The Legacy of Dr. Thomas N. Keoun

In this edition of a "Curator's Column," the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center presents the collection of Dr. Thomas Nehemiah Keoun (pronounced COW-in). As a devoted physician, respected civic leader, and influential figure in the Plain Dealing community, Dr. Keoun left an unforgettable mark on local history. This collection was generously donated by Connie Boggs Rountree, a descendant of Dr. Keoun.

Dr. Keoun was born in Arkansas on February 7, 1868. His early education was in Welcome and Magnolia, Arkansas. After graduating from the Memphis Medical College in 1890, he established his first medical practice in Red Land in Bossier Parish. In 1891, he married Lulah Edens. By 1906, the Keoun family moved to Plain Dealing, where Dr. Keoun purchased the residence and drugstore of Dr. R.H. Blackman.

Dr. Keoun served the people of Plain Dealing, extending his services beyond the walls of his medical clinic. He often traveled into the countryside, delivering babies and mending injuries late into the night. At first, he did this by horse and buggy and later in a Model T.

However, his interests were not only limited to medicine. As a landowner with extensive farm holdings in Bossier and Caddo Parishes, he cultivated crops like corn, cotton, and cane. As mentioned earlier, Keoun was the owner of a Plain Dealing drugstore, which boasted the area’s finest soda fountain in 1910, as reported by the Bossier Banner-Progress. Dr. Keoun’s collection includes his medical bag, a syringe kit, framed diploma from the Memphis Hospital and Medical Center (dated March 28, 1890), and a small ledger listing patients he visited in 1929.

Additionally, Dr. Keoun’s influence extended to civic and religious circles. He served as Bossier Parish Coroner for eight years and was an active steward of the Plain Dealing Methodist Church for 35 years. His tenure as president of the Plain Dealing School Board of Directors saw him advocating passionately for his community.

This passion for his community was on full display during the 1908 Plain Dealing High School disciplinary scandal. While serving as President of the Plain Dealing School Board of Directors, Dr. Keoun clashed with Bossier Parish Superintendent Joseph E. Johnston in 1908 over a widely publicized disciplinary issue at Plain Dealing High School. After Superintendent Johnston revoked Principal E.D. Burgess’ teaching license amid teacher and student disputes, tensions escalated. Dr. Keoun supported Principal Burgess, leading to a confrontation with Johnston and the resignation of Keoun and other local board members. Their disagreement played out publicly in the Bossier Banner newspaper.

The Keoun collection also includes several photographs of Dr. Keoun and his family, offering a glimpse into his personal life. His son, Alton Keoun, married Rita Sanders on November 24, 1938. The two were married nearly fifty years until Alton’s death on July 19, 1986. Rita’s contributions to Plain Dealing’s library system and civic organizations were also remarkable. Known affectionately as "Miss Rita," she served on the Bossier Parish Library Board for 37 years, missing only one meeting and acting as president for many years. The remodeled Plain Dealing Library was dedicated in her honor in 1987, a testament to her devotion to literacy and learning.

Dr. Keoun’s impact, however, continues to resonate through the stories and artifacts preserved in his collection. From his framed diploma to his medical tools, these items bring to life the story of a man who was not only a skilled physician but also a cornerstone of his community.

If you have any information, stories, or photos of old Plain Dealing or other communities in Bossier Parish, we would love to add them (or scanned copies) to our History Center’s research collection. We are located at 7204 Hutchison Drive (formerly called 850 City Hall Drive) just across Beckett Street from the old Central Library and History Center in Bossier City, LA. The Bossier Central Library and History Center 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

For other local history facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok, and check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/.

Images: 

• Dr. Thomas N. Keoun: Bossier Parish Library History Center Collection

Article by: Randall Palmer

World War II Greece and a Benton Pilot

In a recent letter to the editor in the March 12th edition of the Bossier Press-Tribune, mention was made of a local young man who gave his life defending the Free World: 1st Lieutenant Harvey M. Bigby, a World War II pilot with the U.S. Army Air Corps, 15th Airforce. Lieutenant Bigby, with another seventy-nine men, would be involved in an air accident over the south of Greece while undertaking a bombing mission. Now you may be asking yourself why these American pilots were in Greece in the first place, and the answer is more complex than you may first believe.

