John J. Doles, Jr.

John Jones Doles, Jr. (January 6, 1923 – April 6, 2004),^[1] was a businessman and civic figure from Plain Dealing in Bossier Parish in northwestern Louisiana.

Like his father, John J. Doles, Sr., he was from 1982 to 1983 the president of the Louisiana Bankers Association, his tenure having begun a quarter of a century after that of his father. In addition to Doles, Sr., and Doles, Jr., three other Bossier Parish bankers have served as president of the LBA: V. V. Whittington (a state senator from 1928 to 1932 and LBA president from 1948 to 1949), J. A. "Sonny" Dunnam, Jr., of Benton (1966–1967), and Will C. Hubbard (born 1946) of Citizen’s Bank in Bossier City, who served from 1997 to 1998.^[2] He was affiliated with First State Bank and Doles Insurance Company and Discus Oil Company, both at 301 East Palmetto Avenue in Plain Dealing.^[3]

Like his father, Doles graduated in 1940 from Plain Dealing High School. He was a member of the Louisiana State University Reserve Officers Training Corps. He served in France and Germany during World War II at the rank of second lieutenant. He was in George Patton's Third Army. He later retired as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve. He received a Bronze Star, Purple Heart, American Camp Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal.^[1] In 1948, he received his Bachelor of Science degree in petroleum engineering from LSU in Baton Rouge. Though his principal work was in banking, Doles co-owned Discus Oil with Wayne Davis.^[4]

While he was an LSU student, Doles was a fraternity brother, roommate, and best man in the wedding party of future U.S. Representative Gillis Long, an unsuccessful two-time gubernatorial candidate, who married his House successor, Catherine "Cathy" Small Long (1924-2019). While in Baton Rouge, Doles met and married the former Mai (pronounced MAY) Frances Lower (born September 24, 1929), the adopted daughter of LSU-based historian T. Harry Williams (1909-1979). She was the only daughter of Williams' second wife, the former Estelle Skolfield Lower, of Baton Rouge, herself an LSU English professor. It was the second marriage for both Harry and Estelle Williams.^[5]

In 1956, Doles was part of the association known as the Upper West Fork of Cypress Bayou Watershed, which worked with Roy Donald "Don" Hinton (1912–2011), of Minden, the then chairman of the board of supervisors of the Dorcheat Soil & Water Conservation District,^[6] to establish three lakes in the Plain Dealing area to prevent recurring floods. The municipality passed a $52,000 bond issue, and the Bossier Parish Police Jury built and blacktopped roads to the lakes. The rights-of-way were mostly donated by citizens. The largest of the lakes, Lake Plain Dealing, remains popular for recreation. In 1961, the undertaking was named national "Watershed Project of the Year. Doles, along with Plain Dealing Mayor Leonidas "Leon" Sanders, Jr. (1913-2004), and civic leader Joe C. Colvin and their wives traveled to Arizona to receive the honor.^[7]

Doles served briefly by filling an unexpired term on the Plain Dealing City Council and as acting mayor, but he did not seek regional or state office. In 1961, he managed the campaign of Plain Dealing Democrat Joseph David "Joe" Waggonner, Jr., for a vacant seat in the United States House of Representatives. In Waggonner's only close race in an 18-year congressional career, he defeated the Republican candidate, Charlton Lyons, a Shreveport oilman. Originally, Doles donated to such Democratic figures as former U.S. Senators Russell Long and John Breaux, but by his later years, he was contributing to Republicans, such as former U.S. Representative James Otis "Jim" McCrery, III, and former U.S. President George W. Bush.^[8]

Doles, a Presbyterian elder, and his wife Mai, who is a Roman Catholic, had four daughters: Roberta Lane "Robbie" Miller (born 1952) of Plain Dealing, the widow of Jay Jack Stone (1950–2004) and the wife of Aubrey Lynn Miller; Marguerite Adelle "Cissy" Babb of Baton Rouge, wife of Jon David Babb (both born 1955); Mai Frances Fritze (born 1958) of Shreveport, wife of George Fritze of Red River Motors of Bossier City, and Madge Wyche Davis (born 1960), wife of the Shreveport veterinarian Dr. David Linwood Davis, Sr.^[5]

Doles, Jr., died in Shreveport of leukemia at Willis-Knighton Medical Center, of which he was a member of the board of trustees.^[1] He is interred along with his parents at Plain Dealing Cemetery.^[9] Mai Doles is retired in Shreveport.