A Korean War-time 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.

World War II was the first war in which the banking and transporting of blood products to battlefields and military hospitals saved countless lives, when physician-scientist Dr. Charles Richard Drew developed new and practical methods to separate blood plasma, which, unlike whole blood, had a shelf life of two months. He also developed infrastructure like stateside community donation centers in store fronts, factory floors and “bloodmobiles,” and the know-how to ship blood products overseas and onto battlefields and field hospitals, no matter how remote.

World War II was also the time when the Shreveport Memorial Blood Bank (now LifeShare Blood Center) opened to serve Northwest Louisiana as one of the country’s first community blood banks, using their own blood banking machine, a dried plasma system. However, blood collected there was intended for homefront use by local hospitals, and was banked in case of a regional emergency.

The American Red Cross (ARC) collected blood for wartime military use at collection centers in major cities – not Shreveport or Bossier. The nearest centers during World War II were the blood banks in Dallas and Fort Worth, opening in 1945. By the time of the Korean War, the ARC’s collection for military use did expand to Northwest Louisiana and was temporarily located in 1951 at Barksdale Air Force Base. By early 1952, the ARC’s Ark-La-Tex blood collection efforts were anchored by a “Defense Blood Center” in the science building at Centenary College in Shreveport.

From this Defense Blood Center in Shreveport, a mobile blood donation unit operated within a 100-mile radius throughout the Ark-La-Tex. In fact, post blood-drive statistics often showed that the amount of blood collected was often inversely proportional to the size of the community where the blood mobile stopped, when smaller communities, like Daingerfield TX or Plain Dealing LA collected the most pints. Bossier City, however, was proud to be the recipient of this mobile unit’s very first trip, when it was stationed at Bossier High School on January 11, 1952. The visit was coordinated by V. V. Whittington, president of the Bossier Bank and Trust Company, who recruited the Bossier Bearkat football team to recruit as many fellow students, and teachers, as possible.

The February 1, 1953, Shreveport Times reported that the mobile unit of the blood center was also recruiting donations from the students and staff of Bossier City Colored High School, later known as Charlotte Mitchell High School. Principal Jack Strong pledged to be the first in line from the school. Although the American Red Cross had ended its policy to require segregating blood by race by 1950, it did not disallow the practice in states like Louisiana, where segregation was the norm in schools and elsewhere until as late as the early 1970’s.

For the Shreveport blood drives, many promotions were used to entice people to come to the donation center, such as using popular musicians through the Shreveport-based Louisiana Hayride radio show, or an appearance by the Wilson and Company six-horse hitch demonstration team of Clydesdales. Despite the papers’ reports of the enthusiasm generated for the early blood drives, especially at high schools and colleges like Centenary, as well as certain workplaces, the March 25, 1952, Shreveport Times reported that the amount of donations at both the center and through the blood mobile did not reach capacity. The donor recruitment chair for the region urged people to contact Shreveport’s Defense Blood Center to make an appointment by pointing out that the center had no blood to send to aid the victims of tornadoes that had ripped through six southern states the previous week. Though the Defense Blood Center’s priority was to provide blood to the military, the center’s secondary function was to have a stockpile of blood plasma available for use in “widespread civil emergencies.”

One exceptional drive was promoted in the December 21, 1952, Shreveport Times with an announcement that on December 29th, donors with Type O blood (the universal donor type) were asked to donate by the ARC southeast region headquarters in Atlanta in order to have their blood flown in refrigerated containers to Travis Air Force Base near San Franciso. The containers would then be transferred to a waiting Military Air Transport Service plane to take off immediately for Korea.

Normally, blood donations from Shreveport were separated for its plasma, which has a much longer shelf life than whole blood (2 months versus one week). Plasma is invaluable in many trauma situations, but some needs weren’t adequately met without whole blood. Normally, whole-blood donations were taken from donors on the west coast, eliminating some of the travel time for the perishable blood. However, at that moment, the need for whole blood by American troops in Korea was greater than what could be provided on the west coast alone.

