Archive Record
Metadata
Accession number |
1998.060 |
Catalog Number |
1998.060.002 |
Object Name |
Transcript |
Date |
21 Jul 1998 |
Title |
Dement, George Oral History Transcript |
Scope & Content |
Transcribed Oral history interview with Bossier City Mayor George Dement. Conducted at the Mayor's office in the Bossier City Municipal Complex on Tuesday, July 21, 1998 by Ray Lucas. NOTE: The tape (and therefore transcript) ends abruptly in mid-conversation. Either the interview was not concluded on tape or a second tape is missing. Interview: Mayor George Dement July 21, 1998 Oral History Interview with Mayor George Dement of Bossier City, Louisiana July 21, 1998 Interviewed by Ray Lucas [Mayor Dement] Ok, I am Mayor George Dement and I will start by, telling you where I was born and where I've lived and right on up to right now July the 21st 1998. I was born out here by Princeton, Louisiana on January 23, 1922. And the house I was born in was really a long cabin just like Abraham Lincoln lived in. So when I hear about these stories it gets interesting because I can relate to that the best that I can remember. When I was about three years old, my father got a job in the brand new Bellevue Oil Field, which was just discovered at that particular time and my daddy, went over to Bellevue Oil Field and got a job with the Gulf Oil Company at Bellevue Oil Field. And when I was five years old, my daddy was transferred to Elm Grove, Louisiana, and also worked for Elm Grove, I mean working for the Gulf Oil Company. I also went to school there at the Elm Grove School. Started the first grade and at that particular time graduated in 1938 and when. . . while I was there, and since this is about Bossier Parish, I am one of the few people that you'll meet that was present when Barksdale Air Force Base opened in 1933, because we had just lived south of there going back and forth going home and ah, that was one of the most exciting days in my life because I was born in '22 and in '33 when they opened Barksdale Air Force Base I was eleven years old. But it was very impressive to me at that particular time to see a real airplane, and of course they had real bombers with real bullets that they strafed some hay out there, and of course that was one of the greatest things that ever happened to Bossier Parish was the opening of Barksdale Air Force Base, and I can tell people, I was there, I saw it. When I graduated from High School in 1938, I moved to Bossier City and I got a job at Barksdale Drug Store. I was sixteen years old, I got a job as a delivery boy at Barksdale Drug. At that particular time the population of Bossier City was 6,000 in 1938, and now [1998] the population is almost 60,000. So I can say with all honesty that I have seen Bossier City grow ten times. My job at Barksdale Drugs, of course, was delivery boy, and then I graduated up to work behind the soda fountain, and then working in the Drug Store. And then from there I went into the Navy and I was, stayed in the Navy until I was 24. I was in the submarine service and I stayed in the Navy, I was 24 and came back to Bossier and married my childhood sweetheart, Sunshine Norris, whose daddy was Steve Norris and at that particular time he was one of the most outstanding, popular lawmen in Louisiana and of course the fact that I married this most feared man in North Louisiana by marring his daughter, something I still wondered how I did it, but anyway, we've been married 52 years now so ah, it must not have been too bad. But the fact as I watched Bossier City grow, that ah, one of the things that they did first, I mean that changed Bossier and Shreveport, of course, was when they came through with the I-20 Highway, and I thought that it was the wrong thing to do, because it came right through the City, I thought they should of gone around it, but it wiped out four of the best restaurants in town, how they did that I don't know. But they did and when they made the new bridge across Red River, and tore down the old bridge, there used to be a toll bridge there. Then of course, I can ah, that's the I-20, but before they made the I-20 they made the Texas Street bridge, under Governor Leche and Governor Huey P. Long. And that was another big controversy at that time. They had that, a big … it was on some kind of big cloth sign about the Texas Street bridge was built under Governor O.K. Allen and Governor Huey P. Long, I believe it was on there and the people who didn't like Huey P. Long, went up there one night and they tore that sign down and threw it in the river. But then it was replaced by the sign you see up there now, they didn't tear that sign down now. Of course for Bossier City, when the Texas Street bridge was built and later the I-20 bridge came, and of course the next thing was the Barksdale, Shreveport-Barksdale Bridge, and then finally the Jimmie Davis Bridge down in South Bossier. But as Bossier, when I was in 1938, all of Bossier at that particular time was on up to Adair Street and Yarborough Street in North Bossier and then of course down around Delhi Street and Watson Street and that before they had any Barksdale