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

Forty-Nine Years of Joy

The recent warm weather has been an opportunity I have been taking to get back outside and stretch my legs without the bite of cold. One such place here in Bossier Parish to do so is the Mike Wood Memorial Park. Named for Mike Wood, a student athlete from Bossier who was tragically killed in an auto-accident in November of 1968, this park has been a fixture in the Shady Grove area for decades. From local events to simple day outings, the Mike Wood Memorial Park has been available and home to many thousands of people seeking a pleasant place to experience the outdoors.

Mike Wood was a talented student athlete in Bossier Parish during the 1960s. Playing for the Bossier High School (BHS) Bearkats, Mike played both football and basketball, and was already making waves in his freshman year. A Bossier Press article from December 29, 1965, noted that “Fraser was the ‘Kats leading scorer with 18 points, followed closely by Ronnie Martin with 17 and Mike Wood with 14.” Mike would make several more appearances in the local papers in the following three years and by 1967, Mike had made the All-Tournament Basketball team. In his senior year Mike was labeled the all-around athlete of the year for BHS as well as the all-city and the all-district defensive end.

With a storied career behind him, Mike Wood signed to the Louisiana State University (LSU) team as a freshman starter, only spending time on the sidelines due to a fractured collarbone. Most tragically, Mike Wood’s life was cut short in an auto accident on November 27, 1968, ending what should have been a star career before it could start.

The legacy of Mike Wood would not end with the accident, however. Less than a decade after his death, a plan for a park was put into place to memorialize him forever. The land for the park was bought in 1974 by the Bossier Parish Police Jury for $60,000. A mixture of federal and city money funded the amenities of the park at $150,000.

At the groundbreaking ceremony, Bossier Parish Police Juror Ruben White delivered a memorial for Mike Wood. Mr. White detailed Mike’s life and how, should he ever have a son, he’d want him to be like Mike. Finally, it was Mike Wood’s mother who broke the first ground on the project, setting in motion a process that would see the park flourish into a wonderful place of community.

Built within the Shady Grove Neighborhood with relaxation and exercise in mind, Mike Wood Park has a variety of amenities such as tennis courts, a basketball court, a playground, a pool, and a nice walking path around the park. Mike Wood’s legacy of athleticism and dedication is remembered every time someone takes a morning run, enjoys an afternoon picnic, or plays on the playground equipment after school. The Mike Wood Memorial Park has been a fixture of the Shady Grove community for nearly fifty years and will continue to be so for many more.

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: 

• Mike Wood listed as All City and All District Defensive End (BHS Yearbook 1968)
• Mike Wood Accepting the award for Best All Around Athlete (BHS Yearbook 1968)
• Mike Wood on the field, with mention of his LSU signing (BHS Yearbook 1968)

Article by: Jonah Daigle

Inez Smith Grisby – Accomplished Teacher, Trailblazing Student

As one of Bossier Parish’s esteemed supervisors of schools for African American children in the mid-20th century, Inez Smith Grisby was especially known for her role as teacher, and teacher supervisor, not only in Bossier Parish, where she worked for over twenty years, but throughout the state. Less known, but as much of an achievement, was Inez Grisby’s role as a student, first in obtaining a rare high school diploma in 1925, because secondary schools for African-American students in Louisiana were few and far between, and then as a recipient of a master’s degree from Louisiana State University (LSU) in the 1950’s when the university was trying unremittingly to maintain its campus as an all-white institution.

Young Inez Smith, who was born in 1905 and hailed from south Louisiana, had the opportunity to attend high school in the New Orleans area. If she had grown up in Bossier, such a diploma would not have been available to her unless she travelled to Central Colored High School in Shreveport. In New Orleans, however, she was able to get her diploma from the “secondary department” of New Orleans University, a historically Black university founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church. The university had merged with Gilbert Academy, a private college preparatory school that was the first standard high school for African Americans in the nation accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.

Early 20th-century African American schools, especially in rural areas, were in a catch-22 caused by segregation. You couldn’t have schools for African American students without African American teachers, and you couldn’t have African American teachers without African American schools – especially high schools. With a coveted high school diploma, an African American graduate could quality for a teaching certificate while completing requirements for postsecondary “normal,” or teacher-training, courses during summer institutes for teachers. Thus, Inez was teaching in rural schools soon after receiving her high school diploma, and attending summer institutes at Baton Rouge’s Southern University, a historically black university founded in 1888. She completed a bachelor’s degree from Southern in 1936, and began her supervising career in St. Mary Parish in 1936 – 1937.

Inez became Bossier Parish’s third Jeanes Teacher, or Jeanes Supervisor, in the 1937 – 1938 school session. A Jeanes Supervisor was a multi-faceted position named for the Quaker woman, Anna T. Jeanes, who funded a program to ensure a cadre of educated and professionally trained African American teachers to provide more and better schools for African American children, including secondary schools. In Bossier Parish, the Jeanes Teachers also supervised home demonstration (home economics) work for African-American women, such as teaching food preservation, home management skills, public health, making home visits and organizing homemaker clubs. They also organized community members to raise money to build more or better schools, and raised money for community organizations like the Red Cross or the March of Dimes.

In the 1950’s Inez pursued a Master’s degree from Louisiana State University when graduate and professional degrees (such as law or medicine) were not available at the universities or colleges for African Americans in Louisiana. Beginning in 1950, LSU admitted black students to these programs under court order since the school could not make the argument that “separate but equal” academic accommodations were available elsewhere. These orders meant that LSU admitted African American graduate students almost 15 years before it admitted African American undergraduate students (1964).

The Louisiana Weekly newspaper of New Orleans on Sept 15, 1956, outlined in painstaking detail the LSU Board of Supervisors’ conditions for maintaining social segregation in the face of mandated educational integration. One example (of twenty-one) is that the African American students could be invited to join an academic honor society, but were barred from attending the annual banquet. Religious clubs were also permitted to hold non-segregated religious meetings, but any social functions held by the group had to be segregated. Unfortunately, after completing her master’s degree as a trailblazing student, Inez, who rounded out her career as principal of Butler elementary in Bossier city, had little time to enjoy the benefit of the Master’s degree she earned in 1956. She passed away suddenly in 1959 at age 54.

As History Center curator Randall Palmer wrote in his parting article two weeks ago, here at the History Center we want to ensure that the stories of all who have shaped this parish, such as Inez Smith Grisby, are represented and preserved. By donating, or allowing us to scan or copy photographs, documents, family histories, and other materials, community members can help us build a richer, more inclusive collection that reflects the true diversity of Bossier Parish.

Please visit or contact us at the History Center. 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. All Bossier Parish Libraries locations will be closed Wednesday, 1/1/2025. Normal operating hours for Bossier Central Library and History Center are 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: 

• Picture of Inez Smith Grisby from the Bossier City Colored High/Charlotte A. Mitchell High School Reunion Booklet for Classes 1942-1969, July 6-9, 2000. Walter H. Martin collection, History Center archives.
• New Orleans College (New Orleans University), circa 1920. P. 115. Illustration in book "Methodist Adventures in Negro Education" by Jay S. Stowell; published in New York: The Methodist Book Concern, no date, circa 1921-1922. Accessed via Documenting the American South. University Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 14 February 2025 ˂https://docsouth.unc.edu/church/stowell/ill31.html>.

Article by: Pam Carlisle