In contrast, the Shreveport Times of August 6, 1953, reported that the need for blood had decreased following the Korean Armistice Agreement, which was signed July 27, 1953, and that Shreveport’s Defense Blood Center would close at the end of the month. The paper reported that a total of 36,454 pints of blood had been collected by the center from 30 parishes and counties since December of 1951.

If you have local Korean War, medical history or other family photos or stories to share (we will also scan and return originals if that is your preference), please visit or contact us at the History Center. We are located in the Bossier Central Library Complex at 7204 Hutchison Drive in Bossier City, LA. Please note the new hours for the History Center: M-Fri 9-6. Saturdays we are open by appointment. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org

For other local history facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB and @bplhistorycenter on TikTok.

Images: Centenary Conglomerate, February 20, 1952. Centenary College of Louisiana Archives and Special Collections

Article by: Pam Carlisle

Shed Road Holds Unique Place in Bossier History

Although Shed Road is a well-known thoroughfare in Bossier City, its history and name origin may not be so familiar. Established more than 150 years ago, the original roadway was “unique in the annals of road construction,” states the Bossier Press newspaper of November 15, 1957. But what made it so distinctive, and why is it still worth noting today?

In the early 1870s, much of today’s North Bossier was, at times, swamp-like. The area extending east from Red River for approximately nine miles was low-lying and often impassable, particularly during inclement weather. An article in the June 28, 1934 issue of the Bossier Banner-Progress describes it as “merely a swampy flat, and when it was wet, the soil was just about like paste. Mules would sink in it to their bellies, and wagons would go down to the axles. When rains came in the fall, all transportation stopped until late the following spring or early summer.” For merchants and farmers wanting to get goods to market in Shreveport or downriver to New Orleans, not being able to travel through this quagmire was a major problem.

A man named John Watkins, an attorney and judge living in Minden, thought he had a solution. Although not trained as an engineer, this native Kentuckian sought and received a charter from Congress to construct a roadway with a shed roof, a novel idea for keeping the ground dry and preventing boggy conditions. And apparently an idea that had occurred to no one else. In his book, “Bossier Parish History – The First 150 Years 1843 - 1993,” Bossier Parish Historian Cliff Cardin wrote of the project, “This road was perhaps the first covered roadway, that did not use roadbed planking, constructed in the United States.” The November 15, 1957 Bossier Press called it “probably America’s first super highway.”

Construction of the road was privately funded, and although some sources claim work began in late 1872, others say it started in the spring of 1874. Workers dug parallel drainage ditches about 20 feet apart along the right-of-way and piled the dirt between the ditches on the road-bed, raising the bed enough to keep out surface water. Posts made from cypress were used to support roofing joists that held a center beam across which planks were bent to form the shed. The structure was wide enough to allow wagons and stagecoaches to pass each other, and despite having open sides, it prevented rain from turning the road to mud. As sections of the roadway were finished, travelers made use of them. The whole of Shed Road was completed in 1880.

                                 

When finished, this notable innovation was said to have stretched northeast from approximately where the Texas Street Bridge is located, along Shed’s present course between Benton Road and Airline Drive and continued straight east, ending on the north side of today’s Highway 80, just beyond the location of Louisiana Downs horse racing track. The Shreveport Daily Standard newspaper, in its July 20, 1880 edition, hailed the achievement, saying that it would “bring to our market a vast amount of cotton and trade from North Louisiana and Southern Arkansas, which has heretofore stopped at Minden or found its way to Camden (AR), and Monroe and other points on the Ouachita River. Judge Watkins should be presented with some substantial token of their appreciation … by our merchants.”

But it wasn’t simply pats-on-the-back and accolades from business people that Judge Watkins was seeking. He intended to turn a profit on this venture by charging tolls for use of the road. In the History Center collection is a book titled “Louisiana History Bossier Parish” by Samuel J. Touchstone that lists the amounts of some of the tolls. It states the driver or drivers of a team of four oxen and wagon was charged $1.50, while a team of four mules would cost $1. Simply walking on the road would set you back a nickel. According to the 1934 Bossier Banner-Progress article, these tolls were estimated to have generated a profit of $20,000 each year of Shed’s time as a private highway.

