Louis Coffman SHELBY

HAIRSTON.org ID#229, b. 25 April 1888, d. 23 May 1969
Father*Charles S. SHELBY b. 5 Apr 1854, d. 20 Nov 1900
Mother*Hester Henry BAKER b. 15 Aug 1860, d. 30 Sep 1928
Birth*Louis Coffman SHELBY was born on 25 April 1888 in Bartlett, Shelby, Tennessee.1 
He was the son of Charles S. SHELBY and Hester Henry BAKER. 
Census 1900Louis Coffman SHELBY appeared on the 1900 census of Charles S. SHELBY on 1 June 1900 in Civil District 15, Dist 51, Shelby, Tennessee; Charles Shelby 46, wife Hester B 30, sons; Charles Jr. 14, Louis C 12, John B 10, daughters; Hester B 6, Mattie A 4, Allie M 1.2
Death FatherHis father, Charles S. Shelby, died on 20 November 1900. 
Census 1910Louis Coffman SHELBY appeared on the 1910 census of Hester Henry BAKER on 21 April 1910 in 1088 Vollentine Street, Ward 21, District 250, Memphis, Shelby, Tennessee; Hester B. Shelby 49, sons; Charlie 23, Lewis C. 21 and John B. 19, daughters; Hester B. 16, Martha W. 13 and Merim 11.3
Marriage*Louis Coffman SHELBY married Stacie Beatrice SMITH, daughter of Augustus G. SMITH and Mary Elizabeth "Lizzie" BLANKENSHIP, on 15 August 1917 in was married by Dr. Walter M. White at the A. G. Smith home on Waldron Blvd., Memphis, Shelby, Tennessee. Stacie wrote in her bible "On a Sunday afternoon in Feb 1917 my sister Ora and I went in the front door to a Christian Endeavor meeting and I met Louis C. Shelby who became my husband that Aug 15, 1917." They were married by Dr. Walter M. White at the home of Augustus G. Smith, on Waldron Blvd. Louis Coffman Shelby passed away on May 23, 1969. They were married 3 months short of 52 years when Louis died.4,1

ResidenceLouis Coffman SHELBY and Stacie Beatrice SMITH lived after 15 August 1917 in 1088 Vollentine Avenue, Memphis, Shelby, Tennessee. 
MilitaryLouis C. Shelby was with the 306th Calvary Army Brigade at Ft. Clark, Texas. They were waiting for orders to go to France during World War I. While in Texas they patrolled the border with Mexico.

 
MilitaryIn November of 1918, Pvt. Louis C. Shelby, Bat. B 49 F.A., Fort Sill, Oklahoma. 
Census 1920Louis Coffman SHELBY appeared on the census of 16 January 1920 in 930 Crockett Place, Memphis Ward 21, Dist 181, Shelby, Tennessee. - Louis Shelby 31, wife Stacie 22 and daughter Stacie L. 11 months.5
Census 1930He appeared on the census of 2 April 1930 in 5590 Summer Avenue, Memphis, Shelby, Tennessee. - Louis C. Shelby, wife Stacie B., daughters Stacie L., Martha E. and Joy E.6
Residence*He and Stacie Beatrice SMITH lived in 1931; In 1931 Memphis City Directory, Louis C. and Stacie Shelby are listed as living at 5590 Summer Avenue and he is listed as an agent for Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. 
DeedOn 24 October 1931, Louis C. Shelby purchases a lot on North Montgomery Street in Memphis from Harvey S. and Allie Sutton. The lot is 82.5 ft wide x 136.25 ft deep. This becomes his home at 362 North Montgomery. 
Residence*Louis Coffman SHELBY lived in 1932; In 1932 Memphis City Directory, Louis C. and Stacie Shelby are listed as living at 362 North Montgomery. Louis is listed as an agent for Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Company. 
NewspaperMr. and Mrs. L. C. Shelby and small daughter, Joy, will arrive on Saturday from their home in Memphis, Tenn., for a visit with their brother and sister, Mr. and Mrs. Ernest McGregor. -- The Shreveport Journal, Shreveport, Louisiana, Friday, August 12, 1932, page 8. 
ResidenceHe lived in 1933; In 1933 Memphis City Directory, Louis C. and Stacie Shelby are listed as living at 362 North Montgomery. Louis is a District Circulation Manager for the Memphis Commercial Appeal. 
NewspaperMr. and Mrs. Louis C. Shelby and children of 362 North Montgomery, have returned after a motor tour that included Charlottesville, Va; Baltimore, Washington, Jamestown and a stay at Virginia Beach -- The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn., Wednesday, July 29, 1936, page 8. 
Residence

 
Census 1940He appeared on the census of 3 April 1940 in 362 North Montgomery, Memphis, Shelby, Tennessee, Louis Shelby 52, wife Stacie 42, daughter Stacie 20, daughter Joy 12. They also had several couples renting space.7
Photo*
Christmas 1949 - Memphis, Tennessee.