Annex which started up back where Central Parks School is then they built on down made, and they filled it in Barksdale Annex. But as the population grew, the schools grew. When they built… of course at that particular time Bossier Elementary School was the only school in Bossier City. You went to high school, you went to first grade till. At [that] time you just went to the eleventh grade - we didn't have twelve grades, but then the ah, I think it was somewhere around 1940 when they built the Bossier High School as we see it today. And then, I've forgotten the exact years, they started to build other schools as the city has grown, they built Airline and Parkway. But when they built the interstate, through Bossier City, Highway 80 used to be the main drag through, go across the Texas Street Bridge and go on to Texas that way on out to the Fairground. And it used to take a good hour to get to the fairground on a busy night, you know to try to get through that traffic. So when they built that interstate highway, oh it relieved some traffic, but ah, that provided…before they finished, it seemed like it was somewhere around 1965 or 1966 when they completed the I-20 Highway, it changed the complexion of the city completely because the Highway 80 had got to be the Neon Strip. We had a whole lot of nightclubs out there and everyone of them got wrapped up with neon and it was the "Neon Strip" and Bossier City took on a real bad reputation as being the "Sin City" of the South, that and Macon, Georgia. And of course, the reason being was the big military base here that is very normal that they have a lot of nightclubs and bring young ladies in around these military bases. But when the Interstate Highway came through, it just dried up, this Highway 80, this Neon Strip out here, there are still some places out there, but pretty well went by the wayside. Then they built the Holiday Inn in Bossier in 1967, and of course, when I came back out of the Navy as a ship's cook on a submarine, I built some restaurants in Bossier and Shreveport. In fact I had seven restaurants. Ah, I think at one time. Anyhow the one's in Bossier, I had the Plantation House, that was down in the shopping center where ah, Ralph and Kakoo's is now, that was a little place. I had the Lazy Susan, I had the Cajun Kitchen, which was down by Barksdale, ah the West Gate of Barksdale, I had the bowling alley, the Holiday Lane Bowling Alley, had the restaurant there. Oh, yeah, I had this other place. They built this hotel, the Al-Ida Hotel that was named after Alfred Cloud and his wife Ida. So they were looking for a name for the hotel and they named it Al-Ida and I put a, a nice little hotel, it had 21 rooms, I put in a nice little grille in there and then I moved from there up to the corner, I put a place called Po-Boy Diner. Up there across from, at the intersection of the ah, 80 and Benton Road. [Ray Lucas] Is that where ah, Ron's Sea Fry is now? [Mayor Dement] Un-hun. It's there where a bar is now over on this side of Benton Road. That's a little bar there now. My father-in-law owned an acre of land right there and ah, this place that I had was an old State Police building that ah, it was just a small little place. But I had taken it and ah, it had been a bar and my father-in-law didn't want it to be a bar anymore and he asked me if I could take it and make a restaurant out of it. So I sold the Al-Ida Grille and put the Po-Boy Diner and fixed these Po-boy sandwiches and then from there I went to the ah Cajun Kitchen. I had a place down, as I said down on the Shreveport-Barksdale Highway, the Cajun Kitchen. Then the Plantation House and of course the Holiday Lanes Bowling Alley Restaurant. That's what I was doing until 1967 when the Holiday Inn in Bossier opened and I was hired by the Holiday Inns as an experiment. They were building Holiday Inns so fast that they could not find food, people to operate restaurants fast enough. It was fairly easy to get someone to run a hotel. But to get someone to run a hotel and a restaurant and make money in a restaurant it was difficult. So they hired me as an experiment. I had several restaurants, I think thirteen all together, both in Shreveport and Bossier, and I never really made any money, I'd made a living, and ah, but when the Holiday Inn was looking for somebody to open up this brand new Holiday Inn, because they just, I-20 had just come through, just opened it. Brand new highway, brand new Holiday Inn with 142 rooms and everything they had was brand new and I never had a restaurant like that before, I'd had something that I could afford and I… The equipment in this new Holiday Inn was just the best of everything and the newest of everything. And when I opened the Holiday Inn, we were the most popular hotel around here because there hadn't been a new hotel built here in a long time, you know. So I was so fortunate and as I say the restaurant was what I knew something about, the hotel, it just came naturally, and I lived just across the street. I lived on Delhi Street and ah, so the hotel, I've heard this story, you go all around the world looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I