Eventually, another transportation highway – one of steel – opened and led to the roofed road’s demise. In 1884, the Vicksburg, Shreveport and Pacific Railroad was completed through Bossier Parish, running the same direction as Shed Road, and as Mr. Cardin writes in his book, it “created many points … from which to ship goods and greatly decreased the need for the all-weather road.” By that time, portions of the shed structure had also apparently fallen into disrepair. In the August 10, 1882 issue of the Bossier Banner-Progress is the following item: “We hear a great deal of complaint from the citizens of Bossier, who have occasion to use it, about the shed road. If reports are correct, it is in a deplorable condition, and it is unjust to collect tolls for the privilege of using it. We hope Judge Watkins will look into the matter at once.” By 1887, Watkins had transferred ownership of the road to the parish. High costs of making repairs to the structure, coupled with its declining use for commerce, forced the parish to have the shed demolished by the end of that decade. Sadly, no photos of old Shed Road are known to exist.

In the History Center’s collection is a log book for 1880 in which Judge Watkins wrote details of work on the road. Coming later this year, the History Center will have a walk-in replica of old Shed Road. To see it and to learn more about the history of Bossier Parish, visit us during our open hours Monday - Friday 9-6, and Saturday by appointment. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org. We can also be found online at https://www.facebook.com/BPLHistoryCenter/ 

Images: 

• Map courtesy The Times, August 29, 1995
• Illustration courtesy The Shreveport Journal, June 27, 1935

Article by: Kevin Flowers

New Life for Old Voices

 The leaps and bounds that technology has made within the past few decades can be a double-edged sword for preservationists. On the one hand, the widespread adoption of computers and the Internet has made it easier to process new items, and certain materials are more accessible to more people than ever before. On the other hand, some materials are becoming increasingly difficult for even those caring for them to access. Audiovisual materials in particular are at risk of becoming inaccessible, as the technology used to play them becomes obsolete. Fortunately, there are sometimes ways to convert these materials into more accessible formats. The audiocassettes in the Bossier Parish History Center’s care are one such case. The History Center is now able to store the audiocassettes’ content - primarily oral history interviews about historical events and figures - as MP3 files, which can then be stored on its computers and online database, a process known as “digitization.” Content that has previously only been accessible at the History Center can now be sent anywhere in the world. Voices that might not have spoken in decades can be heard once again, with just a couple clicks.

The Bossier Parish History Center has nearly 200 oral histories in our care, which were recorded and collected from the 1990s to the 2010s. Most were recorded by History Center staff members, some on site, some at interviewees homes, or at a location of interest. Many of the interviewees were chosen because of their heavy involvement in the Bossier Parish community. For example, there are multiple interviews of George Dement Jr., restauranteur, innkeeper, and mayor of Bossier City from 1989 to 2005, and one of Joe Maggio of Maggio Grocery & Deli, the oldest neighborhood store in Bossier. Other interviewees were chosen because they had witnessed a certain aspect of history, such as Gypsy Damaris Boston, who was interviewed as part of a project to chronicle Bossier residents’ experiences with the Great Depression, or Nell Charney, a former New Orleans resident who was interviewed about her experiences during Hurricane Katrina.

Some interviewees were recorded because they were historians themselves and quite knowledgeable of a certain subject, or because they had just made a significant donation to the History Center’s collection, such as Samuel J. Touchstone, who was interviewed in 2004 about Civil War relics and maps that he had found and donated to the History Center. A handful of audiocassettes in our collection cannot actually be classified as oral histories, but nevertheless hold historical significance, like a copy of “Union of the World,” an album by the Shreveport-born Ever Ready Gospel Singers, which features the group speaking of their history, as well as several of their songs.

Whatever the reason for its existence, each oral history contains a unique perspective on the history of Bossier Parish and beyond. Their loss would mean the loss of dozens of eyewitness accounts, in some cases of events that no one today is alive to speak of. Thanks to the digitization process, they have not only not been lost, but have actually been made much easier to listen to. There is a chance that in just another decade or two, technology will progress to a point where once again, the History Center must convert the oral histories to another format or risk losing access to them. However, for the moment, it is good to know that we have successfully carried these pieces of the past a little further into the future, into 2026 and beyond.