The Second World War came to Greece during 1940, after the Italians invaded from Albania, according the to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Having conquered and occupied Albania, a Balkan country to the north of Greece and to the east of the “heel” of Italy, the Italian dictator Mussolini began a protracted invasion campaign, starting on October 28th, 1940. The Greek army would stem the tide against the Fascist invasion for a time, thanks both to the tenacity of the Greek army and the significant shortcomings of the Italian Army. However, with the planned invasion of the Soviet Union on the horizon, the German military would invade both Yugoslavia and Greece on April 6, 1941, to secure their Southeastern flank and assist their Italian allies. Though the British deployed an Expeditionary Force, and the Greek Army put up an admirable resistance, the German army would overrun the country by April 26th. Greece would be divided between Italy, Germany, and Bulgaria, and the country would be subjected to a brutal occupation for nearly three long years. However, just because the nation was occupied did not mean it was forgotten, and the Allies, along with Greek resistance fighters, would fight a bloody fight against the occupiers. Enter the U.S Army Air Corps, and Harvey M. Bigby.

Harvey M. Bigby registered for the draft on July 1st, 1941, just a few months before the American entry into the Second World War. By February of 1942, he volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Corps and spent the next year in training and pilot school, graduating as a 2nd Lieutenant on February 16th, 1943. Harvey was stationed stateside over the next several months, until finally the moment came: deployment overseas, bound for the European Theatre. Assigned to the 97th Bomb Group, 342nd Bomb Squadron, 15th Air Force, Bigby was made co-pilot to a B-17 Bomber Flying Fortress, nicknamed “Webfoot.” The B-17s were tasked with striking strategic targets behind the front lines, from military bases and concentrations to production facilities. The USAAC strategy was to flood the skies, so to speak, and Bigby’s mission was no different. On January 11th, 1944, he, along with many others, were tasked with striking a German port facility based in a small town just south of Athens. Alas, tragedy struck on the mission’s approach. While flying over the Greek region of Peloponnese, two of the bombers in the mission were lost in the clouds, leading to a terrible collision costing dozens of lives.

Initially, Lieutenant Bigby and the other men were labeled as missing, though the Army Air Corps suspected the planes had crashed into one another, based on the Missing Air Crew Report filed in the wake of the accident. By February 3rd, the Bigby family was informed of Harvey’s Missing-In-Action status, and from there, no substantial news would come for nearly half a year. Indeed, it wasn’t until the June 1st edition of the BPT that it was reported that 1st Lieutenant Harvey M. Bigby was Killed-In-Action during his January 11th bombing mission.

Lieutenant Bigby and his comrades gave their lives in the defense of the Free World, and the defeat of the Nazi German menace. The German occupation of Greece would end in late 1944 due to fears of the advancing Red Army and the Romanians changing allegiance to the Allies. As for the Lieutenant’s body, he was initially buried overseas, before being reinterred at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in Missouri on January 13th, 1950. While the Lieutenant was but one of many Americans who gave their lives, his memory yet lives on.

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: 

• 15th US Army Airforce Patch. (Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)
• Harvey M. Bigby's memorial. (Photo courtesy of Dept. Veteran's Affairs)

Article by: Jonah Daigle

Clyde Connell

This month is Women’s History Month, making March the perfect time to celebrate a nationally-renowned artist with Bossier Parish connections, Clyde Dixon Connell. Clyde Connell started as a painter but was best-known as a self-taught abstract impressionist sculptor. In 1998, which was the year of her passing at the age of 97, she was named a Louisiana “Living Legend” by the Louisiana Public Broadcasting Service.

