A Lake Bistineau Fishing Story for National Hunting and Fishing Day

September 27 is National Hunting and Fishing Day, an event celebrated by all 50 states every year on the fourth Saturday in September. It was established in 1972 when Congress passed two bills to have a day to celebrate the conservation contributions of U.S. hunters and anglers. It seems a perfect time to share a fun fishing story (with some hunting thrown in, too) brought to me by a reader of this column, JoAnne McDonald. 

Mrs. McDonald and her late husband Jerry had a house in Bossier Parish with a private pond near Lake Bistineau. It was highlighted in The Shreveport Times in 1995 because of a Minden, Louisiana centenarian, Miss Mary Babb, who, with the McDonalds’ invitation, would fish from a boat on their pond with her friend Lydon Taylor. Miss Babb fished at least once a week, from morning to sunset. With nonarthritic hands, she could still set the hook on the bluegill bream herself and see the slightest jiggle of a bream hook, no glasses needed. 

At that stage in her life, fishing was one “Miss Mary’s” favorite past-times, but as a girl growing up on a farm in Cotton Valley from 1905 to 1924, she wasn’t included when her father and brothers went fishing. A friend introduced her to fishing’s pleasures as an adult. She also was an honorary member of the Sailes Hunting Club in Bienville Parish. She and her friend Margaret Stewart of Benton were the only two women at the deer camp. When someone bagged a buck, Miss Mary would help prepare the meat for the freezer, or make sausage with it. Additionally, the centenarian was still gardening and raising chickens and gathering their eggs. She knew how to live off the land, and never set foot in a mall until just prior to the 1995 article, when a friend took her to Pierre Bosser for some new shoes. 

In Cotton Valley, Mary and her ten siblings worked on the family’s 160-acre farm until they moved to Minden in 1924, in the historic Killen Place, one of the oldest homes in Webster Parish. She lived there for the rest of her life. As a young woman, Miss Mary was active with the local home demonstration club, hosting meetings and reporting club doings to the local newspaper. She also taught school, worked for her father’s store and trained and worked as a nurse. 

Early to mid-twentieth century Minden newspapers are filled with some of Mary Babb’s accomplishments, such as her work for the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA), binding books so they can continue to be used, working to cleanup automobile graveyards across the region, keeping accurate demographic statistics such as births for the parish, becoming a WPA supervisor, and clerking at the Minden courthouse, keeping World War II selective service records. She also contributed to the war effort at the Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant in Minden. 

Mary Babb died Nov. 22, 1996, at Minden Medical Center after a brief illness, less than a month shy of her 102nd birthday. 

Like Mrs. McDonald did, we’d love for our readers to visit us with stories, clippings and photos of other remarkable people and memories from around Bossier Parish. We are located at 7204 Hutchison Drive, Bossier City, LA. 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 visit the History and Genealogy Resources page at Bossierlibrary.org or follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB and check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/.

Images: 

• Illustration from Plain Dealing’s Roach-Strayhan-Holland American Legion Post #20 Home Dedication Cookbook, 1950
• Headline from The Minden Herald February 17, 1939, page 1.

Article by: Pam Carlisle

Combat Skyspot in SE Asia: The B-52s On-the-Ground Advantage

Operational since December of 1954, the B-52 Stratofortress bomber aircraft and its distinctive hulking silhouette are familiar, over 70 years Advantage, to anyone living near North Louisiana’s Barksdale Air Force Base. When the B-52 entered service, the Air Force’s Strategic Air Command (SAC) intended it for use in the “Cold War” to deter the expanding and modernizing military of the Soviet Union and its increasing nuclear capabilities. In the 1960s, projects to replace the B-52 with a new bomber had been aborted or scrapped after disappointing results. With the escalating situation in Southeast Asia, B-52 bombers were modified to continue as the US Air Force’s main bomber for eventual combat missions in the Vietnam War. Not all of these modifications were to the actual aircraft itself, but also to its “team.” The B-52s needed some extra help on the ground, and that help came in the form of radar technicians. The 1st Combat Evaluation Group (1CEVG), headquartered at Barksdale, stepped up in a secret mission named Combat Skyspot. 