The Bossier Parish Library History Center wishes you a very happy new year! Please come visit us, and note our new hours. We are open Monday through Friday 9-6, and Saturdays by appointment only. We are located at 7204 Hutchison Drive, Bossier City, LA, 71111. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org. We can also be found online at https://www.facebook.com/BPLHistoryCenter/ and http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/

Image: George Dement pictured with believed to be Holiday Inn staff members holding award for being named one of the World’s Top 10 Inns. C.1968. Photo from the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center

Article by: Jaylie Rester, Curator, Bossier Parish Libraries History Center

Mailing in the New Year

 Happy New Year! To round out the end of 2025, let’s take a look at one of the oldest institutions in Bossier Parish: the Post Office. The Post Offices in the United States are managed by the United States Postal Service, under the direction of the executive branch of the United States government. Unlike many agencies, however, the USPS does not report to a particular cabinet secretary, instead functioning as an independent agency under the Postmaster General. The first Postmaster General was American Founding Father Benjamin Franklin in July of 1775. Most Post Offices have their own Postmaster, who direct the local office and ensure the mail reaches its intended destinations. According to the “The United States Postal Service: An American History,” as the United States grew, so too did the Postal Service: “The number of Post Offices increased from 75 in 1790 to 28,498 in 1860. Post roads increased from 59,473 miles at the beginning of 1819 to 84,860 by the end of 1823. By the end of 1819, the Department served citizens in 22 states, including the newest states of Illinois and Alabama.” The Postal Service has also historically offered women potential careers, with many women serving as Postmasters, or Postmistresses, since the earliest days of the USPS. The USPS has worked to ensure that regardless of how rural a location may be, or how far west the boundaries moved, that the nation has remained connected. The growth of the United States of America and the growth of the United States Postal Service going hand-in-hand.

Here in Bossier Parish, the post office is younger than the parish itself. As some of you may know, and as a reminder for those who may not, Bossier Parish was not one of the original parishes in Louisiana. Carved from Claiborne Parish in 1843, Bossier Parish did not have a Post Office within its borders for roughly three years. In November of 1846, the first known Post Office in Bossier Parish was founded in the one-time community of Red Land. While the office would not be open long (closing for the first time in October 1853), the first Postmaster for Redland was Jerome B. Mading. Within the first two decades of the parish’s existence, the number of local Post Offices would fluctuate frequently. According to the July 1st, 1859, issue of the Bossier-Banner Progress, there were twelve operating Post Offices in the parish, with eleven Postmasters. By November 11th of the same year, the office in Bisteneau would be closed by order of the Postmaster General. The Red Land Post Office would be reopened after its initial closure in November of 1873, continuing until 1909 (albeit under a slightly altered name starting in 1895). The Redland office would be absorbed into the Plain Dealing Post Office, which persists to this day.

The Post Office that persists in the longest continuous stretch is in the parish seat of Benton. The Benton Post Office also had one of the first Postmistresses in Bossier. Mamie Edwards Stinson McKnight was the first acting Postmistress of Benton from July 1919 to April 1920. She, however, would not be the last. Of the several dozen Post Offices to have existed in Bossier Parish, only nine persist to this day (and only eight of which stand on the eastern side of the Red River). From north to south, the remaining Post Offices are as follows: Plain Dealing, Benton, Princeton, Haughton, Shreveport (Industrial), Bossier City, Barksdale AFB, Bossier City (Plantation Station), and Elm Grove. So, with the end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026, as well as the 250th anniversary of the United States, look back on one of the United States’ oldest institutions. It has sought to connect the nation, and our parish, throughout their storied histories.

