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Did you know ...

• in 1979, L.D. Knox of Winnsboro, Louisiana, had his name legally changed to "None of the Above" Knox to dramatize the lack of choices for voters on his state's ballot?
• in 1985, former Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Rufus D. Hayes sold 14 acres of land to Jimmy Swaggart Ministries for $750,000?
• in 1934 State Representative Rupert Peyton of Shreveport ridiculed Huey P. Long by proposing a bill to grant the title "Your Majesty" to every adult in Louisiana?
• historian Sue Eakin published an edited version of Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, a free black taken from New York into slavery in Louisiana?
• from 1965 to 1999, Aubrey W. Young established a series of drug and alcohol treatment programs through the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals?
• in 1990 former Louisiana State Senator Fritz H. Windhorst spoke on behalf of a vetoed bill which would have made abortion a felony punishable by imprisonment?
• in 2003, Louisiana State legislator Danny Martiny sought penalties for sexual acts in public of up to a year in jail and a maximum $1,000 fine?
• the 122 miles (196 km) Dorcheat Bayou in Arkansas and Louisiana was once navigable for several months a year to access the Red River?
• some cypress trees in Louisiana's Lake Bruin State Park predate Hernando de Soto's explorations of the area?
• singer Irvan Perez was considered to be one of the last performers of the traditional Isleño décimas of Louisiana, since there are few members of that community who still know how to sing the songs?
• in 1855 the Howard Association of Norfolk, Virginia received contributions during the yellow fever epidemic from the U.S. Gulf Coast areas and that 150 years later, they sent $50,000 of leftover funds to Louisiana to help with Hurricane Katrina relief?
• former State Rep. Kevin P. Reilly, Sr., once told People magazine that all Louisiana residents needed to be contented was "a pickup and a shotgun"?
• former Louisiana legislative auditor Steve Theriot investigated a police-operated toy charity which uncovered various improprieties at Mandeville City Hall?
• a colleague once described Ed Scogin of Slidell, Louisiana, as "the conservative conscience" of the Louisiana House of Representatives?
• although Louisiana per Perry v. Louisiana forbids the forced medication of a death row inmate to make him competent for execution, some states allow it?
• a fire station at the Louisiana State University Fireman Training Center is named in honour of former Louisiana state fire marshal V.J. Bella?
• Jerry Wray of Shreveport, Louisiana, moved away from painting landscapes to emphasis on the abstract with Christian themes?
• Clarence D. Wiley, already a 40-year public official in Louisiana, was to have joined his parish governing council when he died in 1976 of a sudden stroke?
• as a state legislator Ron Gomez, previously the radio voice of the ULL Ragin' Cajuns, worked to build the team's arena, the Cajundome, in Lafayette, Louisiana?
• as the mayor in the 1910s of Homer, Louisiana, Andrew R. Johnson worked to bring electric lights and water works to the municipality?
• former Louisiana Legislative Auditor Dan Kyle has joined a new company trying to rebuild Six Flags New Orleans, which has been closed since Hurricane Katrina?
• former Louisiana GOP committeewoman Virginia deGravelles became in 1941 one of the first two whites to register Republican in Lafayette, now a Republican stronghold?
• during the 1950s, Louisiana State Senator Herman "Wimpy" Jones advocated voting by 18-year-olds long before ratification of the 26th Amendment?
• as the mayor of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, W.W. Dumas called a curfew in 1969 to halt riots after the fatal shooting of a fleeing black suspect by a white police officer?
• the 1980s CBS sitcom Frank's Place was set in New Orleans, Louisiana?
• the historian Jimmy G. Shoalmire specialized in Reconstruction in Red River Parish, Louisiana, ruled from 1868 to 1876 by carpetbagger State Senator Marshall Twitchell?
• the Unknown Confederate Soldier Monument (pictured) in Hart County, Kentucky is unique for being built with geodes, and for honoring a Louisiana soldier who died accidentally by his own rifle?
• the flamboyant Louisiana Sheriff F.O. "Potch" Didier once spent seven days in his own jail upon conviction, after a sensational trial, of malfeasance in office?
• the Sabine Free State, a border area between Spanish Texas and American Louisiana but administered by neither for 15 years in the early 19th century, attracted every kind of outlaw known from both sides, as well as settlers, adventurers and political refugees?
• the Mansfield State Historic Site in western Louisiana commemorates an 1864 Confederate victory by General Richard Taylor, which prevented a pending Union invasion of Texas?
• the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry claimed in 1987 that a ten-year education reform plan in Louisiana had been "a long journey to nowhere"?
• the former actress Sherry Boucher, formerly married to George Peppard, is now a Realtor in Bossier Parish, Louisiana?
• the music of Louisiana blues performer Lonesome Sundown was described by his producer as "the sound of the swamp"?
• when the Louisiana State Representative C.W. Thompson died in office in 1951, then Governor Earl K. Long appointed Lizzie P. Thompson to finish her husband's term?