 

On August 1, 1961, SAC's 1st Radar Bomb Scoring (RBS) Group at Carswell AFB (Fort Worth) had merged with the 3908th Strategic Standardization Group to form the 1st Combat Evaluation Group (1CEVG) at Barksdale Air Force Base. This new organization had the dual mission of providing radar bomb scoring services as well as standardization and evaluation services, filling the constant need for challenging training and testing scenarios. In the mid-1960s, 1CEVG personnel at Barksdale modified SAC RBS equipment to make it capable of directing aircraft at extended distances to the precise release point over a target. These modifications were important because though the B-52 was an especially deadly weapon in itself, its accuracy fell short. The aircraft’s crew needed a way to meet the challenges of accurately finding and distinguishing points and features on the ground from the air, especially with bad weather or other obstructions to visibility. 

After several months of testing, Barksdale’s 1CEVG ground-directed bombing (GDB) system was deployed to southeast Asia from various SAC RBS sites under the name Combat Skyspot. The Combat Skyspot sites were maintained and operated for more than ten years by SAC personnel on temporary duty assignments. During deployment, the forward area commander had control of the system, but overall command and administrative control remained under SAC’s 1CEVG at Barksdale. 

With its integrated combination of radar, computer, and communications systems, each GDB radar station provided crucial route corrections as the bomber approached the target, and then designated when to release its bombs. The system was so effective that the radar stations and their technicians became prized targets to hostile forces. Over 3,000 Combat Evaluation Group personnel manned ground radar sites in South Vietnam, Thailand and Laos, 24 hours a day from March 1966 to August 1973.

In November 2007, a monument to all the 1st Combat Evaluation Group personnel killed in SE Asia was installed at Barksdale’s 8th Air Force Museum. Featured on the tall, middle panel of the stone triptych was the group’s last and deadliest enemy attack of the Vietnam War, occurring in Laos in March 1968 at the Lima-85 site. North Vietnamese fighters scaled the mountain, atop which sat the radar site and brutally killed 12 men. The men’s names are carved in the panel. 

Special space on the panel was given to Chief Master Sgt. Richard L. "Dick" Etchberger, who posthumously received an Air Force Distinguished Cross for saving the lives of at least two of the men at the Lima-85 site. After 11 of the 19 members of the radar crew on the mountain were killed, Etchberger tended to the wounded and fought off the advancing North Vietnamese troops for hours, even though he had little or no combat training, until a rescue helicopter arrived. Braving gunfire, he helped load the wounded onto slings to be lifted into an aircraft hovering overhead. After finally boarding himself, Etchberger was killed after an enemy soldier below fired his AK-47 at the helicopter.

The Combat Skyspot Memorial at Barksdale read, in part:

During their 90-month period of service in Southeast Asia, Combat Skyspot crew directed over 300,000 USAF, Navy, Marine and RVN re-supply, reconnaissance, rescue and tactical air missions as well as 75 percent of all B-52 strikes. Over 3,000 men of CEG manned ground radar sites in South Vietnam, Thailand and Laos 24 hours a day from March 1966 until August 1973. This memorial is dedicated in memory to the nineteen members of CEG who gave their lives in this effort. 

The dedication of the monument was not held until June of 2008, to coincide with a reunion of former members of the 1st CEVG and their families. Family members of those memorialized were also in attendance. An official Air Force photo shows Master Sergeant Etchberger’s brother, together with one of the men saved by Etchberger, laying a wreath in front of the monument. 

Because the operations were classified, the details of the technician’s deaths were not revealed, or properly honored, until the missions became declassified. The monument was rededicated in 2012, when Chief Master Sgt. Richard L. Etchberger's Air Force Distinguished Cross was upgraded to the Medal of Honor for heroism, and Master Sgt. James H. Calfee's Bronze Star was upgraded to a Silver Star for gallantry in action. Family members were again present, but just as importantly, members of the community attended to honor their sacrifices.  Bossier City’s Airline High School Viking Band played for the occasion at the museum, which that same year had been renamed the Barksdale Global Power Museum. 

