J. H. James – Local Businessman and Car Manufacture

 It was the end of the 1910s, and an interesting newspaper article was published in the December 18, 1919, edition of the Bossier Banner: “Made in Plain Dealing.” In an unexpected announcement a Plain Dealing garage had assembled an automobile, boasting of bold claims of greater specifications than the Ford of the time. Now there may be some among you, the readers, who are asking just who exactly built and assembled such a feat. The answer: J. H. James of James’ Garage.

James’ Garage, the assembler of this trial car, was owned by a Mister J. H. James, son of Welsh immigrants to the United States. Mr. James was born in 1878 in Ohio before moving to Louisiana sometime before February 1913, when he moved from Dubach in Lincoln Parish to Benton. Regardless, by July of 1913, Mr. James was the proud owner of a sawmill one mile west of Benton, along the Arkansas road. This sawmill, operated under the company name of James Lumber Co., would burn down less than a year later due to fire starting in a wood shaving pile, though he would promise to rebuild it in the same area. However, while Mr. James declared his intention to rebuild the mill in the same area, he carried no insurance on the mill, and much of the material was declared unsalvageable, including the planer and some 30,000 feet of lumber. His straits were not all dire, as you will soon see, as J. H. James would make a business pivot into a different and much more interesting direction.

By 1915 Mr. James was operating a transit service for the residents of Benton, running a route between Shreveport and the Benton area for the price of one dollar round trip, and seventy-five cents one way. His transit service, which functioned via automobile, was forced to temporarily halt service to make a bevy of repairs to his vehicle, providing a hint of foreshadowing to the later life choices of Mr. James, and his eventual accomplishment. It would be in 1919, on the first of the year, when J. H. James would officially take ownership of the Plain Dealing Garage Company after moving into the town. Renamed to James’ Garage, the company would run with three mechanics plus himself, helping to manage the automobile needs of Plain Dealing. It was by the end of the year, in December, that Mr. James would build his great achievement. The Plain Dealing car, built during the days of the Ford Model T, was said to carry a gas tank double the size of the competition, with electric lights, a self-starter, and a body built to be suited to the area. March of 1920 would seemingly validate the claims of Mr. James, as he would make a trip across the wet country roads between Benton and Shreveport without accident or fear. The hope of the Bossier Banner writers was that J. H. James would become synonymous with names like Ford, and hundreds of cars would be produced in Plain Dealing.

Alas, Mr. James would not stay in Louisiana. Perhaps due to a lack of further local interest in a ‘Made in Plain Dealing Car’, Mr. J. H. James would exit the mechanic business by February 1921, returning to the lumber business in El Dorado Arkansas. Still, the achievement of a ‘Made in Plain Dealing Car’ stands as an example of the industrious spirit of Plain Dealing and Bossier Parish.

  

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. The History Center is currently closed until July 2026, though staff remains available. 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: 

• James' Garage Advertisement - Bossier Banner (Sep 25, 1919)
• James Lumber Co. Advertisement - Bossier Banner (Jul 3, 1913)
• Men standing cars behind Heifner's Hardware and the Bank of Plain Dealing, c.1910s-1920s - BPL History Center (1997.062.043)

Article by: Jonah Daigle

Slogans Feature in Bossier City’s History

Through the years, as Bossier City has grown in population, efforts have periodically surfaced to instill the community with a sense of identity and uniqueness through the use of slogans. While utilizing slogans is nothing new for cities – think “The City That Never Sleeps” for New York and “What Happens Here, Stays Here” for Las Vegas – Bossier has perhaps had more than its share of attempts at finding an ideal catch phrase.

In 1923, with its number of residents topping 1,000, Bossier was officially proclaimed a town, and within a few short years, the idea of creating a slogan for the burgeoning community took hold. The Bossier Lions Club sponsored a slogan contest in early 1928 with cash prizes for the best offerings. The stated contest rules, published in The Bossier Banner of February 9 that year, mentioned that club members would vote to select the top two entries. First place would receive $10, with second receiving $5.

Within two months, after reportedly receiving several thousand entries, members chose a winner. The top vote-getter, according to The Planter’s Press of April 13, 1928, was “Bossier, City of the Hour,” submitted by Bossier student, Johnny Liberto. Runner-up was “Be Bossier’s Booster.”

