World War II Greece and a Benton Pilot

In a recent letter to the editor in the March 12th edition of the Bossier Press-Tribune, mention was made of a local young man who gave his life defending the Free World: 1st Lieutenant Harvey M. Bigby, a World War II pilot with the U.S. Army Air Corps, 15th Airforce. Lieutenant Bigby, with another seventy-nine men, would be involved in an air accident over the south of Greece while undertaking a bombing mission. Now you may be asking yourself why these American pilots were in Greece in the first place, and the answer is more complex than you may first believe.

The Second World Wa... Read Full Blog

Clyde Connell

This month is Women’s History Month, making March the perfect time to celebrate a nationally-renowned artist with Bossier Parish connections, Clyde Dixon Connell. Clyde Connell started as a painter but was best-known as a self-taught abstract impressionist sculptor. In 1998, which was the year of her passing at the age of 97, she was named a Louisiana “Living Legend” by the Louisiana Public Broadcasting Service.

Minnie Clyde Dixon was born in Belcher, Louisiana in 1901 and lived on a large sharecropping plantation. In her adult years she lived in Shreveport and during her later years ... Read Full Blog

Julia Sparke Rule: Nineteenth Century Community Chronicler and Mother

March is Women’s history month and it’s always exciting to find women from local history who challenged conventions, achieved something out-of-the-ordinary, or used whatever gifts and opportunities they had for the good of their community. Mrs. Julia Rule, became nationally famous for driving the golden spike in Bossier City, La. to mark the completion of the Shreveport and Arkansas Railroad on April 6, 1888 (later known as the Cotton Belt). She was well-known locally for her role working in the male domain of journalism, especially as the society columnist known as “Pansy” and was not afra... Read Full Blog

Barksdale’s Air Show: Thrilling Crowds Since Aviation’s Early Days

When the Wright brothers’ Wright Flyer first took flight on December 17, 1903, one of the onlookers – John T. Daniels – was left in awe. Historian David McCullough, in his book “The Wright Brothers,” wrote that Daniels gave an interview years later about the historic event and said that the aircraft “ … sailed off in the air … as pretty as any bird you ever laid your eyes on. I don’t think I ever saw a prettier sight in my life.” It was he who captured a photo of the Flyer’s successful launch from the sands of Kill Devil Hill, North Carolina. Thirty years later, that same sense of wonder ma... Read Full Blog

Forty-Nine Years of Joy

The recent warm weather has been an opportunity I have been taking to get back outside and stretch my legs without the bite of cold. One such place here in Bossier Parish to do so is the Mike Wood Memorial Park. Named for Mike Wood, a student athlete from Bossier who was tragically killed in an auto-accident in November of 1968, this park has been a fixture in the Shady Grove area for decades. From local events to simple day outings, the Mike Wood Memorial Park has been available and home to many thousands of people seeking a pleasant place to experience the outdoors.

Mike Wood wa... Read Full Blog

Inez Smith Grisby – Accomplished Teacher, Trailblazing Student

As one of Bossier Parish’s esteemed supervisors of schools for African American children in the mid-20th century, Inez Smith Grisby was especially known for her role as teacher, and teacher supervisor, not only in Bossier Parish, where she worked for over twenty years, but throughout the state. Less known, but as much of an achievement, was Inez Grisby’s role as a student, first in obtaining a rare high school diploma in 1925, because secondary schools for African-American students in Louisiana were few and far between, and then as a recipient of a master’s degree from Louisiana State Unive... Read Full Blog

Bossier City’s Official Flags Represent Link to the Past

While writing a History Center column last September about Bossier City officially being named a city, I learned that along with that new title, Bossier gained its first official city flag. This made me curious as to how many official flags the city has had through the years and where the flags might be today.

In 1951, due to Bossier’s population growth, Louisiana Governor Earl Long issued a proclamation stating that henceforth, Bossier would be known as the City of Bossier City. Prior to this, it had been a village and then a town. As part of the celebrations surrounding this auspici... Read Full Blog

A Black History Month Call for Donation

Writing this week’s local history column, I feel a mix of gratitude and sadness. My wife and I will soon be moving out of state, and this column will be my last. While I am excited about the new opportunities ahead, leaving this role is bittersweet. The work we at the History Center do together—documenting, preserving, and sharing the rich history of Bossier Parish—has been some of the most rewarding of my career.