If you have stories or photographs of people connected to SAC at Barksdale, or have served our community in any capacity, please visit or contact us at the History Center. 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 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: 

• Combat Sky Spot Area of Effectiveness. With a maximum range of about 230 miles, COMBAT SKY SPOT radars covered most areas of interest, with the notable exception of northern North Vietnam. The installation of a modified COMBAT SKY SPOT site on LS 85 in 1967 covered this gap. (U.S. Air Force photo)
• A photo of Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Richard L. Etchberger taken in an unspecified location in 1968. USAF photo

Article by: Pam Carlisle 

Name Change a Contentious Issue in Bossier City History

“What’s in a name? This question from Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” might well have been asked concerning a name change for Bossier City. Beginning in the early 20th century, efforts surfaced to re-label Bossier City as East Shreveport. But how serious were those efforts, and could Bossier still retain its own identity if referred to as something else? Would Bossier, by any other name, still be Bossier?

When Bossier City, namesake of soldier and congressman General Pierre Bossier, was still officially a village, local maps from the early 1900s show a subdivision of the village was called East Shreveport. In the History Center collection is a copy of a Bossier map from 1914, displaying the words East Shreveport. Real estate advertisements appeared in local newspapers, touting the benefits of living in the subdivision. An ad in the February 9, 1914 edition of The Shreveport Journal states, “East Shreveport is bound to grow. East Shreveport is at the end of the new traffic bridge. High cost of living is reduced in East Shreveport. East Shreveport puts you closer to Shreveport.” These and more were listed as reasons for moving east of Red River. The ad was placed by the Bossier City Realty Company.

In 1923, with Bossier’s population topping one thousand, the village was upgraded by Louisiana’s governor to a town, and the idea of changing the entire town’s name to East Shreveport began to take hold. A headline in The Shreveport Journal of February 19, 1923, declares, “Bossier City To Be ‘East Shreveport.’” The accompanying article states, “Bossier City will drop out of the list of Louisiana municipalities, and East Shreveport will appear on the map in its stead, if a motion carried by a large majority at a mass meeting Friday night is finally adopted.” According to the article, 82 Bossier citizens met to discuss the town’s future, and a vote of 68 to 14 was made favoring the name change. Three days later, The Journal printed a column supporting the change. “Congratulations to the East Shreveporters!,” the column began. It states that “quite a number” of Bossier residents do business in Shreveport, making them “almost a part of Shreveport;” therefore, “It seems natural that they should wish to be known as East Shreveporters.”

In researching this topic, I found no mention in local newspapers that year of a final adoption of the motion passed at the meeting. Obviously, Bossier City kept its name, but the debate continued. Fast forward 27 years to December 1950 when the Shreveport Chamber of Commerce proposed that Bossier become East Shreveport, saying both communities would benefit. An article in The Planters Press the following month says those benefits, according to the chamber, would include Shreveport gaining Bossier’s population numbers and Bossier gaining Shreveport’s industrial recognition. Under the proposal, Bossier would still have operated under its own municipal government.

In March 1951, the Bossier Chamber of Commerce agreed to the name change after sending ballots to its membership and receiving a favorable vote. The chamber then asked Bossier’s town council to call an election so residents could vote on the proposal, but the council declined, citing public opposition to Bossier changing its name. Afterwards, chamber leadership decided to abandon the contentious idea. Chamber President James Larkin was quoted in The Planters Press on June 21, 1951 as saying, “The fact that there is strong feeling against the issue, and since there is no real all-out leadership for the project, it has been dropped.” But apparently the idea was not forgotten.

Changing Bossier’s name to East Shreveport surfaced again in the mid-1960s when a local developer suggested it while speaking to the Shreveport-Bossier Board of Realtors. The reasoning echoed earlier claims about the benefits of such a change. The Bossier Tribune, in an article of July 28, 1965, states an argument was made that Shreveport and Bossier “constitute a single industrial complex and should be linked together by name” and “East Shreveport would give Bossier a national identity that it now lacks.” But according to the article, a random survey conducted by The Tribune found the majority of Bossier residents opposed the change. One resident was quoted as saying, “I much prefer the lack of national identity to the loss of identity.” And so the matter was put to rest and has remained a part of Bossier City history. As Shakespeare might have written, thus we bid adieu to thee, name change.

