Paul L. Foshee
Encyclopedia
Paul Lee Foshee, Sr. is a retired crop duster from Natchitoches
, Louisiana
, who served nonconsecutively in both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature
during the 1960s
and 1970s
. From 1960 to 1964, beginning at the age of twenty-seven, Foshee served a single four-year term as a state representative
from Natchitoches Parish
. He and former Representative Curtis Boozman (1898–1979) were elected in a two-member district in which the incumbent
s, Monnie T. Cheves and E.H. Haynes, were unseated in the 1959-1960 election cycle. Haynes was a former agriculture
teacher
at Natchitoches High School
.
Eight years later, Foshee was elected to a single term in the Louisiana State Senate
. He unseated 20-year Democratic
Senator Sylvan N. Friedman
, a pro-Long
farmer
, cattleman, and large landowner from Natchez
in Natchitoches Parish (not to be confused with Natchez, Mississippi
). After securing the pivotal Democratic nomination, Foshee then handily defeated in the general election
held on February 1, 1972, the Republican
Bob Reese
, a businessman who later became chairman of the Natchitoches Parish Board of Election Supervisors and served on the Republican State Central Committee from 1968 to 1996. Reese had earlier run for the Louisiana House from Jackson Parish
, having been defeated by future Speaker
E.L. "Bubba" Henry.
In the first ever nonpartisan blanket primary in 1975, Foshee was unseated by his fellow Democrat, Donald G. Kelly
, a Natchitoches attorney
originally from Coushatta
, the seat of Red River Parish
. In 1979, Foshee’s 23-year-old son, George Barnes "Barney" Foshee (1956–2000), failed in an attempt to unseat Kelly, who scored the second of his five terms in the state Senate. In 1987, Foshee himself unsuccessfully challenged Kelly, 25,619 votes (62.5 percent) to 15,346 (37.5 percent)
Foshee is descended from an old-line Natchitoches family, which first came to the Cane River
area from Paris, France
, in 1690. His parents, who married in 1928, were George Washington Foshee (1893–1973), a veteran of World War I
and a sawmill
operator in Natchitoches, and the former Mamie Lee Smith (1906–1991). Foshee was reared in the Baptist
Church. In 1950, he graduated from Natchitoches High School (renamed Natchitoches Central High School
after desegregation
), and in 1961, he completed studies for a bachelor's degree
in social science at Northwestern State University
in Natchitoches.
Foshee himself has been married and divorce
d six times. From his first marriage to the former Charlene Addington, the daughter of Charles Garland Addington and the former Wanda Vera Smiddy (1916–1975), he had four children. Paul Foshee, Jr. (born 1951), operates Foshee Dusting Company in Natchitoches, the business that Foshee founded in 1952. Foshee, Sr., retired from flying in 1998.
From the first marriage, Foshee also has a daughter, Fran Lea Foshee Poole, and the late son, George Foshee. A fourth child from the first marriage, Christie Cheryl Foshee, died at birth; no dates are marked on her gravestone in Fern Cemetery in Natchitoches. From the second marriage to the former Venita Ann Higgs, since deceased, Foshee had a third son, Lane Chase Foshee (1970–1999). He has no children from his subsequent marriages to the former Martha Martinez, Joyce Wall, Karen Cook, and Katherine Joan Phares (born ca. 1938), who resides in Shreveport
.
Foshee considers himself to have been an independent "good government" type of legislator, concerned in particular about bills relating to insurance, reducing taxes, and removing from the state payroll, so-called "deadheads" or phantom employees who perform little or no actual work for their government checks. Though outgoing Governor Earl Kemp Long supported Foshee's initial election to the House, Foshee considered himself neither "pro-Long" nor "anti-Long" within his state's then dominant Democratic Party.
Foshee holds Patent
5033695, July 23, 1991, on the Aileron counterbalance mount bracket used on the Brumann crop dusting plane. The device operates similarly to power steering
in automobiles. The patent expired in 2010.
