Printice A. Darnell, a Veteran for Veterans

 In honor of Veterans Day coming up on November 11th, this column is dedicated to Mr. Printice Darnell, whom I had the pleasure of interviewing in June of 2014, about two years before he passed away. Interviewing him was recommended to me by our patron, Lynda Methvin, the daughter of Mr. Darnell’s former roommate at the Northwest Louisiana Veterans Home in Bossier City. Mr. Darnell, a World War II Veteran who served in the U.S. Army from 1944-46 in New Guinea, Philippines and Japan was a passionate advocate for Veterans in Louisiana.

Printice A. Darnell was born Sept 21, 1918 near Arcadia in Bienville Parish. Soon after, his family moved to Bossier City so that his father could work at Louisiana Oil Refining. Printice became Salutatorian of the 1935 graduating class of Bossier High School. While in school he worked for Milady Cleaners with most of his business on Barksdale Airfield (now Barksdale Air Force Base). He was married with one daughter when he was finally drafted, as he had hoped, into the Army in 1944. When his prior work experience was discovered, he made Staff Sergeant from Private Frist Class in three days in order to run the military laundry on the island of Honshu in Japan.

Following a post-War divorce, he married Lois Lynn (to whom he was married for 63 years until her death in 2011) and had two more daughters. He had his own business, Darnell Cleaners in Bossier City, for 20 years. He ran for the office of Bossier City Marshal and for State Representative but lost by just a few votes to be in the runoff for marshal and by only twenty votes for representative, despite refusing to take any money at all in political fundraising, with the exception of $25.00 an acquaintance insisted he take, since he believed so strongly that public office should not be ‘bought.’

He became Post Commander four times at his local Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and later State Commander and served on national VFW committees. For 15 years he held the position of Bossier Parish Service Officer for the Louisiana Veterans Affairs. Service Officers assisted veterans with their pension applications and other formalities. In 1981, Mr. Darnell urged Governor Roemer to allow the Veterans Affairs Commission to keep the Parish Service Offices when all but a few were slated to be abolished. Governor Roemer responded, ‘You want the job?’ and put Mr. Darnell on the Veterans Affairs Commission.

In 1988-1992 Mr. Darnell was appointed Director (now Secretary) of the Louisiana Division of Veterans Affairs. It’s not something Mr. Darnell, who quipped “I was lucky, I was not smart,” ever imagined he would be but he is proud of his accomplishments in that position. He was able to keep Parish Service Officers in every parish but one (that shared with a neighbor parish) when those positions were again threatened and to get an increase for veterans’ disability pensions.

The accomplishment Mr. Darnell is most proud of was establishing the Louisiana Veterans’ Home in Monroe (the second in the state, after Jackson’s) and establishing an honor guard available for Louisiana veterans’ funerals, not just for those of high-ranking officers, something the military branches said they had no funds to do. Though he described himself as one who ‘goes crazy’ if he’s not working (this was a man who asked for and got a job at Louisiana Downs at age 87), he did enjoy the “exemplary attention” when he became a Veterans Home resident at the Northwest Louisiana Veterans Home in Bossier City.

Mr. Darnell passed away in July of 2016 at the age of 97.

If you would like to see a transcript of his interview, or any other interviews in our oral history collection, please stop by or contact the History Center. We are located at 2206 Beckett St, 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

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Article by Pam Carlise

Photos: Printince Darnell in 2014

Campaign Card for Printice A. Darnell, Candidate for Marshal, Bossier City, La. And Ward 2