 
Census 1950He was Head of Household in the 1950 Federal Census on 1 April 1950 in 362 Montgomery, Memphis, Shelby, Tennessee. Louis C. Shelby 61, wife Stacie B. 52.8
NewspaperTHE SHELBY GIRLS ARE MOVING AROUND -- As far as the Louis C. Shelby family is concerned, everybody is on the move! Stacie Portmann (Mrs. Ralph) and her two young children flew in from Cleveland, Ohio, where they visited Ralph's parents, Dr. and Mrs. U. V. Portmann. Mr. Portmann will join his family here Saturday, and they will fly to Mexico City, where they will live for the next five years. Joy and Capt. R. E. Hairston and their two children have just given up their home in Shreveport and have been visiting his parents, Mr. and Mrs. G. W. Hairston Jr. of Crawford, Miss. Bob will leave next week for London, England, and Joy and the children will join him there soon. Martha McDermott (Mrs. Austin Jr.) and her son , Austin III, are flying in from Waco, Texas, where the McDermotts recently moved from Maryland. -- The Memphis Press-Scimitar, Tuesday, October 24, 1950, page 8. 
Newspaper*Reunion Will Be Held At Shelby Residence - Mr. and Mrs. Louis Shelby are looking forward to the next 10 days with unusual pleasure, when their home at 362 North Montgomery will be the scene of a family reunion. First to arrive was their daughter, Mrs. Austin J. McDermott who with Col. McDermott and their son, Austin III, came in Thursday from Havanna, Cuba, where they had been visiting the Ralph Portmanns. Colonel McDermott will report to New York the last of the month for overseas duty, and will be joined later by his family. They went to Havanna especially to say goodbye to the Portmanns, but were overjoyed to hear on arrival in Memphis that Mr. Portmann has been transferred to Rome, Italy, as Far East promotion manager for Proctor and Gamble, and the two families may be withing visiting distance. Mr. and Mrs. Portmann and their two children, Jessica and Kirk, will arrive June 29 to join the house party. The youngest daughter of the Shelbys, Mrs. Robert E. Hairston, has been for the past four years in England, where Major Hairston has been stationed at Sculthorpe Air Base. She will arrive Sunday with Major Hairston and their children, Bob Jr. and Shelby. Mrs. Hairston and the children will remain for three weeks while Major Hairston is attending a jet training school at Selmer, Ala. -- The Commercial Appeal, Saturday, June 19, 1954, page 13.

 
DeedIn 1966, the State of Tennesse took the home of Louis C. and Stacie Shelby for construction of Interstate Highway I-40. The house was torn down and a very large mound of dirt now occupies the space because the route of the highway was changed. As of 2026 it is still a mound of dirt. 
Photo50th Wedding Anniversary of Stacie and Louis Shelby - August 1967: left to right sitting: Stacie Shelby Portmann, Joy Shelby Hairston, standing: Jessica Portmann, Kirk Portmann, Stacie Smith Shelby, Ralph Portmann, Louis Coffman Shelby, Martha Shelby McDermott, Austin McDermott, Robert E. Hairston, Jr.