Natchitoches, Louisiana
Natchitoches is a city in and the parish seat of Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, United States. Established in 1714 by Louis Juchereau de St. Denis as part of French Louisiana, the community was named after the Natchitoches Indian tribe. The City of Natchitoches was first incorporated on February...
, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, who served nonconsecutively in both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature
Louisiana State Legislature
The Louisiana State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 representatives, and the upper house, the Louisiana Senate with 39 senators...
during the 1960s
1960s
The 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...
and 1970s
1970s
File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...
. From 1960 to 1964, beginning at the age of twenty-seven, Foshee served a single four-year term as a state representative
Louisiana State Legislature
The Louisiana State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 representatives, and the upper house, the Louisiana Senate with 39 senators...
from Natchitoches Parish
Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana
Natchitoches Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Natchitoches. As of 2000, the population was 39,080. This is the heart of the Cane River Louisiana Creole community...
. He and former Representative Curtis Boozman (1898–1979) were elected in a two-member district in which the incumbent
Incumbent
The incumbent, in politics, is the existing holder of a political office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent. For example, in the 2004 United States presidential election, George W...
s, Monnie T. Cheves and E.H. Haynes, were unseated in the 1959-1960 election cycle. Haynes was a former agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
at Natchitoches High School
Natchitoches Central High School
Natchitoches Central High School is a public high school in Natchitoches, Louisiana, United States. It is a part of the Natchitoches Parish School Board....
.
Eight years later, Foshee was elected to a single term in the Louisiana State Senate
Louisiana State Legislature
The Louisiana State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 representatives, and the upper house, the Louisiana Senate with 39 senators...
. He unseated 20-year Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
Senator Sylvan N. Friedman
Sylvan Friedman
Sylvan N. Friedman was a Louisiana politician, a rare Jewish member of both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature...
, a pro-Long
Earl Long
Earl Kemp Long was an American politician and the 45th Governor of Louisiana for three non-consecutive terms. Long termed himself the "last of the red hot poppas" of politics, referring to his stump-speaking skills...
farmer
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
, cattleman, and large landowner from Natchez
Natchez, Louisiana
Natchez is a village in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 583 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Natchitoches Micropolitan Statistical Area....
in Natchitoches Parish (not to be confused with Natchez, Mississippi
Natchez, Mississippi
Natchez is the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. With a total population of 18,464 , it is the largest community and the only incorporated municipality within Adams County...
). After securing the pivotal Democratic nomination, Foshee then handily defeated in the general election
General election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
held on February 1, 1972, the Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
Bob Reese
Bob Reese
Bobby Lynn Reese, known as Bob Reese , was a home builder, architectural designer, portrait painter, and businessman in Natchitoches, Louisiana, who was a co-chairman of the Natchitoches Parish Republican Party from 1968–2004, during an era in which Democrats dominated his region of the state,...
, a businessman who later became chairman of the Natchitoches Parish Board of Election Supervisors and served on the Republican State Central Committee from 1968 to 1996. Reese had earlier run for the Louisiana House from Jackson Parish
Jackson Parish, Louisiana
Jackson Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish was formed in 1845 from parts of Claiborne, Ouachita, and Union Parishes. In 2010, its population was 16,274. The parish seat is Jonesboro...
, having been defeated by future Speaker
Speaker (politics)
The term speaker is a title often given to the presiding officer of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body. The speaker's official role is to moderate debate, make rulings on procedure, announce the results of votes, and the like. The speaker decides who may speak and has the...
E.L. "Bubba" Henry.
In the first ever nonpartisan blanket primary in 1975, Foshee was unseated by his fellow Democrat, Donald G. Kelly
Donald G. Kelly
Donald Gene Kelly, usually known as Don Kelly , is a prominent trial lawyer and American Quarter Horse breeder in Natchitoches who served as a Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate from 1976 to 1996. His tenure covered three of the four terms of Democratic Governor Edwin Washington...