Minnie Clyde Dixon was born in Belcher, Louisiana in 1901 and lived on a large sharecropping plantation. In her adult years she lived in Shreveport and during her later years lived in a cabin in Bossier Parish at Lake Bistineau. Both her Dixon family and the family of Thomas Dixon Connell, Jr., who she married in 1922, had ties to Bossier Parish. Local newspapers mention several visits of the young Connell family to rural south Bossier and the “Poole” community in south Bossier Parish. Thomas was a penal farm warden, and this further opened Clyde’s eyes to racial and social justice issues, as did growing up on the plantation in Belcher as a sensitive, observant child. She was well ahead of her time promoting desegregation and teaching at an integrated Presbyterian church school.

Clyde D. Connell took art classes in Shreveport in the 1920s but it wasn’t until the early 1950s after she raised her children, daughter Clyde and son Brian, that she started painting seriously. In 1952 her art style and interest became firmly established when she traveled to New York City on a social work trip with the Presbyterian Church. She visited the Museum of Modern Art multiple times during her extended stay and was drawn to the color and form of the abstract art. Now her own work is in MOMA’s collection.

Clyde Connell became serious about being a fulltime artist by the early 1960s—when she was about sixty years old-- and set up her first permanent studio. She constructed artistic pieces (such as 3-D wall installations) with wood and metal molded together with a mix of paper and glue. Later that mixture became her medium itself, after adding in some local red dirt and reinforcing it with sticks and embedding small pieces of metal found on her son’s cotton farm. She tended to sculpt tall and narrow figures, with religious overtones and homages to the natural world surrounding her at Lake Bistineau. “The New York Times” reported that her sculptures resembled shamans, decorated trees, or towers. In addition to reflecting her lush natural environment, much of her work also was meant to reflect social issues and culture that she observed around her.

Clyde Connell’s work is represented by the Arthur Roger Gallery in New Orleans, which describes her sculptures as “evocative of ritualistic totems and primitive votive objects; her paintings employ primitive markings and pictographs associated with talismanic shapes.” Locally, the Bossier Arts Council in the old Bossier City Hall building in the East Bank District has some of her sculptures on permanent display.

Come visit us to see the History Center’s small archival collection of Clyde Connell materials. If you have any information, stories, or photos about Clyde Connell or other Bossier Parish artists, we would love to see them or to copy them, with permission, to add to the History Center’s research collection. 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

For other fun facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok, and check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/.

Image: Clyde Dixon Connell from Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art 

Article by: Pam Carlisle 

Julia Sparke Rule: Nineteenth Century Community Chronicler and Mother

March is Women’s history month and it’s always exciting to find women from local history who challenged conventions, achieved something out-of-the-ordinary, or used whatever gifts and opportunities they had for the good of their community. Mrs. Julia Rule, became nationally famous for driving the golden spike in Bossier City, La. to mark the completion of the Shreveport and Arkansas Railroad on April 6, 1888 (later known as the Cotton Belt). She was well-known locally for her role working in the male domain of journalism, especially as the society columnist known as “Pansy” and was not afraid to use that platform to benefit both her own financial security as a widowed mother, but also the philanthropic endeavors of other women.

On the surface, Julia Rule’s life may have looked rather glamourous. Perhaps it was, but she was also fulfilling the never-ending demands on a working mother of very young children, and soon, as a widowed and bereaved mother of young children. She was doing so in the days before Social Security, life or disability insurance. Much of this behind-the-scenes story didn’t get widely told. Julia, of course, wrote mostly about other people’s lives.

Julia Sparke was born in Kentucky around 1852. The 1870 census shows her living in Shreveport at the age of 18 with her 27-year-old husband Charlie Rule, listed as a bookkeeper. Living right next door are her parents and younger siblings, ranging in age from 8 months to 15. She had just gotten married in 1869 in Louisville.

According the Census 10 years later, much in Julia’s life had changed. She is listed with the occupation of “Boarding,” apparently helping to run a boarding house, and has three children ages 1, 5 and 6, Ida, Louise and Glenn. Her husband is no longer employed, and has not been employed for the entire census year.