• upon the death of Louisiana newspaper publisher Sam Hanna, his state's press association in 2006 renamed its "Best Regular Column" award in his honor?
• two of the three daughters of the Louisiana real estate developer and Springhill mayor Jesse L. Boucher became Hollywood actresses?
• the supply of natural gas and electricity in New Orleans, Louisiana ceased as a result of the General Strike of 1892, plunging the city into darkness for four nights?
• the Germantown Colony and Museum near Minden, Louisiana, preserves the remnants of a Utopian religious commune active between 1835 and 1871?
• the Alexandria Zoological Park in Alexandria, Louisiana, US, started mostly with discarded pets when it opened in 1926?
• the Louisiana oral historian Hubert D. Humphreys was a charter member of the faculty at Louisiana State University in Shreveport?
• the Louisiana politician J. Frank Colbert was active during the 1920s and 1930s in Henry George's "Single Tax" Utopian movement?
• the Louisiana historian Garnie W. McGinty's Louisiana Redeemed: The Overthrow of Carpetbag Rule, 1876–1880 is an enduring study of Reconstruction in McGinty's native state?
• the historian and educator John Ardis Cawthon wrote about poor white settlers in the Louisiana hills, lonely cemeteries, ghost towns, and even his own ancestors?
• the historian Mark T. Carleton penned a 1971 study entitled "Politics and Punishment" which described a sudden change in racial demographics in the Louisiana penal system?
• the Louisiana Reconstruction politician Marshall H. Twitchell survived six bullets in an 1876 assassination attempt but lost the use of both arms?
• the Louisiana sheriff Elliot D. Coleman was one of the police bodyguards on duty at the time of the 1935 assassination of U.S. Senator Huey P. Long, Jr.?
• the real estate developer Buddy Tudor won awards for the historic preservation of the landmark Bentley Hotel in Alexandria, Louisiana?
• the mine countermeasures ship USS Scout used her sonar to locate hazardous sunken debris off the Louisiana coast after Hurricane Katrina?
• the Louisiana state appeal court Judge H. Welborn Ayres wrote a history of his native Ashland, a village in northern Natchitoches Parish?
• the Louisiana short story writer Ada Jack Carver Snell had a French grandmother who encouraged her literary and intellectual pursuits?
• A. Roswell Thompson, a taxi operator and a figure in the Ku Klux Klan, ran for governor of Louisiana in 1959, 32 years before David Duke waged his more publicized race in 1991?
• Warren Storm pioneered a South Louisiana musical genre known as swamp pop?
• Bob Odom, Louisiana's Commissoner of Agriculture and Forestry, is, with 28 years experience, his state's longest-serving statewide constitutional official?
• Camille Gravel, a Louisiana Democrat and civil rights advocate, was highly influential in state and national politics despite never holding office?
• Winnfield, home of the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame, is known as "the birthplace of Louisiana politics" because three governors, Huey and Earl Long and O.K. Allen, were born there?
• Nunez Community College in Chalmette, Louisiana, is named for the late wife of former Louisiana State Senate President Samuel B. Nunez, Jr.?
• State Senator Coleman Lindsey became lieutenant governor of Louisiana, when Earl Long succeeded Governor Richard W. Leche?
• Caney Lakes Recreation Area and nearby Lake Bistineau in northwestern Louisiana have been plagued with the giant salvinia fern, which impairs boating?
• Captan Jack Wyly was a Democratic Party power broker in Lake Providence, Louisiana, which was labeled by Time magazine in 1997 as the poorest city in the United States?
• E.S. Richardson, a Louisiana educator for whom the E.S. Richardson Elementary School is named, ended his career as an administrator of the wartime Office of Price Administration?
• Dennis Freeman, as the mayor of tiny Logansport, Louisiana, worked for 16 years to keep the construction of a new bridge over the Sabine River to connect Louisiana and Texas as a high construction priority?
• Claude Kirkpatrick, Louisiana public works director in the 1960s, joined with state officials in Texas to establish Toledo Bend Reservoir on the common Sabine River border?
• Charles deGravelles and his wife, Virginia, of Lafayette, Louisiana, were in 1968 the only married couple in history to serve together on the Republican National Committee?
• State Representative Jim Fannin wrote the Louisiana "career diploma" law, designed to reduce the dropout rate by allowing high schoolers to pursue less rigorous studies?
• Louisiana state Judge Henry L. Yelverton, facing mandatory retirement at 75, went on to work five years as a clerk for the appeals court in Lake Charles?
• Louisiana Judge Kernan "Skip" Hand was overruled in 2008 by the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the exclusion of two blacks as jurors in a high-profile murder case?
• Louisiana State Representative Jim Morris tried without success in 2009 to gain repeal of his state's compulsory motorcyclist helmet law?
• Louisiana journalist Robert Angers in 1977 established the International Relations Association of Acadiana to foster goodwill and commerce with French and Spanish-speaking nations?
