The Louisiana Legends Festival is a tourism focused event that promotes the people, history, and natural
resources of Claiborne Parish, promotes economic development, and creates a fundraising opportunity for the Claiborne Parish charity and non-profit network.

Each year honored Legends are selected from open nominations in February. The Louisiana Legends Festival is proud to announce that this year’s Louisiana Legends Fest Legacy Legends are a pair of medical doctors with a huge impact on regional healthcare. Dr. James C. Willis and Dr. Joseph E. Knighton were both born and raised in Claiborne Parish, LA. Both doctors opened separate practices in Homer. Early in the 1900’s they merged their practices and in 1909 moved this practice from Homer to Shreveport. The new practice was originally set up in downtown Shreveport, but by the 1920’s they would move this practice to where the population was moving, to the very westernmost end of the trolley line. They built their office close to where the Louisiana State Fairgrounds are today. The Willis Knighton Clinic sat next door to the Tri State Sanitorium, a hospital they would later buy and operate. In 1950, one year after becoming a not-for-profit hospital, it was renamed the Willis Knighton Hospital to honor Dr. Willis and Dr. Knighton. For over 100 years, Willis Knighton Medical Center has followed the vision of their early founders and continues to serve as a leader in healthcare locally, regionally, and nationally.

Dr. James C. Willis was born in Claiborne Parish in 1865. He went to medical school at the University of
Tennessee which would later become Vanderbilt University. Dr. Willis had seven children. A son, named after his father, was born in Homer in 1891, and would become a doctor who practiced with his father in Shreveport. Dr. Willis died in 1942 at the age of 77. In his last months, he suffered some acute medical condition and was flown to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, for emergency surgery but died shortly thereafter.

Dr. Joseph E. Knighton was born in 1870 in Claiborne Parish. His father, a farmer, had settled here after the end of the Civil War. Like his future partner, he attended Medical School in Nashville, Tennessee, but also continued his medical education at Johns Hopkins and Tulane and studied overseas in Ireland, Scotland and France. In January 1900, at the very beginning of a new century, he opened his first practice in Homer. Dr. Knighton had three children. Like Dr. Willis, there was a son, born in Homer, who would become a doctor and work with his father. Dr. Knighton suffered a fatal heart attack at work in 1949. He was 79 years old.

One must marvel at the ambition and their optimism about the future. Both Dr. Willis and Dr. Knighton served the community in pioneering healthcare service and education. Recognizing a need for more nurses, the Tri State Hospital started a training program for nurses. The Tri State Nursing School was a three- year program, graduating 20-25 nurses a year.

Although undergoing continual renovations, improvements, and growth the main medical facility sits at the same site for the last 101 years. The Willis Knighton system now includes 5 hospitals: WK North; WK South; WK Pierremont; WK Bossier; and the James K. Elrod WK Rehabilitation. The system also includes Live Oak Retirement Center, and The Innovation Center in Bossier City which houses the Talbot Medical Museum.

Today as Willis-Knighton Medical Center enters its second century of service, it stands as a testament to
forward thinking Dr. James C. Willis and Dr. Joseph E. Knighton. Willis-Knighton is a Not-For-Profit Healthcare Corporation that leads with a simple mission “To continuously improve the health and well-being of the people we serve”

It is an honor for the Louisiana Legends Fest to recognize Dr. James C. Willis and Dr. Joseph E. Knighton as Louisiana Legends.

The 5th annual Louisiana Legends Festival is scheduled for Saturday, October 18, 2025, in downtown Homer, Louisiana.

Claiborne Unite Foundation, Inc. is a 501 (c)(3) the non-profit organization that produces this annual Louisiana Legends Festival. Claiborne Unite Foundation, Inc. and the Louisiana Legends Festival are 100% volunteer operations. All funds raised go directly to the promotion, marketing and operating cost of the festival or paid out in grants through the Louisiana Legends Festival Charity Partner program. For more information on the Louisiana Legends Festival, please visit http://www.legendfest.us or email lalegendsfest@gmail.com