If you have any photos or other information relating to the history of Bossier City or Bossier Parish, the History Center may be interested in adding the materials to its research collection by donation or by scanning them and returning the originals. Call or visit us to learn more. We are open M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org. We can also be found online at https://www.facebook.com/BPLHistoryCenter/ and http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/

Images: 

• Bossier Parish Rural Mail Carriers - BPL HC (1997.054.054)
• Plain Dealing Post Office and Mail Wagons - BPL HC (1997.062.167)
• BPL Benton Branch - Originally the Benton Post Office - BPL HC (0000.001.009)

Article by: Jonah Daigle

Bossier Gains New Business Advocate After World War II

In the late 1940s, as the Town of Bossier City grew in population – it would officially become a city in 1951 due to this growth – Bossier civic leaders felt there was a need for an organization to help promote the town. If it was to continue prospering, Bossier needed a new advocate. Enter the Bossier Chamber of Commerce.

Calls for the formation of the chamber began in earnest in April 1947. Local realtor and civic leader Arthur Ray Teague spoke before representatives from clubs such as the Lions, Optimists, Kiwanis, Home Demonstration and others, making the case. An article in The Shreveport Journal of April 30, 1947, states, “Teague pointed out that … a town the size of Bossier not only needed a chamber of commerce, but had reached the stage of wanting it also.” According to the article, his proposal was met with “a great deal of enthusiasm.”

Meetings were held to further the cause and a membership drive was started. Advice came from the Shreveport and Vivian Chambers of Commerce. The Planters Press newspaper published an editorial on June 12 stating that the paper was “one hundred percent plus for the local chamber of commerce proposal,” and praised efforts to make it happen. “The spirit with which essential preliminary work is being done is indicative of the community’s praiseworthy ambition to grow larger, to prosper more and to build soundly for the future general progress of Bossier City and surrounding territory,” the editorial says.

The goal of the membership drive was to raise $12,000 to fund chamber operations. According to The Shreveport Times of June 18, 1947, the first week of the membership drive saw approximately 50 individuals and businesses join, raising just over $2,000. Although The Planters Press states the number of members increased to 180 by about mid-August, the amount raised totaled only $8,000, but that was enough to move forward with electing a board of directors, choosing officers and finding a chamber manager.

Former Shreveport resident Larry Maihles was selected to lead the chamber as its first manager. His previous experience included stints with the Shreveport and Haynesville Chambers of Commerce, followed by service in the Pacific during World War II, and then as assistant manager of the chamber in San Diego, California. He resigned the position on the west coast for the move to Bossier. Headquarters for his new job was on the second floor of the Bossier Bank and Trust company building. And there was little time for relaxing.

Within just a few weeks of Maihles’ hiring, the chamber established a program called “Build a Better Bossier” that led to many new initiatives benefitting the area. Chamber members submitted suggestions to help with the program, generating 23 projects that dealt with everything from legislation and taxation to fire prevention. The Planters Press has a complete listing of the projects in its December 11, 1947 issue. A chamber-sponsored radio show was also created, airing once each week on station KRMD. Sam Peters Jr., chairman of the chamber’s publicity and advertising committee, was quoted in a November 6 Planters Press article as saying that the show was meant “to keep the people informed on chamber of commerce projects and activities and developments in Bossier City and Bossier Parish.”

From these auspicious beginnings, the Bossier Chamber of Commerce grew and has for 78 years continued to help build a better Bossier. The importance of that record of service isn’t lost on current chamber President and CEO Lisa Johnson, who has been with the organization since 2004. “As we look back through our history, it is critically important to understand where we came from and how key initiatives began,” she said. “I am honored to learn from the legacy of those who came before us and to carry their vision forward. The Bossier Chamber has long been a catalyst in shaping Bossier Parish and its municipalities, and today, we continue that work with purpose and pride.”

If you have any photos, documents or other information relating to the history of Bossier City or Bossier Parish, the History Center may be interested in adding the materials to its research collection by donation or by scanning them and returning the originals. Call or visit us to learn more. We are open Monday through Friday 9-6. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org. We can also be found online at https://www.facebook.com/BPLHistoryCenter/ 

Images: 

• Arthur Ray Teague/History Center collection
• Chamber advertisement/The Planters Press, Jan 27, 1949

Article by: Kevin Flowers