Not shown in the census records is that between 1870 and 1880 there was an older child born, named Lucy Stewart Rule who passed away in Shreveport on Oct. 11, 1877 at the age of 6 years and 9 months. Lucy Stewart’s life is evidenced only by a very brief notice in the Shreveport Times and a stone with her name on it near her parents’ headstones in Shreveport’s Oakland Cemetery. Then Charlie Rule passed away in 1881. That same year, Julia began teaching calisthenics (physical education – and later also penmanship) for head Kate Nelson at the Shreveport Seminary for Girls and Children not long after Charlie passed.

Mrs. Rule began a newspaper career within a decade, writing for several local papers. Venturing even further into unfamiliar territory for women, she became Secretary of the Louisiana State Press Association, and was always in attendance at their state conferences, sometimes as a featured speaker. She even attended the National Press Association conference in July, 1891.

Mrs. Rule also took a job as the secretary for the mayor of Shreveport, a position which set her up to be the first woman to drive the golden spike, in the mayor’s absence, along with R. N. McKellar who was the president of the Cotton Exchange. She gained national media attention for this honor, since she was considered to be the first woman to drive a golden spike to mark the completion of a railroad. The New York Evening Post even had a little fun at her expense, dubbing her “the Golden Rule.”

Perhaps most remarkably, Mrs. Rule was also an entrepreneur. By 1890 local and regional newspapers show that she decided to put her connections and fashion observations made while covering society to her financial benefit. She put a notice announcing her own “purchasing agency,” later called the Mrs. Julia Rule Millinery and Dressmaker supply:

“My extensive acquaintance with business houses in the city and experience gives me unrivaled facilities for filling orders that may be sent me…Parties residing out of the city who desire goods can save the expense of a trip and obtain better prices by ordering what they want through me than by purchasing themselves…”

In fact, Mrs. Rule put her column itself to use in advertising this business, interspersing her society notes in the “Shreveport Times” with entries about the latest goods available at “Mrs. Julia Rule’s millinery store.” She was perhaps, just ahead of her time, because by January 1895, her inventory was listed in a bankruptcy sale, then not advertised any further. She did end up going to work for the Louisiana State Fair in what was comparable to the more modern “public relations” position.

Julia Rule also wrote fondly of her friend Adah Vinson DeLay well-known Shreveport advocate for abused, abandoned or orphaned children. The daughter of a former mayor, Mrs. DeLay had been raised in comfort but died penniless while funding her work for children.

In addition to Mrs. DeLay’s philanthropy, Julia’s society column is credited with helping to promote Shreveport’s Home for the Homeless, later known officially as the Home for the Aged or unofficially as the “Old Ladies’ Home.” The home was started by women who organized themselves as the Ladies Charitable Association in 1897, and continued to be directed by women even after the addition of an “Old Men’s Home.” These homes became what is now known as the Glen Life Plan Community. They were much-needed institutions in a time well before the Social Security Act of 1935 provided for a system of Federal old-age benefits or enabled states to make more adequate provision for aged residents. By the early 1920’s the only other home like it in Louisiana, was the Little Sisters of the Poor in New Orleans.

Julia Rule herself lived well into old age, living with her daughter and family in the end. She passed away in April, 1931. To read more about the Home for the Aged, see The History of the Glen, 1898 to 1998 by Dr. Ann Mathison McLaurin, which is available in the reference collection of the History Center. If you would like to have our “Women Who Made a Difference in Bossier Parish” program, which includes Julia Rule (in Part 2) or any of our other programs presented to your group, please contact us, as well. We are located at 7204 Hutchison Drive, Bossier City, LA and 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

For other fun facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok, and check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/.