found mine right in my front yard because it was just across the road to my house that I went to work. I got rid of all of the restaurants that I had, what they'd offered me was better. I had promised myself that if I could ever have just one place, that I'd be the best employee that they ever had because I had, I didn't have a system, I wasn't a good manager. But anyway, when I went to work for the Holiday Inn, it wasn't long until we became the number one Holiday Inn in the world. And I got a ring on here to prove it. [points to ring] I was innkeeper and of course, I said it wasn't long, it was um, I went to work in 1967 and I believe this was, I stayed with them 22 years, but anyway we did real, real well at the Holiday Inn in Bossier. Then when Louisiana Downs Racetrack came, they, you know, as I say, we were the new hotel in town. We had 142 rooms and then when the racetrack came, we kept up with our turnaway. I mean we ran'em full. To have a 142 rooms and have them full every night, and that was unbelievable. We started with a. . . the other hotels in town, they had built a place called Eight Days Inn but it used to be eight dollars a night. That's where they got the eight days, the man's name was Day and it was eight dollars a night. That's what is still down there Day's Inn. But, we, when we opened our hotel, our brand new hotel, our price was $9.50 for a room which was higher than anyone else in town. Then came the racetrack. And when the racetrack was located, out where it is, they started to build Louisiana Downs out between here [Bossier City] and Benton. But Johnnie Wallcock, came and he had the foresight to build the racetrack between Highway 80 and the new I-20, around that loop and he put it in, and it was a very wise decision. When they did that, then the hotels started coming down, being built. There were 22 hotels built in Shreveport and Bossier on the strength of the Louisiana Downs racetrack. Eleven in Bossier City and twelve over in ah, eleven in Bossier. Twenty-three motels, twelve in Shreveport, eleven in Bossier hotels. They built a new Sheraton, built a new Hilton, they built an Admiral Bembo and Le Bossier, they started building hotels. And of course this was good business. I had 142 rooms, we had to keep up with our turnaways. And in the Holiday Inn, if you turnaway enough people, you've got to add more rooms or they let somebody else build a hotel. So we added 100 more rooms. We had 242 rooms, and we still turned people away. And then they built all these other hotels. And this is the way it was ah, as far as my life was concerned with the Holiday Inn, until [there] came the oil bust. You know, when all that came, Bossier Bank and Trust they all got, was involved in, they had a lot of money loaned out to some people that ah, just couldn't make it. So Bossier Bank and Trust, it ah, lost, lost out in ah, and of course the Holiday Inn was sold to someone. And as far as Louisiana Downs Racetrack started going down. Of course they had built the Bossier Medical Center, I think it had been under Mayor Nattin, and I believe that has been about thirty-one years ago and ah, Airline Drive, we just begin to spread out. To the South was Barksdale Annex as I said, then they jumped on down to South Bossier. The people that I have seen that makes Bossier City what it is today is the major landowners and the major developers. We have about six people that I can name that are responsible for Bossier City being what it is and how it is. Of course Haynesville Mercantile, and Loy Moore, of them owning all that property and then when the I-220 was built, was being careful of what they did with that land. And the first was Jim Larkin when he came in, I was on the Metropolitan Planning Commission at that particular time and he was going to build it in phases. Of course all of what you see was built by Jim Larkin, the Greenacres and all of what he's done. A very nice subdivision and they continue to do that. And of course down South, Don Coleman, Don Coleman being, he developed all of Coleman Park and he developed South Gate Estates. And then Mr. Brown, James Brown, he developed Golden Meadows and he developed now Plantation Trace and then out at Carriage Oaks, we had Jerry Spearman. Carefully building these homes, they were big developers, big land, wasn't a lot of little people putting up. Um, so, as of now, of course, up until, I stayed with Holiday Inns, as I said, when we had the crash and Holiday Inn was sold. Well, I went to Toro Hills for four months, and then someone bought the Holidome over in Shreveport and ah, I stayed with them for two years with a [inaudible] some people that bought it. Then in 1989, ah, 1988, the Mayor Don Jones said that he wasn't going to be a candidate for the mayor the next time. I decided I would, and I ran and I won first election, ran the second time and ran the third time. And here I sit today. Did I ramble too much? [Ray Lucas] No sir, no sir. That's a wonderful background. Ah, if I could just ask you some pointed questions along the lines of what you gave me. Now, I read that you attended college two