School Tragedy in East Texas Prompts Response from Bossier Parish
Among the many headstones at Forest Park Cemetery in Shreveport, there stands one with the name of a young girl who perished 87 years ago in the worst school disaster in our nation’s history. Mary Priscilla Carney was only 12 that fateful afternoon in 1937 when an explosion reduced her school in New London, Texas to rubble. Bossier Parish responded, as did many communities, and began taking steps to ensure such a tragedy wouldn’t happen here.
Revenue flowing from the East Texas oil fields brought much-needed prosperity to New London in the 1930s. Located approximately 1... Read Full Blog
Old Friends on Old Downtown Bossier
Old Friends on Old Downtown BossierThey say a picture is worth a thousand words, but I beg to differ. At least among old friends discussing a photograph in our History Center collection of old downtown Bossier City (Barksdale Blvd.) circa 1952, it is worth 6,173 words. At least, the photo elicited that many words in the transcribed oral history interview, recorded in 2011 at the History Center with friends Samuel “Aaron” Kelly and Larry Moore. Both men were born in the mid-1930s and were lifelong Bossier residents. (They also passed away within months of each other in 2017 and 2018.)Read Full Blog
Reading and Roller Coasters, Log Rides and Library Cards
September is Library Card Sign-up Month. As Bossier Parish Community Engagement Librarian Andrea Gilmer wrote in her column last week (9/4/24) the campaign began as a challenge laid down by then-Secretary of Education William H. Bennet to members of the American Library Association in 1987. The challenge, that the librarians chose to accept, was to see that every child obtains a library card, and every child uses it. Just two years later, the librarians of Caddo and Bossier Parishes had come up with a nearly foolproof plan to reach that goal right here in northwest Louisiana. That was becau... Read Full Blog
Celebration Highlights Bossier’s Emergence as a City
Seventy-three years ago this month was a special time for Bossier City. It was a time for celebrating, a time for congratulations, and a time for recognition, not because of a great sports victory or a win on the political stage or the opening of some new, grand industry. It was special due to the achievement of a long hoped-for milestone, Bossier taking a seat at the adult table. In 1951, Bossier became a city.
Plans were announced to mark the auspicious occasion. Newspapers of the day heralded the event with headlines proclaiming “A C... Read Full Blog
Bossier Biography: Lettie van Landingham
Have you ever had questions about gardening, landscaping, pressure cooking, furniture refinishing, public health, floral design, nutrition, infant care, historic preservation, city cleanup, sewing, personal hygiene, or food preservation? Would you believe that for 30 years Bossier Parish had one woman who could provide you with answers to questions on this wide variety of subjects? That woman was Lettie van Landingham. She described her work as “doing everything you can’t get the other fellow to do.”
Lettie was born in Claiborne Parish ... Read Full Blog
Representative Pierre Bossier, The First from the Fourth
It’s back to school time, so here’s your history pop quiz. For whom was the parish of Bossier named? General Pierre Evariste Bossier, of Natchitoches. Perhaps that question is easy or boring, but here is a tale of tracking down our parish’s namesake that puts to rest the idea that history is boring or irrelevant. Pierre Bossier lived 200 years ago, pre-photography, when the parishes of northwest Louisiana were considered “the frontier parishes,” and even Louisiana was not considered part of the “Old South” but of the “West” or Southwest. Even Washington DC, where Pierre Bossier served... Read Full Blog
Motobu, A Marine’s Best Friend and Sgt. James F. Brown
After writing the stories of the horrific Texas City disaster of 1947, it seemed time to venture into lighter, feel-good territory. After finding a story of a shell-shocked and abandoned Japanese war dog, named Motobu for the north Okinawa peninsula where he was found, who was rescued by some US Marines, including a young man from Bossier City, I thought I’d come across the perfect feel-good topic. And, it was just in time for the 79th anniversary of “Victory Over Japan,” commemorating the August 14, 1945 announcement that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effective... Read Full Blog
History Center Moves to New Home Inside Central Library Complex
The Bossier Parish Libraries History Center has a new home. Early last month, the center “packed its bags” and relocated to space inside the Bossier Central Library Complex at 850 City Hall Drive. Although there is still some unpacking of those bags to be done, the center is open for visitors.