, a Natchitoches attorney
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
originally from Coushatta
Coushatta, Louisiana
Coushatta is a town in and the parish seat of rural Red River Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is situated on the east bank of the Red River. The community is approximately forty-five miles south of Shreveport on U.S. Highway 71...
, the seat of Red River Parish
Red River Parish, Louisiana
Red River Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Its seat is Coushatta. It was one of the newer parishes created in 1871 by the state legislature under Reconstruction...
. In 1979, Foshee’s 23-year-old son, George Barnes "Barney" Foshee (1956–2000), failed in an attempt to unseat Kelly, who scored the second of his five terms in the state Senate. In 1987, Foshee himself unsuccessfully challenged Kelly, 25,619 votes (62.5 percent) to 15,346 (37.5 percent)
Foshee is descended from an old-line Natchitoches family, which first came to the Cane River
Cane River
Cane River is a lake and river formed from a portion of the Red River that is located in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. In the 19th and 20th centuries, it has been best known as the site of a historic Creole de couleur culture that has centers upon the National Historic Landmark Melrose...
area from Paris, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, in 1690. His parents, who married in 1928, were George Washington Foshee (1893–1973), a veteran of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and a sawmill
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
operator in Natchitoches, and the former Mamie Lee Smith (1906–1991). Foshee was reared in the Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
Church. In 1950, he graduated from Natchitoches High School (renamed Natchitoches Central High School
Natchitoches Central High School
Natchitoches Central High School is a public high school in Natchitoches, Louisiana, United States. It is a part of the Natchitoches Parish School Board....
after desegregation
Racial segregation in the United States
Racial segregation in the United States, as a general term, included the racial segregation or hypersegregation of facilities, services, and opportunities such as housing, medical care, education, employment, and transportation along racial lines...
), and in 1961, he completed studies for a bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in social science at Northwestern State University
Northwestern State University
Northwestern State University, known as NSU, is a four-year public university primarily situated in Natchitoches, Louisiana, with a nursing campus in Shreveport and general campuses in Leesville/Fort Polk and Alexandria. It is a part of the University of Louisiana System.NSU was founded in 1884 as...
in Natchitoches.
Foshee himself has been married and divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
d six times. From his first marriage to the former Charlene Addington, the daughter of Charles Garland Addington and the former Wanda Vera Smiddy (1916–1975), he had four children. Paul Foshee, Jr. (born 1951), operates Foshee Dusting Company in Natchitoches, the business that Foshee founded in 1952. Foshee, Sr., retired from flying in 1998.
From the first marriage, Foshee also has a daughter, Fran Lea Foshee Poole, and the late son, George Foshee. A fourth child from the first marriage, Christie Cheryl Foshee, died at birth; no dates are marked on her gravestone in Fern Cemetery in Natchitoches. From the second marriage to the former Venita Ann Higgs, since deceased, Foshee had a third son, Lane Chase Foshee (1970–1999). He has no children from his subsequent marriages to the former Martha Martinez, Joyce Wall, Karen Cook, and Katherine Joan Phares (born ca. 1938), who resides in Shreveport
Shreveport, Louisiana
Shreveport is the third largest city in Louisiana. It is the principal city of the fourth largest metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana and is the 109th-largest city in the United States....
.
Foshee considers himself to have been an independent "good government" type of legislator, concerned in particular about bills relating to insurance, reducing taxes, and removing from the state payroll, so-called "deadheads" or phantom employees who perform little or no actual work for their government checks. Though outgoing Governor Earl Kemp Long supported Foshee's initial election to the House, Foshee considered himself neither "pro-Long" nor "anti-Long" within his state's then dominant Democratic Party.
Foshee holds Patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
5033695, July 23, 1991, on the Aileron counterbalance mount bracket used on the Brumann crop dusting plane. The device operates similarly to power steering
Power steering
Power steering helps drivers steer vehicles by augmenting steering effort of the steering wheel.Hydraulic or electric actuators add controlled energy to the steering mechanism, so the driver needs to provide only modest effort regardless of conditions. Power steering helps considerably when a...
in automobiles. The patent expired in 2010.