years? [Mayor Dement] Well here's what I've done. I've attended the University of Georgia, I attended Louisiana State University, I attended Centenary College, but I never finished any of them. As far as my credits I have three years of college and I was going to be a dentist, but I got into the restaurant business and got married and my cooking. I just couldn't make the grades to do it, so I stayed with the restaurant business and got away from my . . . . [Ray Lucas] You were pretty successful at that I would say. [Mayor Dement] Well I could never make money for anybody, for myself, I could make money for somebody else, but. . . . [Ray Lucas] And ah, you mentioned that you were in the Navy. When did you enter the Navy? [Mayor Dement] Ah, in 1941. [Ray Lucas] Before the war started? [Mayor Dement] I was in ah, I was in the Navy, I went to, this was, you can see my license, in '42, June. [Mayor Dement show Mr. Lucas a framed photograph of the Mayor and other flight candidates as well as his pilot's license] I was in the Navy. I was in flight program then, down at LSU. [Ray Lucas] Oh, O.K. [Mayor Dement] OK, and ah, this is, I was in Tokyo Bay, I was there for the surrender. [Mayor shows Mr. Lucas a certificate certifying he was in Tokyo Bay for Japanese surrender] And ah, you see the date on that, it was September the second. So I went in, I was already signed up in '41, to get in it. So when I got out the Navy in '46, but this was in '42 when I was flying and this was in '45 when I was still a cook on a submarine. So, that pretty well, I was really in the Navy for five years. Part of it was flight training and part of it was when I was in submarines. I'm probably the only man you'll ever meet that ah, was a, both in submarine and ah, I've been, the highest I've ever been is eighteen thousand feet and a test pilot, testing an airplane one time and I've been sitting on the bottom of the ocean to just see if we could do it one time, so, not, a lot of people could tell you that. [Ray Lucas] Both extremes. [Mayor Dement] Yeah. [Ray Lucas] How, o.k. I've been on the USS ah, which one is it over in Mobile Bay, the submarine, to me that seems incredibly cramped . . . [Mayor Dement] Drum? [Ray Lucas] Yeah. Next to the Alabama. [Mayor Dement] The battleship. [Ray Lucas] It seems to me to be an extremely cramped and small, space. [Mayor Dement] Well the thing, at the first of the war, you know when, before we really got our forces back, we would have…let's get something out [Mayor Dement opens his desk drawer and retrieves a log book] first of the war, this is my diary by the way. [Ray Lucas] Oh! [Mayor Dement] That's how many ships . . . . [Ray Lucas] Ships you sunk. [Mayor Dement] Yeah, we were on the USS Razorback. Razorback being a whale, all of the World War I, all of the submarines, the fleet type submarines were named after whales. And this is our crew, that's how many. That's when we were on Guam. And then, there were still Japs on the middle of the island there. But that was our crew, as when we was… I sent that home and I pointed out me, that's me. [Laughs] But ah, anyway, the first of the war we had somewhere around sixty men aboard and then at the end of the war when we were about to finish, we didn't want to waste a torpedo on a little Sanpan, so we took some more men, we had as many as eighty-eight men aboard, we'd have to hot sack it, we'd have to pass ammunition, you know from pyrotechnic lockers right in the middle of the boat, we, from the bottom of the submarine, hand the projectile, hand it to somebody, hand it to somebody, hand it to somebody, hand it across the deck and ah, [Ray Lucas] To fire the deck gun? [Mayor Dement] Well we had a five inch 25 deck gun, and we had twin 40mm, twin 20mm, and I was on a fifty caliber. Everybody had two stations. Battle station gun action and battle station torpedo. When we were at battle station torpedo, I was in a reload crew in the forward torpedo crew. She'd fire a torpedo and reload it. And then battle station gun action, I was on a fifty caliber machine gun topside with, we had two guys - another fella and myself, Hawk Eye Hogan. We had wells, gun wells on topside that we had our fifty caliber machine guns in, it was a hole on the side of the boat. I've got pictures here somewhere, and ah, we had our belts of ammunition in there and then we had on both sides of the boat, we had ah four inch pipe, with a little…and the 50 caliber had pin hanging out from the under. So we pull the thing out and stick it into that four inch pipe and then we could move it any way we wanted to. But the bad part of it, it was, when we would be on either side, that thing wouldn't be far from that five inch 25 deck gun. And when they would shoot that thing, we were sort of at the end of it on the side and the blast would come out and man, it's just hot and loud. But then we had of course twin 20's and twin 40's, that the submarine would come up out of that water, you know, and we had one time got in a little diver there, we surfaced and we were in the Sea of Japan and we surfaced on this whole bunch of little Sanpans. Of course the war was