Fast forward 23 years when the city’s status received another upgrade due to population increase. In October 1951, having more than 5,000 residents, the Town of Bossier City was declared by Louisiana Governor Earl Long to be the City of Bossier City. As part of the celebration surrounding the auspicious occasion, another slogan contest was held, this one sponsored by The Planters Press and the Bossier Chamber of Commerce. The winning submission, by writer and Bossier resident Irene Vinson, was “Next Door Neighbor to World’s Largest Air Base,” a nod to Barksdale Air Force Base and the city’s gratitude for its presence. Mrs. Vinson’s entry earned her a cash award of $15.

In an editorial of October 13, The Shreveport Journal praised the new slogan: “Sharing a boundary line with Barksdale Air Force Base is one of Bossier City’s most outstanding privileges. The Journal congratulates Bossier upon having a slogan which is so appropriately expressive of one of the community’s principal resources.” But despite its being well-received, this slogan apparently became a victim of the city’s continued growth, as another slogan became popular later that decade.

By 1957, the phrase “Fastest Growing City in Louisiana,” was being applied to Bossier. An article in May that year, appearing in Barksdale’s newspaper, The Observer, used the phrase in praising Bossier’s progress, and Bossier City Mayor Jake Cameron used it two years later in an editorial he wrote for The Shreveport Journal. “Bossier City has been called by people all over the state, the fastest growing city in Louisiana,” Cameron stated. He estimated the number of residents in 1959 to be approximately 30,000.

But that slogan also wasn’t in use for long. A front-page headline in the March 27, 1960 issue of The Bossier Tribune declares, “City Abandons Old Slogan,” with the accompanying article saying “Fastest Growing City” was being dropped in favor of “The City of Champions.” Although the article mentions that Bossier was still experiencing tremendous growth, it states that Mayor Cameron felt the “Champions” moniker was more appropriate due to various titles and championships won by schools such as Rusheon Junior High and Bossier High School, as well as Bossier High graduate Eurlyne Howell winning the Miss USA crown. From newspaper accounts, it seems this slogan, like the others, was heralded initially, but used infrequently thereafter. I was unable to find mention of it beyond 1963.

In the late 1970s, yet another attempt was made to provide a notable slogan for the city. Bossier Bank and Trust created a promotional campaign in 1979 titled “Bossier’s Breaking Through…And Coming on Strong,” and even had a song recorded for it. With the backing of Mayor Marvin Anding, the City Council, Bossier Chamber of Commerce, and Bossier Economic Foundation, the campaign was launched with much enthusiasm. Jim McKigney, the bank’s chairman of the board and chief executive officer at the time, was quoted in an article in The Bossier Tribune of November 9 that year as saying the goal was to “draw attention to Bossier’s dynamic growth.” The slogan was used often during the couple of years after its creation.

With Bossier City celebrating its 75th anniversary in 1982, community leaders thought it appropriate to have a slogan for that festive occasion. “Much Alive After 75” was chosen and printed on everything from buttons to bumper stickers. That slogan was used primarily during the anniversary year.

There was an effort in the early 1990s to have a slogan that would promote both Bossier and Shreveport. “Shreveport-Bossier City: Where Working Together Means Growing Together,” submitted by Grambling State University doctoral student SaRita Martin, was selected from among approximately 2,000 entries in a contest sponsored in part by The Times and KTAL-TV. I was unable to find mention of it in newspapers after 1992. Although our slogans may come and go, Bossier City remains a great place to call home.

If you have any information relating to the history of Bossier City and Bossier Parish, the History Center may be interested in adding the material to its research collection. We are currently closed for installation of new exhibits, but can still be reached at (318) 746-7717 and by email at 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 Planters Press, April 13, 1928
• Headline from The Bossier Tribune, March 27, 1960
• Button from Bossier's 75th anniversary, 1982/History Center collection

Rabbi David Lefkowitz Jr. and the German Torah Scrolls of B’nai Congregation

May is Jewish American Heritage Month, an annual recognition and celebration of American Jews' achievements and contributions to the United States of America. It is also part of the inspiration behind our May (5/12/2026 at 10:30 AM) meeting of our monthly “World War Tuesday” coffee and conversation series. The other part is, to me, a pretty amazing “small world” story.

