John C. Ensminger

John Clifford Ensminger, Sr.​
Louisiana State Representative for Ouachita Parish (now District 14)​
In office 1972​ – 1991​
Preceded by	James L. Dennis​ James Peyton Smith ​ T. T. Fields​
Succeeded by	Charles Richard McDonald
Louisiana State Senator for District 34 (Ouachita Parish)​
In office 1991​ – 1992​
Preceded by	Lawson Swearingen​
Succeeded by	Charles D. Jones​
Born	August 28, 1934​​ ​Monroe, Louisiana
Died	January 3, 2022 Monroe, Louisiana
Resting place	Mulhearn Memorial Park Cemetery in Monroe
Political party	Democrat-turned-Republican​ (1985)
Spouse(s)	(1) Barbara Jane Netterville, later Barbara Weatherford (1935-2021) (divorced) (2) Gladybelle Gruber Ensminger​ (marrried 1979-2022, his death)
Children	From first marriage: John C. Ensminger, Jr. Susan E. Jenkins Paula E. Gandy Seventeen grandchildren Nine great-grandchildren Parents: Reginald "Rex" William and Irma Grant Ensminger Relatives: ​ Emmett Bailey Grant (uncle) Thomas Arthur Grant (maternal grandfather) (Both former sheriffs of Ouachita Parish)
Residence	Monroe, Louisiana​
Alma mater	Neville High School in Monroe University of Louisiana at Monroe​
Occupation	Insurance agent​
Religion	Charter member of Covenant Presbyterian​ Church
Military Service
Service/branch	Military service but no information available
Note: In his last election, Ensminger defeated E. Frank Snellings, the husband of former U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, for a one-year unexpired term in the Louisiana State Senate.

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​ John Clifford Ensminger, Sr. (August 28, 1934 – January 3, 2022), was a State Farm Insurance agent for sixty-two years in his native Monroe, Louisiana, who served for two decades in both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature. Ensminger was elected in 1972 as a conservative Democrat to the state House of Representatives from Ouachita Parish, now District 14. He succeeded James L. Dennis (born 1936), who was elected as a judge of the Monroe-based 4th Judicial District Court.

Background

Ensminger was the son of Reginald William "Rex" Ensminger (1901–1990), the first and longest serving captain of Troop F with the Louisiana State Police, and the former Irma Grant (1904–1996) of Monroe. His maternal uncle Emmett Bailey Grant (1916-2005), was a 32-sheriff of Ouachita Parish, and his maternal grandfather, Thomas Arthur Grant (1872-1943), was the sheriff from 1916 to 1924.

In 1952, Ensminger graduated from Neville High School; thereafter, from what is now the University of Louisiana at Monroe. He served in the military, but no details regarding his service are mentioned in his obituary. He was first married to Barbara Jane Netterville, later Barbara Weatherford (1935-2001), a native of Vicksburg, Mississippi, and the daughter of Douglas Hansford Netterville (1913-1981) and the former Pauline Moore (1910-1996), who were descended from a prominent Tensas Parish family. At the time of her death, Barbara Weatherford had been residing in Newellton in Tensas Parish, where she is interred at Legion Memorial Cemetery. Before their divorce, the couple had a son, John Ensminger, Jr. (born 1955) (wife Patricia Fitzsimmons Ensminger), who is also in the insurance business. Barbara and John Ensminger had two daughters, Susan E. Jenkins (husband Stephen) and Paula E. Gandy (husband Thomas). An avid outdoorsman, Ensminger enjoyed hunting, fishing, and spent most of his leisure time on Lake Bruin in Tensas Parish.

Gladybelle Gruber Ensminger in her earlier years

In 1979, Ensminger subsequently married the former Gladybelle Gruber Summersgill (1939-2022), a Roman Catholic and Monroe native who lived later in Golden Meadow in Lafourche Parish in south Louisiana, when she was married to her first husband, James Hanson "Sonny" Summersgill, III (1936-1975). She died three weeks after her husband's passing and had been active in a number of Monroe charitable organizations. He acquired five stepchildren from the second marriage, Jami Kampen, Shawn Thibodeaux (Collins), Shari Barrios (Gregg), Hanson Summersgill (Melissa) and Les Summersgill, M.D. (Brittany). His namesake grandson, John Ensminger, III, a former U. S. Marine who specialized in helicopters, died on December 11, 2020, at the age of twenty-seven.

Political life

Before his legislative service, Ensminger was a member from 1968 to 1972 of the Ouachita Parish Police Jury, the parish's governing board. During the 1980-1984 state legislative term, Ensminger and the sergeant-at-arms, Richard L. Barrios, were compelled to grab a colleague, Shady Wall of West Monroe, when Wall pulled out a pistol from a boot holster during a fit of rage at colleague Carl Newton Gunter, Jr. (1938-1999) of Rapides Parish, who had accidentally shut off Wall's conference ongoing telephone call with Wall's bank in Monroe.

In 1985, Ensminger switched to Republican affiliation, as did his colleague, Jock Scott of Alexandria. In 1987, in his first election as a Republican, Ensminger was forced into a general election with the Democrat Billy Daniel, whom he then defeated, 6,195 (57.4 percent) to 4,607 (42.6 percent). For a time, he was the chairman of the House Commerce Committee, with his friend Ron Gomez of Lafayette, serving as vice-chairman.

In 1991, Ensminger resigned his House seat after he won a special election to complete the remaining months in the term of state Senator Lawson Swearingen, a Democrat who left office to become the president of the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

Ensminger won the special election with 10,799 votes (53.3 percent) over two Democrats, E. Frank Snellings (8,937 votes or 44.1 percent), and John H. Powell (524 or 2.7 percent). Snellings (born 1949) is the husband of former U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, then from New Orleans, who was then the state treasurer. Thereafter, Ensminger did not seek a full term in the state Senate in the nonpartisan blanket primary held in October 1991. Redistricted after the 1990 census, the seat was then won by the Democrat Charles D. Jones.​

Though he left political office, Ensminger remained active in business. He was also a frequent donor to Republican candidates and party organizations. In 1998, however, he donated to Democratic U.S. Senator John Breaux, who won his final term by a wide margin over the Republican Jim Donelon, since the Louisiana insurance commissioner. In 2008, he donated to the campaign of his former state House colleague, Woody Jenkins, the Baton Rouge Republican, who failed in a special election for the United States House of Representatives. Jenkins had been Democrat Mary Landrieu's Republican opponent in 1996.​

Death

On the third day of 2022, Ensminger died in Monroe at the age of eighty-seven. He is interred there at Mulhearn Memorial Park Cemetery. His grandsons served as pallbearers, and three former legislative colleagues, Jimmy Dimos, Hunt Downer, and E. L. "Bubba" Henry, were honorary pallbearers.

References

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