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: 

• photocopy of 1914 Bossier map showing East Shreveport subdivision/History Center collection
• Bossier Tribune headline from July 28, 1965/Newspapers.com

Article by: Kevin Flowers

Black Business Month: Blacksmithing in Koran

August is Black Business Month, founded as a time to acknowledge and uplift Black-owned businesses across the U.S., that have existed and persisted despite the obstacles historically put in front of them. Unfortunately, there are obstacles in researching black owned businesses, too. When searching the History Center’s own archives, and city directories and local newspapers readily available to us, such as the Shreveport Times and Journal, the Bossier Banner and the Plain Dealing Progress, there was little to find on early black businesses in Bossier Parish, when life and news sources were segregated in the first half of the 20th century and beyond. Then I remembered History Center staff Margaret Rhodes Mims telling me about her grandfather’s blacksmithing shop in Koran in south Bossier Parish.

Margaret’s grandfather, Henry Louis Rhodes, who was born in 1888, lived just up the hill from her on what is now the Johnston-Koran Road. Mr. Rhodes had learned the blacksmithing trade from his father, also a blacksmith, and had built his own shop on his father’s land. Margaret’s father and uncle also stayed on this land, as did Margaret until the destructive floods of 2016.

Margaret’s parents both worked outside the home, so she and her younger siblings would go up the hill to “bother” their grandfather, “Papa”. Papa, in turn, would put Margaret and her brother Iza to work, but to the kids it was entertainment. Margaret remembered getting to work the bellows, blowing air to make the coals turn red. She didn’t even remember being bothered by the heat!

Though by the early twentieth century some blacksmithing shop work was taken over by steel and factory manufacturing, blacksmiths were still in demand for farrier work, shoeing horses and mules, especially in a rural agricultural area like Koran. The mules and horses were critical to pull wagons, plows, or haul logs for the timber industry. Mr. Rhodes was the only blacksmith from south Bossier to Minden as his grandkids remembered.

Care of the hooves is essential to a horse’s health and ability to perform their duties, since the hoof carries their entire weight, so someone who can properly trim and shoe horses was and is a critical skilled worker for horse owners. Mr. Rhodes was especially valuable as one who could both make the shoes (a blacksmith) as well as safely handle the horse or mule in order to trim the hooves and properly fit and nail the shoe to the hooves. In other words, he possessed both the technical or ‘hard skills’ of a blacksmith with the ‘soft skills’ of a horse whisperer. Perhaps not surprisingly, Mr. Rhodes himself owned horses that lived on his Koran property, and that Margaret and her siblings loved to ride bareback (when no adults were looking!)

In addition to shoeing horses, Mr. Rhodes had other smithing skills, such as repairing plows and making neck yokes for cows to keep them from escaping through fences. He also had a superpower in his key-making ability. Margaret said he made the key for the First National Bank in Shreveport simply by looking at the lock!

Of course, with the advent of motorized vehicles and farm equipment like tractors, demand declined. None of Mr. Rhodes’ kids or grandkids carried on the blacksmith business, but before his passing in 1981, he did teach another local man to shoe horses. Trail riding is still a very popular pastime in Bossier Parish, and farriers are still needed.

If you know a Black-owned business in Bossier Parish history, we would love to hear about it, or copy information and photos for our collection. The History Center is 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: 

• Henry L. Rhodes, C. 1970's
• Horse shoeing exhibition, pilgrimage at West Feliciana Parish, La. Circa 1980s. Digital Collection, State Library of Louisiana Historic Photograph Collection (https://www.state.lib.la.us) 

Article by: Pam Carlisle

On the 80th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombing of Japan: A Story of Survivor Shoji Tabuchi

Shoji Tabuchi, who made Bossier City home for a decade in the 1970’s, was a young classically-trained violinist in Japan who set himself a goal to be a country music star in America when as a college student he heard Howdy Forrester, fiddler for Roy Acuff, on tour in Japan. Ultimately becoming the fiddler for Bossier’s homegrown country music star David Houston, who wowed audiences in his own right, and then in his own show and theatre in Branson, MO, Shoji attained that goal and then some. If you visited Branson, Missouri, the entertainment tourism-based city in the Ozarks, or know anyone who did from roughly 1980 – 2020, you’ve very likely heard of this showman who revered the country classics, yet added enough flash to his performances to make them Las Vegas-worthy. A less well-known aspect of Shoji’s story may be his status as a survivor of the atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima.