When speaking with donors of our collection items, I often use the analogy comparing history to a jigsaw puzzle. With every photograph, letter, or artifact donated, a new pi... Read Full Blog

The Lifelines of the Nation

The United States Interstate Highway System, often shortened to just the Interstate or “I” is one of the most critical pieces of infrastructure in the United States, a fact I and many others are intimately familiar with. My commute spends twenty minutes on the interstate, and I know I’m not alone with this experience. With the interstates, what would otherwise be heavy traffic and constant stoplights is replaced with steady movement and high speeds. This and more are all thanks to the work put in nearly a century prior, in the wake of the Second World War.

The purpose of the U.S. Inte... Read Full Blog

Secret Base at Barksdale Helped Safeguard U.S. Nuclear Arsenal

 In an episode of “The Andy Griffith Show” titled “Keeper of the Flame,” Andy’s elementary school-aged son Opie comes to his dad’s workplace to share news with his dad, but remains tight-lipped on details of that news. “You know what I did? I joined a club,” Opie says. “What club was that,” Andy asks. “I can’t tell ya,” Opie replies. “Know where we meet,” Opie continues. “No, where,” Andy asks. “I can’t tell ya,” comes the answer. Each attempt from Andy to learn more about the club is met with the same reply from Opie, “I can’t tell ya.”

Barksdale Air Force Base was once home to ... Read Full Blog

A Civil Rights History for National Blood Donor Month

Fifty-five years ago, on December 31, 1969, President Richard Nixon proclaimed the first National Blood Donor Month in January 1970 to honor voluntary blood donors and to encourage people to give blood. January 20th is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday established in 1983. The holiday has transformed a decade later to include a National Day of Service honoring Dr. King’s activism and service that paved the way for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Both of these January commemorations are connected in significant and perhaps unexpected ways, especially if one goes back to the era of ... Read Full Blog

Mysterious Disappearance of Barksdale General and Airmen Still Unsolved

Throughout history there have been many intriguing and mysterious disappearances that remain unsolved such as the Lost Colony of Roanoke, the crew of the Mary Celeste, Amelia Earhart, and the men of Flight 19. One such disappearance has ties to Barksdale Air Force Base, and, although not as well-known as these more famous cases, it nonetheless is still mystifying 74 years after it happened.

In early 1951, the U.S. Air Force’s Strategic Air Command (SAC) established the 7th Air Division and assigned it to England to help counter the growing threat from the Soviet Union. SAC bombers sta... Read Full Blog

Holiday Viands (Good Food!) in Old Bossier

During the holiday season in Bossier Parish, delicious food is always on the menu. From the parish formation in 1843 to today, treasured recipes are the backbone of family gatherings and community events. Newspaper articles from the 19th century are full of words and delicacies we might not recognize now, but the celebratory spirit and impulse to gather with special friends and family and favorite foods remain.

Rupert Peyton, newspaperman and a recorder of Bossier Parish history, was born in 1899 in Webster Parish and grew up as a child and young man on a farm in the Plai... Read Full Blog

Still Waters: The Freezing of a River and its Lasting Impact

The waters of the Red River, normally free flowing, came to a halt in December 1983, and 41 years later, this event is still a source of wonder and awe. Few times in local history have cold temperatures made their presence known on such a grand scale or created such a stunning display.

As residents prepared for Christmas in ’83, the weather gave no hint of what was to come. According to author and National Weather Service observer Billy Andrews, conditions were nothing out of the ordinary. “The first ten days of the month were typical of December weather ... ranging from above to ... Read Full Blog

80 Years Hence: The Railsplitters in the Battle of the Bulge

It was six months since the start of the Normandy Invasion on June 6, 1944, and four months since the Liberation of Paris. The advance had not slowed, with the German Army ceding more ground as the year progressed. Then came December, with winter setting-in for France, and an exhausted Allied army unprepared for the coming storm. Having marshalled its remaining available strength at the behest of Hitler’s mania, Germany launched their last-ditch gamble through the Ardennes Forest on December 16. Their hope was to cut the Allied Offensive in two. What instead occurred is considered one of th... Read Full Blog