• Judge Guy E. Humphries, Jr., of Alexandria, Louisiana, joined with two friends to form the Renaissance Home for Youth, an alternative to reform school for youthful offenders?
• Governor Bobby Jindal named former State Representative Sean Reilly as board chairman of Blueprint Louisiana, a group promoting technology and economic development statewide?
• Louisiana politician Earl Williamson was a confidant of Governor Earl Kemp Long, who shared his interest in buttermilk, horse racing, and politicking?
• Louisiana Sheriff Henderson Jordan sought to keep the death car of Bonnie and Clyde to compensate the officers who in 1934 risked their lives to capture the fugitives?
• Louisiana politician Arthur C. Watson lost the use of his legs in infancy?
• Louisiana piano player Allen "Puddler" Harris, whose career spanned five decades, was inducted into the Delta Music Museum Hall of Fame?
• Louisiana in 2008 became the fiftieth state to ban cockfighting, nearly two decades after former State Representative Garey Forster led the initial effort to halt the practice?
• Louisiana District Judge Stephen J. Windhorst is a former reserve police officer who also served eight years in the Louisiana House of Representatives as an anti-crime advocate?
• Edmund Graves Brown, a member of the Louisiana Ewing newspaper family, was a U.S. Army officer in the Battle of the Bulge in 1944?
  
• Frank T. Norman, a Louisiana Democrat, was among the first members of his party to lose a general election to a Republican opponent, as the two-party system began to sprout in the American South?
• Robert DeBlieux, a former mayor of Natchitoches, Louisiana, was the local advisor when the film Steel Magnolias was shot in the city?
• Rose Van Thyn, a survivor of Auschwitz and Ravensbrueck, became a leading figure in Holocaust education in her adopted city of Shreveport, Louisiana?
• Pete Heine participated in the Berlin Airlift, then became the crew chief on an F-86 Sabre jet, and was later mayor of Baker, Louisiana?
• Noah W. Cross, sheriff of Concordia Parish, Louisiana, from 1944–1973, was forced to resign upon a perjury conviction in U.S. District Court in Alexandria?
• Michael G. Strain is Louisiana's first elected Republican commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry?
• Sol Rosenberg, a survivor of the Dachau concentration camp, established an international steel company in his adopted city of Monroe, Louisiana?
• Tropical Storm Arlene of the 1959 Atlantic hurricane season was the earliest storm to ever make landfall in Louisiana?
• W. Jasper Blackburn, a Republican newspaper publisher in Louisiana, was acquitted by a one-vote margin—and thus spared execution—of having printed counterfeit Confederate currency?
• Virginia Shehee, Louisiana's first woman state senator, once bought a pig at a 4-H show, the proceeds of which helped a boy with cerebral palsy to learn how to walk?
• Troy Smith established the Sonic Drive-In chain in the 1950s after stopping at a Louisiana drive-in restaurant that used an intercom-based ordering system ?
• Tropical Storm Bertha, the second tropical storm of the 2002 Atlantic hurricane season, was one of only 3 tropical cyclones to make landfall on both Louisiana and Texas, with the others being Allison (2001) and Fern (1971)?
• Lloyd E. Lenard, a Shreveport businessman and author, was a leader in the fight to establish a two-party system in his native Louisiana?
• Lake Bistineau in northwestern Louisiana was originally formed in 1800 by flooding stemming from a large log jam on the nearby Red River?
• James Whitfield Williamson, a politician from Vivian, Louisiana, won a silver medal in 1987 at his state's seniors tennis tournament?
• Hurricane Audrey, which killed 390 in Louisiana in 1957, was one of the first hurricanes observed by weather radar?
• Herman Farr, an African American clergyman from Shreveport, Louisiana, single-handedly desegregated the historic Strand Theatre during the heyday of the civil rights movement?
• Gerald Long, an incoming Republican member of the Louisiana State Senate, is believed to be the only Long family member to have held significant public office in Louisiana outside the Democratic Party?
• Jane H. Smith is not only the first woman state legislator from Bossier Parish in Louisiana, but she is the first woman to have been a high-school principal and school superintendent there as well?
• Jasper Goodwill, later a mayor in Louisiana, was given the middle initial "K" by the U.S. Army during World War I as a way to enhance identification of the soldiers?
• L. B. Henry of Pineville, overcame a missing forearm at birth to become a plumber-businessman and then a statewide figure in Louisiana parish government?
• KNOE-FM, founded in 1967 by former Governor of Louisiana James A. Noe, was one of five stations in Louisiana that Noe named for himself?
• John T. David, a small-town Louisiana mayor, was elected to his parish governing council in 1956, less than a year after resigning as mayor because of two bootlegging convictions?
• Jesse Bankston was fired as director of the Department of Hospitals for refusing to release the Louisiana Governor from involuntary commitment to a mental institution?
• conservative radio talk show host Moon Griffon, who broadcasts statewide from Monroe, is sometimes known as the Rush Limbaugh of Louisiana?