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Paul Foshee

33 bytes added, 15:43, December 7, 2019
|term_start=1972​
|term_end=1976​
|preceded=[[Sylvan N. Friedman​Friedman]]​|succeeded=[[Don Kelly|Donald Gene Kelly​]]
|office2=Louisiana State Representative for Natchitoches Parish<br>(one of two members)​
|term_start2=1960​
Foshee is descended from an old-line Natchitoches family, which first came to the Cane River area in 1690 from [[Paris]], [[France]].<ref name=statement>Statement of Paul Foshee, Sr., [[Natchitoches, Louisiana|Natchitoches]], [[Louisiana]], September 24, 2009.</ref> 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 [[Segregation|desegregation]]), and in 1961, he completed studies for a bachelor's degree in social science at [[Northwestern State University]] in Natchitoches.<ref name=statement/>​
Foshee 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.<ref name=genealogy>{{cite web|url=http://culpepper.net/foshee/d0036/g0000048.html#I18945|title=Paul Foshee|publisher=culpepper.net/foshee|accessdate=September 23, 2009; no longer on-line}}</ref> 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.<ref>National Agricultural Aviation Association listing, agaviationlorg, September 23, 2009, inforrmation no longer available.</ref>​
From the first marriage, Foshee also has a daughter, Fran Lea Foshee Poole, and the late son, George Foshee.<ref name=genealogy/> A fourth child from the first marriage, Christie Cheryl Foshee, died at birth; no dates are marked on her gravestone in Fern Park Cemetery in Natchitoches.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lanatchi/fernpark.htm|title=Fern Park Cemetery, Natchitoches, Louisiana|publisher=rootsweb.ancestry.com|accessdate=September 23October 21, 20092019}}</ref> From the second marriage to the former Venita Ann Higgs, since deceased, Foshee had a third son, Lane Chase Foshee (1970–1999). He has had no children from his subsequent marriages to the former Martha Martinez, Joyce Wall, Karen Cook, and Katherine Joan Phares.<ref name=statement/>​
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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5033695/claims.html|title=US Patent 5033695 - Aileron counterbalance mount bracket|publisher=patentstorm.us/patents|accessdate=September 29, 2009; no longer on-line}}</ref>​
From 1960 to 1964, beginning at the age of twenty-seven, Foshee served a single four-year term as a state representative for Natchitoches Parish. With former Representative Curtis Boozman, he was elected in a two-member district in which the [[incumbent]]s, Monnie T. Cheves and E. H. Hayes, were unseated in the 1959-1960 election cycle. Hayes was a former [[agriculture]] teacher at Natchitoches High School;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://house.louisiana.gov/H_PDFdocs/HouseMembership_History_CURRENT.pdf|title=Louisiana House of Representatives, 1812-2020 (Natchitoches Parish)|publisher=Louisiana House of Representative|date=May 21, 2019|accessdate=October 21, 2009}}</ref>​ Cheves, a professor at Northwestern State University.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.natchitocheshighschool1960.org/class_profile.cfm?member_id=2431454|title=In Memoriam: Monnie T. Cheves|publisher=''The Alexandria Town Talk''|page=D3|date=August 17, 1988|accessdate=September 9, 2014; no longer on-line}}</ref>​
Eight years later, Foshee was elected to a single term in the state Senate when he unseated 20-year Democratic Senator [[Sylvan N. Friedman]], a pro-[[Earl Long|Long]] [[farmer]], cattleman[[cattle]]man, and large landowner from Natchez in south 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 Party|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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.longdistancevoter.org/files/voter_forms/Louisiana_registrar_of_voters.pdf|title=Louisiana Parish Election Officials List|publisher=longdistancevoter.org|accessdate=September 26, 2009; no longer on-line}}</ref> Reese had earlier run for the Louisiana House from Jackson Parish, having been defeated by future Speaker [[E. L. "Bubba" Henry]].<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, February 6, 1968.</ref>​
In the first ever nonpartisan blanket primary in 1975, Foshee was unseated by his fellow Democrat, Donald Gene [[Don Kelly]], a Natchitoches [[attorney]] and thoroughbred horse breeder originally from Coushatta in Red River Parish.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.senate.la.gov/Documents/Membership/Documents/SenateMembership1880ForwardRevisedMar2011.pdf|title=Membership of the Louisiana Senate, 1880 - Present (Natchitoches Parish)|publisher=Louisiana State Senate|accessdate=October 21, 2019}}</ref> 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).<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, October 24, 1987.</ref>​
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 Long|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.<ref name=statement/>​
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