McIntyre (1846-1934). His father was a young soldier in the Confederate States Army and was thereafter president of the former Minden Normal College. Leary was educated in public schools in Minden prior to the formation of Minden High School, and graduated from Richmond College, subsequently the University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia, from which in 1894 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree.

He engaged in the cotton business in Minden, where he served briefly as mayor between the terms of James Peter Kent and Robert Roberts, Jr. His administration is remembered for letting out the bids for construction of the city water-works system. In 1896, he began employment in Shreveport with the wholesale grocery firm, the Hicks Company, for whom he was a salesman for twelve years. It is unclear if he was living in Shreveport while he was mayor of Minden or how he arranged regular transportation between the two cities separated by thirty miles. Upon leaving the Hicks Company, Leary joined his father in the grain business in Shreveport. He was also an agent for Travelers' Insurance Company. In 1933, he was appointed district appraiser for the Home Owners Loan Corporation in Shreveport; in 1935, he became the HOLC district manager with duties over the seven parishes of Louisiana's 4th congressional district. He left that position shortly before his death. A Democrat, Leary was a delegate to several party state conventions and worked in the 1932 campaign to elect Franklin D. Roosevelt as U.S. President to succeed Herbert Hoover.

Leary's funeral service was held at his home in Shreveport, with Southern Baptist pastors Monroe E. Dodd and Wade H. Boggs officiating. He is interred at Greenwood Cemetery in Shreveport. He and his wife, the former, Mary Ellen Van Lear (1877-1953), had six children, all deceased: Matthew Van Lear Leary (1903-1988), William Penn Leary, III (1905-1958), A. M. Leary, Jr. (1906-1994), Graham Leary (1907-1991), who resided in St. Louis, Missouri, at the time of his father's death, Isabella Atkinson Leary (1912-1998), and Flavia McIntyre Leary (1915-1998). Leary died four months after the passing of his predecessor as mayor, James P. Kent.

It is likely that Leary Street in Minden, located off East Union Street, is named for Mayor Leary.