Richard S. Thompson

Richard S. Thompson (December 30, 1916 – December 28, 1997)^[1] was from 1972 to 1984 a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from District 22, which now includes Grant, La Salle, Winn, and Rapides parishes.^[2]

Thompson was the first person to hold the District 22 seat, which was created following redistricting based on the 1970 census. The previous configuration had included Grant Parish in a multi-member district with four representatives. Thompson served during the first two administrations of Governor Edwin Washington Edwards and Edwards's first successor, Republican David C. Treen.^[2] Along with his service in the Legislature, Thompson was a delegate in 1973 to the Louisiana Constitutional Convention held in the capitol in Baton Rouge.

In the 1975 nonpartisan blanket primary, the first held in Louisiana history with the abolition of the closed primary system, Thompson defeated a challenge from former State Senator W. L. Rambo of Georgetown, also in Grant Parish.^[3] Before he was a state senator, Rambo had held the Grant Parish House seat from 1952 to 1960.^[2]

Thompson was unseated in the 1983 primary by Thomas "Bud" Brady of La Salle Parish. Also in the primary race was former state representative and state senator W. L. Rambo. Brady led the primary field with 6,424 votes (36 percent); Rambo followed with 5,185 ballots (29.1 percent). Thompson garnered 4,960 votes (27.8 percent). The remaining 1,276 votes went to Darrel Thaxton, another Democrat.^[4] Brady then prevailed by 207 votes in the runoff election against Rambo, 7,301 (50.7 percent) to 7,094 (49.3 percent). Without his strong showing in his own LaSalle Parish, Brady would have been defeated.^[5]

A cotton, soybean, cattle, hay, and pecan farmer,^[6] Thompson resided in Colfax, the seat of Grant Parish. He died two days before his 81st birthday.^[1] Thompson and his surviving wife, Lucille (born 1918), have two daughters, Barbara T. Brown and her husband Daniel Wallace "Dan" Brown (born 1941) of Colfax, and Ellen T. Anderson and her husband, Paul J. Anderson, Sr., of Baton Rouge. Thompson and his wife had nine grandchildren, including Markay Brown of Baton Rouge; Kayla Glascock of Bossier City; and Gay Lynn Brown of Baton Rouge; Deborah A. Moody, of Wichita Falls, Texas; Chad Anderson of Baton Rouge; Alicia Anderson, of Denham Springs; and Richard Anderson of New York. Thompson was predeceased by two other grandchildren, "Andy" Paul Anderson, Jr., and Emmie Gayle Anderson Wisniewski in 2008, along with her unborn son, Weston Joseph Wisniewski, Thompson's great-grandson. Thompson's great-grandchildren include Callan Glascock, Kenna Glascock, and Carson Glascock of Bossier City, Louisiana; Daniel Brown and Maria Brown of Baton Rouge; Christopher, Keaton, and Katelynn Moody of Wichita Falls, and Austin Anderson of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.^[7]

He is remembered through the Richard S. Thompson Memorial Scholarship given to a Christian student from Grant Parish studying at Louisiana State University at Alexandria.^[8] Thompson was also memorialized in death by the naming of the Richard S. Thompson bridge that connects Rapides Parish and Grant Parish. The bridge was appropriated during Thompson's tenure in the legislature.

The District 22 seat is now held by the Independent Terry R. Brown, a nephew of Daniel Brown. Oddly, Daniel Brown is only five years older than his nephew, Terry Brown.^[9]

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