As the History Center’s “Outreach Historian,” a good part of what I happily get to do at my job is research local history and write and present about it in a variety of ways. One of those venues is this column. Others are monthly visits to local senior living facilities to talk about local history. One of my favorites is World War Tuesday. Sometimes I research and present a program myself, but I often try to get guest speakers who can offer their own unique perspective on events of the Second World War.

Since I’m always looking for new ideas for topics and speakers for these programs, my Central Library co-worker Larry “Taz” Sanchez, who took Hebrew language classes at the B’nai Zion Congregation in Shreveport, suggested I might ask their rabbi Jana DeBenedetti to speak. Taz told me something I’d not heard before: On display in the congregation’s foyer was an ancient Torah scroll (the sacred scroll containing the five books of Moses) that had been hidden from Nazis during the Holocaust in Germany’s Bavarian region. In 1938, the synagogue in the small town of Bad Neustadt was ordered to be cleared out by the Nazis, who commandeered the building for grain storage. A Christian farmer in the small town hid the Torah under the floor boards of his barn. When the war was over, no Jews remained in the town. The farmer presented the Torah to Jewish Army Chaplain David Lefkowitz, Jr. who had been sent to the Bavarian region to both minister to Jewish American troops as well as preside over the reconsecration of synagogues, including Bad Neustadt’s, which had also been used as an ammunition dump. The farmer requested that Rabbi Lefkowitz bring the ancient Torah back to his home congregation in Shreveport, where it could again be a central part of life of a congregation.

Before contacting Rabbi DeBenedetti, I decided to first do a little research and found some Shreveport newspaper articles that mentioned “the German Scroll”, as well as Rabbi David Lefkowitz Jr. who served the congregation from 1940 until his retirement in 1972, and continued to serve as Rabbi Emeritus until his death in 1999. He served as a chaplain for the US Army Air Corps during and just after WWII in Europe in from 1943 until 1946. As I read about Rabbi Lefkowitz and all that he did and saw during his service (in addition to reconsecrating synagogues and serving troops, he helped displaced Jews in Europe, and performed the blessing of remains of the victims at the Dachau concentration camp), I became intensely curious about his story, and wondered if there might still be family members or others who’d remember him or know his story well. And then…one of the articles, by late local historian Eric Brock mentioned by name one of the three children that Rabbi Lefkowitz and his wife Leona raised in Shreveport. I about fell off my chair when I saw the name of his daughter, Dr. Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, who was one of my favorite professors years ago when I was in college in Massachusetts!

If you want to learn more about this story, please come to World War Tuesday on May 12, 2026, at 10:30 a.m. with B’nai Zion’s Rabbi Jana DeBenedetti and a virtual visit with Rabbi Lefkowitz’s daughter, Dr. Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, Sydenham Clark Parsons Professor Emerita of History and Professor Emerita of American Studies at Smith College. World War Tuesday meets every second Tuesday of the month at 10:30 a.m., so if you can’t make this one, please come to another. Please note: Starting Monday, May 4 the History Center, located inside the Bossier Central Library Complex, will be closed for up to two months while our new exhibits are installed. This means that our exhibit and research area will be closed, but we will continue to hold World War Tuesday and other programs in the Central Complex meeting room.

You can contact us at 318-746-7717 or 318-746-1693 or email history-center@bossierlibrary.org The Bossier Parish Libraries Central Complex is located at 7204 Hutchison Drive, Bossier City, LA. For other intriguing facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok, and check out our blog at http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/.

Images: 

• Rabbi David Lefkowitz Jr. on Victory in Europe Day. Photo from collection of Dr. Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz
• Photo of the German Torah Scroll, courtesy Rabbi Jana De Benedetti - B'nai Zion Congregation.

Article By: Pam Carlisle

Plaque Recalls History of Bossier City Arena

It is remarkable how quickly people come to take something for granted. Within weeks to months, even the things that thrilled one at first, such as a new car or a new job, lose their thrill as they become the new normal. One might even start to have trouble remembering when the thing entered one’s life, and may feel as though it has always been there. This phenomenon, I believe, is the biggest hurdle we face in studying and sharing local history. It is easy to take interest in the history of, say, ancient Egypt because it is so different from one’s modern-day life that learning about it gives one the thrill of novelty. It is more difficult to take interest in the history of one’s own neighborhood, because it feels so mundane and ever-present. Though most start life naturally curious, after a point, curiosity becomes a skill that must be intentionally honed and maintained.