. 
Death*He died on 23 May 1969 in VA Hospital, Atlanta, Dekalb, Georgia, at age 81.9,1 
ObituaryLouis Shelby Is Dead At 81; Newspaper Was Life Work
Going-to-work time was 4 a.m., hours before the first light of day with the dew still fresh and the air chilly in all seasons. There was a Depression and the job of delivering newspapers meant a lot. It meant money to get through school for some, food on the table for others. But for those who yesterday recalled the days in the 1930s when they worked out of this newspaper’s circulation office on Evergreen at Poplar, it meant having known Louis C. Shelby.
Louis Coffman Shelby died yesterday at the age of 81 in the Veterans Administration Hospital in Atlanta. He retired as a district manager of this newspaper’s circulation department in 1957, ending a career which began before the turn of the century.
“The older I got, the more I appreciated Mr. Shelby,” said Memphis insurance executive James M. Breytspraak, when told of Mr. Shelby’s death. Mr. Breytspraak was one of those who worked for Mr. Shelby. “I couldn’t have gotten through school without him. He was a fine gentleman. He wasn’t just interested in delivering papers. He was interested in you.”
Mr. Breytspraak and others such as Dr. Alfred H. Page, a surgeon, and architects Wells Awsumb and his brother Richard Awsumb were saddened by Mr. Shelby’s death. And their recollections of the man who gave them their first jobs show why.
They remember him as a quiet, religious man who smoked a pipe and wouldn’t settle for “doing just enough to get by”.
“If a boy would stray from the straight and narrow, he would take him aside and talk to him,” said Dr. Page.
He was also the kind of man who read classics, wrote poetry just for the fun of it and had some of the prettiest azalea bushes in town around his home at 362 North Montgomery, which was sold several years ago to make way for the expressway.
He and his wife, Mrs. Stacie Smith Shelby, still maintained an apartment in the Townhouse Apartments on Central.
Mr. Shelby’s life was The Commercial Appeal and his church. He was a life deacon of Lindenwood Christian Church.
“He just couldn’t stand to be away from the paper,” said his wife. Seeing that other people got to read it, was a way of life for Mr. Shelby which began when he was eight years old helping his father deliver from a horsedrawn buggy. His father, a member of the family for which Shelby County is named, died when Mr. Shelby was 12, and he took a route of his own to help his family.
With the exception of the time in the service and the four years selling life insurance, it was to be his life’s work. He attended the old Memphis Law School and was a charter member of Stonewall Masonic Lodge.
And he could ride a bicycle better that anybody else. In 1912, he won the last official bicycle race held in Memphis. The course was over Parkway from Overton Park to the Fairgrounds and back.
“He always wanted a son,” said his wife, “and that’s one of the reasons he loved his job --- because he worked with boys.”
Mr. and Mrs. Shelby had three daughters. They are Mrs. Ralph Portmann of Glendale, Ohio, Mrs. Austin McDermott of College Park, Ga., and Mrs. Robert E. Hairston of Miami, Fla. He was visiting his daughter in Georgia when he died.
He also leaves three sisters, Mrs. Robert Hicks of Silver Springs, Md., Mrs. Albert Austin of Charlottesville, Va., and Mrs. Gentry C. Carroll of 1835 Felix, seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
The funeral will be Monday with Memphis Funeral Home in charge. Burial will be in Elmwood cemetery. - Obituary from the Commercial Appeal, May 24, 1969

------------------------------

At sometime in his life, Louis C. Shelby wrote the following poem;

"A tomcat sat on the backyard fence,
His feet were full of blisters,
He picked his teeth with the end of his tail,
While the wind blew through his whiskers."
 
ObituaryLouis Shelby, Descendant of Early Family - Louis Coffman Shelby, 81, a descendant of the family for which Shelby County was named, died today in a hospital in Atlanta, where he had been visiting. Born in Memphis he attended the old Prescott School in North Memphis and was a graduate of Memphis Law School, now merged with Memphis State University Law School. When he was 12 he came to work in the circulation department of the Commercial Appeal, and worked there until retirement, with exception of four years with Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. He was a charter member of Stonewall Masonic Lodge and had served as president of Maury Civic Club. He was a life deacon of Lindenwood Christian Church. For many years he and his wife owned and maintained a two-story home at 362 N. Montgomery, sold several years ago to make way for expressway construction. They has since lived in Townhouse Apartments on Central. He and his wife were the first "Gray Couple," a group which aids and attends hospital patients, at Kennedy Veterans Hospital. He leaves his wife, Mrs. Stacie Smith Shelby; three daughters, Mrs. Ralph Portmann of Cincinnati, Mrs. Austin McDermott of College Park, Ga., and Mrs. Robert E. Hairston of Miami, Fla; and three sisters, Mrs. Albert Austin, Mrs. Robert Hicks and Mrs. Gentry C. Carroll or Memphis. - Memphis Press-Scimitar, Friday, May 23, 1969, page 18. 
Burial*He was buried in Section Turley, Lot 81, Grave 11, Elmwood Cemetery, Memphis, Shelby, Tennessee.10

 

Family

Stacie Beatrice SMITH b. 10 Sep 1897, d. 15 Feb 1977
Children

Sources (www.HAIRSTON.org)

  1. [S164] Shelby. Bible - Shelby Family 1826-1970. N.p.: n.pub., unknown publish date. Martha Carroll, unknown location.
  2. [S1900] 1900 Federal Census - National Archives and Records Administration - Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org.
  3. [S1910] 1910 Federal Census - National Archives and Records Administration - Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org.
  4. [S52] Marriage Certificate or Register.
  5. [S1920] 1920 Federal Census - National Archives and Records Administration - Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org.
  6. [S1930] 1930 Federal Census - National Archives and Records Administration - Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org.
  7. [S1940] 1940 Federal Census - National Archives and Records Administration - Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org.
  8. [S1950] 1950 Federal Census - National Archives and Records Administration - Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org.
  9. [S51] Death Certificate.
  10. [S256] Interment Records, Elmwood Cemetery, Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee.
Last Edited25 Jun 2026