Images: 

• Portrait of Pansy: Mrs. Julia Rule, Shreveport Daily Times, Illustrated Edition, October 24, 1894
• Pansy illustration that headed Julia Rule’s society column Shreveport Times, Dec 6, 1896 

Article by: Pam Carlisle 

Barksdale’s Air Show: Thrilling Crowds Since Aviation’s Early Days

When the Wright brothers’ Wright Flyer first took flight on December 17, 1903, one of the onlookers – John T. Daniels – was left in awe. Historian David McCullough, in his book “The Wright Brothers,” wrote that Daniels gave an interview years later about the historic event and said that the aircraft “ … sailed off in the air … as pretty as any bird you ever laid your eyes on. I don’t think I ever saw a prettier sight in my life.” It was he who captured a photo of the Flyer’s successful launch from the sands of Kill Devil Hill, North Carolina. Thirty years later, that same sense of wonder may have prevailed among the thousands of people who attended the first air show at Barksdale Air Force Base.

That first show was part of the ceremonies celebrating the dedication of Barksdale Field, as the base was then known, on February 2, 1933. According to the book “A History of Barksdale Air Force Base,” published in 1971, Barksdale was born of the need for a new airfield to accommodate the U.S. Army Air Corps’ expanding 3rd Air Attack Group. Despite eight other cities bidding to get this new airfield, Barksdale’s present site won out, after what the book describes as “a monumental task that literally encompassed ten years of intensive, determined and dedicated effort.”

A crowd estimated to number 50,000 people attended the dedication, including the mother and other family members of the airfield’s namesake, Lieutenant Eugene Hoy Barksdale. Although there were no Air Force Thunderbirds or Navy Blue Angels to headline that day’s air show, newspaper accounts say the exhibition did not disappoint. Coverage in the February 3, 1933 edition of The Shreveport Times states, “Uncle Sam’s fleet of planes roared skyward for an hour and a half, sending an air-minded crowd home happy.” Demonstrations included “ground strafing,” in which the planes “dived to within almost 25 feet of targets … with two forward machine guns pelting leaden slugs,” and acrobatic maneuvers that “entertained the crowd with … loops, power dives, snap rolls,” and “every stunt in the varied and death-defying repertoire of a pursuit pilot.” According to this newspaper account, Barksdale Field Commander Major Millard F. Harmon led a flight of the 20th Pursuit Group past the reviewing stands, followed closely by a group of attack planes led by Captain Lester J. Maitland, a pilot notable for having made the first flight from California to Hawaii in 1927. For those attendees who had perhaps never seen an airplane, this spectacle must have been quite a sight to witness.

Holding the audience’s attention were aircraft such as the Boeing P-12, a prop-driven bi-plane having a design little changed from the World War One era, with a maximum speed of 189 miles per hour. Fast forward to the 1940s, when the U.S. military transitioned to jets that could attain speeds of nearly 600 miles per hour. As engines and airframes improved, those speeds continued to climb.

At this year’s Barksdale Defenders of Liberty Air Show, Saturday and Sunday, March 29 and 30, the Air Force Thunderbirds will perform, showcasing not only precision flying skills, but also an exceptional aircraft in the F-16 Fighting Falcon. Originally developed by General Dynamics, the Falcon is capable of reaching Mach 2 or 1,500 miles per hour, according to the plane’s fact sheet on the Air Force website af.mil. Other performers will include Red Bull Aviation, the U.S. Army Golden Knights parachute team, and the Titan Aerobatic Team. Historic aircraft like the P-51 Mustang and B-25 will also be part of the show. For more information, visit defendersoflibertyairshow.com.

Whether watching from on base or from your yard, enjoy the air show and its rich history, and understand that it was made possible through the efforts of numerous base personnel and community volunteers and civic organizations like the Shreveport-Bossier Military Affairs Council. To them I say thank you. And I pay homage to the organizers and performers of that first, long-ago airshow of 1933. Ninety-two years has not diminished the standard that was set or the legacy left that February day. The pages of history recall their accomplishment. Orville and Wilbur would be proud.

If you have any information or items relating to the history of 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: 

• Headline from The Shreveport Times, November 5, 1934/courtesy newspapers.com
• Crowds attending Barksdale dedication and first air show, February 2, 1933/courtesy Bill Grabill, History Center collection

Article by: Kevin Flowers