Mary Lou Owens Tindall
Class of 1956

Mary Lou Tindall, LWCC, Shreveport, was installed president of the 1752 Club during ceremonies held at the Professional Insurance Agents of Louisiana annual convention in Point Clear, Ala., July 21-24. Tindall succeeds Ronni Rodrigue Walker, D&H Insurance Brokers, LaPlace. The 1752 Club gets its name from the date that the oldest property insurance carrier in North America was founded by Benjamin Franklin and other Philadelphia locals. The group, organized The Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire, a long name for a mutual company, on March 26, 1752. Tindall, a 40-plus year veteran of the insurance business, was initiated into the business when she was a high school student living in Texarkana, Ark. She filled in part time at an agency where her aunt was the office manager. She went off to college to become a teacher, but had second thoughts about that career choice after two years and asked her aunt about a full time job. Tindall’s aunt agreed to hire her if she agreed to “put her heart and soul” into the job. She was hired as the agency’s bookkeeper, not Tindall’s strong suit, and typed policies, before package policies came on the scene. Tindall moved with her husband to Texas and worked on the company side of the business there. Her first job after moving to Shreveport was with Keith Peterson, with whom she had become acquainted when she worked for the Texarkana agency. Later, Tindall worked for A&A, which at the time had 104 people working in its Shreveport office. After several years on the agency side of the business, Tindall landed a job with LWCC, where she has worked for 14 years as an agency relations representative for the workers’ compensation carrier. Even though Tindall decided not to seek a degree in teaching, she became a teacher. Over the years, she has taught myriad insurance and professional training courses. Currently, she teaches the pre-licensing course at LSU-Shreveport and serves on the Department of Insurance’s Insurance Education Advisory Council.

She is passionate about getting young people into the insurance business. To that end she is involved in the Job Fair at Bossier Parish Community College and is designing a curriculum for customer service representatives. Tindall’s education background fits nicely with the 1752 Club’s mission since it is in part to “promote the insurance industry by offering educational opportunities....” The club sponsors an educational clinic every spring, generally in March. She holds the CIC, CPIW and DAE designations. Tindall was recognized by the 1752 Club in 2005 as The Insurance Woman of the Year. She has served three times as president of the Insurance Professionals of Shreveport/Bossier, an NAIW affiliate. In 1996, Tindall was the local association’s first Insurance Professional of the Year, and went on to garner that distinction at the state and regional levels of the National Association of Insurance Women. Tindall is a past director of NAIW’s Louisiana State Council. Joining Tindall as officers of the 1752 Club are Madelyn Cohen, Hull & Company, vice president, and Gwen Bourgeois, Apple Adjusters, secretary/ treasurer.