MAX - Key Persons
Lawrence Maynard Magdovitz, 77, passed away, surrounded by his loving children, Sunday morning, May 24, 2015 after a long illness. His story began in Clarksdale, MS in 1937 when he was born to Harry and Lenabel (nee May) Magdovitz. One of many Jewish families in the Clarksdale area, the Magdovitz family operated Mack's Department Store on Issaquena for several decades.
Lawrence and his older brother, Jerome, worked in the store with their parents. Lawrence played catcher when the boys were playing baseball and was an avid Boy Scout. He and his brother were both Eagle Scouts. After graduating from Clarksdale High School, he attended Vanderbilt University and received not only a Bachelor of Arts degree but also his Bachelor of Legal Letters and Juris Doctorate. He was a member of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity. He graduated in 1961 from law school.
He then passed the Tennessee and Mississippi bar exams in the same week by taking the Tennessee bar exam in Nashville and then driving that night to Oxford to sit for the Mississippi bar exam the next morning. He briefly worked in Kentucky before returning home to Clarksdale and opening up the Law Offices of Lawrence Magdovitz in 1962 at the Stephens Building. His law practice would span 52 years.
While he was respected, and sometimes feared, for his legal skill, his true talent lay in business, specifically real estate. Up to the day he died, Lawrence was a licensed attorney in Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee, a residential contractor and real estate broker in Mississippi. He began buying real estate early in his life, buying his first rental house in Clarksdale when he was just 16 years old using the money saved up from working at Mack's Department Store. After his return to Clarksdale in 1962, he began buying more and more homes in Clarksdale and renting them out. At one time he owned over 200 homes in Clarksdale. He also built more than 40 homes in the Clarksdale-area and many subdivisions in Clarksdale still bear the names he gave them, including some named after the family dog, Nicholas.