Over eighty years ago, in May, 1945, Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allied Forces. The event, which became known as V-E Day (Victory in Europe) marked the end of WWII in Europe. But for the rest of that summer, World War II escalated in the Pacific. June 1945’s Battle of Okinawa was one of the bloodiest Americans had seen. Then, on August 6, 1945, the American B-29 Superfortress bomber aircraft called the “Enola Gay” dropped the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima. A few days later the B-29 named “Bockscar” dropped a second atomic bomb over Nagasaki.

Combined, the bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki claimed approximately 200,000 lives in Japan. In between the two bombings, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, further pushing an end to the war. On August 15th (August 14th in the Western Hemisphere) President Harry S. Truman announced that Emperor Hirohito had accepted the terms of unconditional surrender. In England, August 14th became known as V-J Day (Victory in Japan). In the United States, Truman announced V-J Day would be celebrated Sept. 2nd 1945, when the agreement was formally signed on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

Shoji Tabuchi was born in Daishoji, Japan in April, 1944. Effects of the atomic bomb could be felt for miles out from its “ground zero,” such as from heat or the blast itself, which damaged buildings. Following the bombing of Hiroshima in August 1946, though the family was not in Hiroshima itself or within the lethal radius for radiation, Shoji was evacuated riding on his mother’s back, while she pushed his baby brother in a carriage. Journalist Bob Greene related this story of Shoji’s evacuation in “Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man Who Won the War,” published in 2000. (“Duty,” about Greene’s father and Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Jr., who commanded the Enola Gay, is available as an e-book with your Bossier Parish Library card through the library’s Hoopla platform.)

Greene accompanied the Enola Gay crew members, General Paul Tibbets (pilot), Colonel Thomas Ferebee, (bombardier) and Major Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk (navigator) on a Memorial Day reunion trip to Branson in the 1990’s. Their topmost desire while in Branson was to see Shoji Tabuchi in his theatre. Shoji Tabuchi Theatre staff ushered their party, which included spouses, to a section of special seats and asked for the three crew members to sit together. Ferebee, knowing Shoji’s heritage and their own famous connection to the Enola Gay joked, “Why, so they can shoot us?”

Shoji Tabuchi actually had one of his famous theatrical moments planned. He paused his performance to ask the three men to stand and be recognized by the audience. Theatre staff approached the men and their wives with flowers and gifts. After the show, the party was invited to Shoji’s lounge area. Shoji at first made small talk, but then he told his story of clinging to his mother’s neck as they made their way to the mountainside to escape the heat and effects of the nuclear blast at Hiroshima. He especially wanted the three men to hear the sentiment he attributed to his father, that “all would have died” if the bomb hadn’t been dropped. Believing the devastation of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki hastened the end of the war, Shoji expressed that the Enola Gay’s crew members spared the lives of “men, women, children” all over Japan, like himself.

The Branson fiddler and showrunner Shoji Tabuchi passed away at age 79 on August 11, 2023. His funeral and burial were in Oak Grove, LA (West Carroll Parish), the hometown of his wife Dorothy and daughter Christina.

If you have stories or photographs of people connected to Bossier Parish, please visit or contact us at the History Center. You might also want to visit the History Center if you would like to read about Shoji Tabuchi’s early experience in the American music business and in Bossier City in Tillman Frank’s book, “I was there when it Happened.” If you are interested in the History of World War II, please come to our monthly World War Tuesday coffee and discussion series. The next one is September 9th at 10:30 am. 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 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: 

• Shoji Tabuchi in the Bossier Press, June 29, 1972.
• Colonel Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay waving from its cockpit. USAF photo courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration. 
• Enola Gay bombardier Thomas Ferebee. Photo Taken by Ted H. Lambert, who served in the USAAF (20th AF) on Tinian during WWII. Licensed under <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons

Article by: Pam Carlisle