Since 1999, the History Center has been documenting and preserving the story of Bossier Parish and its people, and through those 25 years, the center has amassed quite a collection of everything from documents and photographs to furniture and clothing, thanks to the generosi... Read Full Blog
Eugene Barefield and the Texas City Tragedy, 1947
On the morning of Wednesday, April 16, 1947, in the industrial port of Texas City, Texas, 10 miles east of Galveston, the French vessel the SS Grandcamp, which was being loaded with ammonium nitrate fertilizer, exploded. The explosion set off a chain of events, including the explosion of a second ship carrying ammonium nitrate, that changed history locally and even globally. Many families in the Shreveport and Bossier area suffered through the anxiety and grief of the disaster’s immediate aftermath.
Last week’s history article looked at... Read Full Blog
Robert Southerland and the Texas City Tragedy, 1947
Robert Southerland and the Texas City Tragedy, 1947In Texas City, Texas, a busy industrial port between Galveston and Houston, an explosion occurred on the morning of Wednesday, April 16, 1947 that changed history locally and even globally. The shock of the explosion could be felt as far away as Louisiana, and the waves of anxiety and grief scarred many families in the Shreveport and Bossier area, including the Southerland family, as they awaited news of their brother, son, and son-in-law Robert D. Southerland.
Texas City, Texas had been a much sleepier town prior to Wor... Read Full Blog
A Bossier Biography – Lambert W. Baker
Here is a story of a resilient Bossier Parish man that takes place during the Reconstruction era, 1865-1877. His story shows that Reconstruction was a time of strident national political division. It was a time when to vote Republican in the South, which had been the party of Abraham Lincoln, was to risk ostracism or even serious physical harm or death.
Lambert William Baker was born in North Carolina in 1818. In 1844, he married Martha “Mattie” Allen in Walker County, Alabama. Their first daughter, Theodocia, and only son, Perc...
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Dear Mr. President, 1942
Two weeks ago, we featured kids, the fifth graders of Mrs. Bonvillion’s class at Bossier Grammar School, who were making a difference during World War II. They collected the waste fats and tin cans that were needed to make munitions for the armed services. The children posed for a photo in 1944, a copy of which is in our History Center collections, showing them holding a banner that said, “We Brought the GREASE to Write the PEACE.” Here’s another story from our collections of a Bossier City youngster doing her part, and making her voice known, for the war effort.
... Read Full Blog
Winning World War II from the Kitchen
In the archives of the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center is a 1944 photograph of Mrs. Bonvillion’s fifth grade class at Bossier Grammar School (now Bossier Elementary School). The students proudly hold a banner that proclaims, “We brought the GREASE to write the PEACE.” They brought waste fats and tin cans that were needed to make munitions for the armed services during World War II.
Schools were not the only places in which kitchen fats were collected. Lettie VanLandingham was Bossier Parish’s Home Demonstration Agent through the Depression, WWII and into the 195... Read Full Blog
Gliding into Normandy, 80 Years Later, Part II: Bennie Matlock
The invasion of Normandy began 80 years ago on June 6, 1944, with the risky and unprecedented Allied landings from the air and sea, known as “D-Day.” In addition to the beach landings of amphibious craft, and the airborne troops who parachuted behind enemy lines, minimally supplied and scattered from each other, supplies and troops landed courtesy of newly-minted gliders and glider pilots. The Bossier Parish Libraries History Center is fortunate to have oral history interviews with two Bossier veterans who landed on D-Day, silently and partially under cover of dark and clouds, in motorless,... Read Full Blog
Gliding into Normandy, 80 Years Later, Part I: James Larkin
It is the 80th anniversary (June 6th) of the D-Day landing in Normandy France, marking 80 years since the celebrated and unprecedented beach landings of Operation Neptune and the ensuing battles of Operation Overlord. Supplies and troops also landed courtesy of newly-minted glider pilots who flew unarmed, motorless glider planes into landing zones, often in the dark, deep into enemy territory to clear the way for the rest of the battle for Normandy.
The Bossier Parish Libraries History Center is fortunate to have oral history interviews with two Bossier veterans who experienced gl... Read Full Blog