However, it is also possible for curiosity to be sparked in someone, even about the things they take for granted. At least, this was my own experience when, while looking through a large, recent donation from the Bossier City Council, I stumbled upon a plaque commemorating the ceremony of the “Bossier City Multipurpose Arena,” now known as the Brookshire Grocery Arena. I moved to Northwest Louisiana in 1999; I cannot remember a time that the arena has not been there. I don’t recall ever thinking about its age, but if you had asked me, I would have guessed it was around fifty years old, though, internally, I would have felt that it’s always been there, serving as a venue, a landmark, and a source of much stress for those caught in pre- or post-event traffic. I was rather taken aback when I looked at the plaque, and saw the year 1999, meaning the arena is several years younger than I am. I was also surprised to see Bossier City Multipurpose Arena. I had believed it only had three names, CenturyTel Center, CenturyLink Center, and the present Brookshire Grocery Arena. That led me to more questions, such as “So when was it opened?”, and “Who decided to build it?”, and “How many names have they given that thing?” “Why on Earth have they changed it so much?”

Bossier City received a significant economic windfall in the early 1990s, thanks in large part to the debut of the riverboat casinos. Talk soon turned to more city development, with a potential entertainment district and amphitheater being discussed as early as 1994. Such ideas originally centered around downtown Bossier, but in February of 1998, the city council revealed development plans for south Bossier, including a 14,000-seat arena to be built on Arthur Ray Teague Parkway, on a site that had once been part of Mrs. Paulina Pickett’s Chalk Level Plantation.

Despite controversy, particularly over the chosen site, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Bossier City Multipurpose Arena (called simply “The Bossier City Arena” in other sources) commenced on March 30, 1999, with over 150 people venturing out into “chilly temperatures and a light rain” to witness city officials plunge spades into “a sea of mud,” as the Bossier-Press Tribune reported. On July 20, 2000, Mayor George Dement announced that CenturyTel, Inc. (a Monroe-based telecommunications company, now known as Lumen Technologies, Inc.) had agreed to sponsor the arena, and had paid over $5 million - approximately 1/12 of the arena’s construction cost - to have the arena renamed the CenturyTel Center. It opened with a public walk-through on October 28, 2000, with an estimated 400 people participating. It was renamed the CenturyLink Center in 2011, two years after CenturyTel, Inc. itself had been renamed CenturyLink. CenturyLink would continue to pay Bossier City for the arena’s naming rights until 2021, after which a new contract was signed with Brookshire Grocery Group of Tyler, Texas.

Whatever its name, the arena has more than lived up to its original title of “multipurpose arena.” It hosted its first concert (REO Speedwagon & Styx) on November 21, 2000, and since then, it has been a venue for concerts, tournaments, circuses, graduations, rodeos, and more, and has served as the home of three sports teams, including the recently-created Louisiana Rouxgaroux. It has hosted more than 7 million visitors from all 50 states, and accounts for the vast majority of ticket sales in the Ark-La-Tex. As of 2025, its “estimated economic impact since opening” was around $500 million. Whether you love or hate it, there is no denying that this building has irrevocably altered Bossier Parish.

Yet, despite that enormous impact, I hadn’t thought about the arena until I saw the plaque. This, I believe, is why the preservation and presentation of historical artifacts is so important, particularly for local history. Historical information is easier to access than ever, thanks to archives, museums, and Internet databases. However, all other information (and misinformation) is also easier to access than ever, and with so many competing distractions, it’s easy for history to be overlooked. Objects can help cut through the noise, as they can spark curiosity and make the abstract information feel more “real.” In a swirling sea of information, artifacts can be lighthouses, guiding us towards true knowledge.

If you have any information relating to the history of Bossier City and Bossier Parish, the History Center may be interested in adding the material to its research collection. Call or visit us to learn more. We are open 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/ and http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/

Image:   Plaque from the 1999 groundbreaking for the Bossier

Article by: Jaylie Rester

Looking at Earth (Day) with a View from the Moon:

Earth Day, a celebration of clean air, land, and water, is coming up on April 22nd. Earth Day began in 1970 as part of a newly-developing environmental movement. But did you know, the environmental movement really took off, so to speak, far away from the Earth, with the Apollo space missions?

The Apollo missions, which began in 1961 and concluded in 1972, brought back to us Earth-dwellers inspiring photographic images that set our startlingly blue orb of a planet in stark contrast to the blackness of space. The first photo of the Earth taken from space by a human (as opposed to images from unmanned observation flights or satellites) became known as the “Earthrise” photo of the Earth rising over the Moon’s horizon on Christmas Eve, 1968, during the Apollo 8 mission. The most famous of the Apollo Earth photos became known as the “Blue Marble,” a portrait of the Earth taken on Dec. 7, 1972, during Apollo 17. Over 50 years later, the Artemis II mission has been recreating many of these same photographs, with technological upgrades, such as the “Hello, World” photo of April 3, 2026, that catches the Earth in the same “pose” as the Blue Marble.

Perhaps the most famous of the Apollo missions was Apollo 11, which launched July, 1969. Its lunar landing module put humans, astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, on the moon for the very first time. In 1989, the Shreveport Times did a 20-year retrospective story on locals’ memories of that day, and their own special connections to the event. At least half of the group were Bossierites, including John and Maybelle Manry of Plain Dealing. Mr. Manry’s memories and reactions were fascinating, because as a native of the year 1903, his memories predated the arrival of automobiles in his hometown. And Maybelle Manry pointed out how exciting the Apollo missions were to her, because their son Charles Manry, was a crucial part of the mission.

John Ardis Manry was a printer, regional historian, photographer, and genealogist who for a while was publisher of the Bossier Banner newspaper and worked for the Shreveport Times. He was born two weeks before brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright took their famous flight in December, 1903. He remembers the “pop-pop-pop” sounds of the first Model T Ford automobiles in town keeping neighbors awake in Plain Dealing. He watched the first hot air balloon liftoff from Bossier Parish soil in 1915 and thought that the pilot “had gone to heaven right there.” The moonwalk of Apollo 11, though, “was the greatest thing that ever happened in my 85 years,” he said. Mr. Manry remembered, “We saw every bit of it we could and we read everything we could.” He reminisced that before that, the most fantastic thing they’d personally seen was the sending of the first newspaper wire photo in 1935, “a marvel.”

At one point in Mr. Manry’s remisncenses of Apollo 11 for the Times reporter, his wife Mrs. Maybelle Manry interjected that really the missions were so interesting to them and that they didn’t miss a minute of coverage of it was likely due to the fact that they “had a child involved in it.” The Manrys’ son Charles E. Manry, a 1954 graduate of Plain Dealing High School, majored in physics at Georgia Tech. Following college, he entered the US Navy working as a “radio man” and as an electronics instructor and then worked in the Naval Ordnance Design station in California, developing the technology to photograph the ocean floor. In 1963 he went from exploring the ocean floor to exploration of space, by moving to Houston and taking a job with NASA.

At NASA, Manry designed the guidance system that was used on the Apollo spacecraft and personally trained each astronaut in how to use it. He became an expert in manned space flight and in 1971, in the thick of the Cold War, was selected as member of a team of physicists sent to Moscow to work out a joint rendezvous and docking system. These systems were to allow US and Russian spacecraft to link up in space, and give each country the ability to rescue the other’s astronauts or cosmonauts in space. As a part of NASA’s Manned Space Center, Guidance and Control Section in Houston, Charles Manry had worked in the Gemini manned space program, and he also helped create the NASA computer programs to map the Space Shuttle's routes. He then worked for the Martin Marietta company in Denver and passed away in Colorado in 2011.

If you have stories or photographs of some of the area’s space or environmentally-minded citizens, we’d love to see or hear them, and perhaps make copies for our collection, with your permission. The Bossier Parish Libraries History Center located at 7204 Hutchison Drive, Bossier City, LA and are open M-F 9-6. 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: 

• NASA’s Apollo 8 Earthrise photo
• John and Maybelle Manry on their 50th anniversary, BPLHC photo
• Charles Manry as a boy, BPLHC photo

Article by Pam Carlisle