about over and the Skipper was trigger happy and he was wanting to get a sliver star and we'd shoot at anything. And we surfaced and we ah, anyway I don't want to take up your time telling war stories, but you ever skip a rock over water? You know, throw a little? We surfaced and we, they got that deck gun. . . . [End Side A] [Begin Side B] [Mayor Dement] My duty was just to keep their personnel from their gun. I wasn't trying to sink their boat. I would just spray their deck. And um, the 20mm and the 40 mm they were trying to sink in the 5 and 25. But we just came up out of that water, and it was the mountain was there that went all the way up into the clouds. The prettiest sight I'd ever seen. I wish someday I could ever go up. Can you imagine just coming up in a bay, and the mountain just went up into the clouds, in this bay that we were coming in. But I'm talking about skipping this rock across the water. They fired one of those five inch 25 shells, hit the water (clapping his hands), and bounced and landed on the….kind of upon the mountain side and they fired from a shore installation. That wasn't their fire, that was ours (Ray laughs). But anyway, I kind of get carried away on something else. [Ray] That's alright. [Mayor Dement] Don't let me do that. [Ray] Actually, I would like to come back another day just to talk about your submarine service, but I've heard and I can see you are very interested in boxing, very involved in boxing. How did you get involved in that? [Mayor Dement] Well…I, all my life I've liked the sport of boxing. Jack Dempsey, back and then Joe Louis came along, I had a paper route. And at that time the Shreveport Journal carried Joe Palouka. And they, that was just a cartoon and they got Joe Louis and Joe Palouka and Two Ton Tony Galimto was supposed to be real live characters. Tony Galimto was a bartender up in New Jersey. But they, they actually… he challenged Joe Louis, Joe Louis had beat everybody. And he fought Two Ton Tony Galimto, and his main saying was "I'll murder the bomb." Well, Joe Palouka they started writing… you know Joe Palouka was white and they didn't call him Joe Louis but it would follow the story of Joe Louis fighting Two Ton Tony Galimto and they had a little Two Ton Tony Galimto, some name for him and then he'd say "I'll murder the bomb" and but I was so interested in Boxing. And I went down here to Elm Grove school and I being a little guy and I thought I was about half tough and I liked the sport and anyway. In the Navy, I didn't belong on any Navy Boxing team but we'd have "smokers." And we go a porch sometime and we'd look around and kind………I said if I ever had a boy, the first thing I was going to buy him was some boxing gloves. And I had four boys, three of them all got into it … And I built an Irish McNeel Sport for Boys Gymnasium, I said I did it but there were some other people but we built a big Gymnasium out there and then three boys, one boy didn't care about it, he helped me in the hotel. But I had three of them that did, all of them were State Gold Wide Champions and one went to Olympics and two of them were All Service Champions, but anyway. [Ray] How did um.. it was Tim, correct, that went to the Olympics? [Mayor Dement] Yes. [Ray] '68. [Mayor Dement] '62. No, it was '72. [Ray] How did he do? [Mayor Dement] He won his first, fought and lost his second one. But he was the Two years National Champion for Amateur for two years. [Ray] Get into Olympics, is pretty good. [Mayor Dement] And he was 16 years old. And he got 17 and when he went to the Olympics he was 17 years old. And um. [Ray] That's amazing. [Mayor Dement] Then he went to. …. Well yea! It was! He went to… he won.. Well you know they have Pan American games the year before they have the Olympics. And there was a big story back then. They had a hundred and twelve pound, that's a fly weight. Hundred and twelve pound they had a little black prisoner over in Georgia, in jail, who'd killed a man and he was 112 lb. And a big a story in Life magazine about Bobby Lee Lewis, and that he who was going, he had bet everybody at Emerson Amateur, he beat everybody in Amateur Rank and it looked liked he would be the one that would represent the United States in the Olympics of 1972. Because nobody could beat him. When Tim was boxing, see he started with his older brother when the Irish McNeel Sports for Boys Boxing Gym that we built. (Showing picture to Ray ) [Ray] Oh! Okay! [Mayor Dement] That we built there is a …….anyway that was back then when we were doing it. But Irish….Tim stayed in the gymnasium from when he was 13 years old until he was 17 years old. And I just never missed a day, they would go out there Sunday maybe just one while, just trained everyday four years, and you know you had to be pretty good. Of course he was tall, and had all that experience and they fought, we would fight prisoners, we would fight anybody just to get some competition then. But, anyway they had this Bobby Lee Hunter over in the prison, so they were worried about we are sending a prisoner to represent the United States. So they had the Olympic trials over in Fort Worth and it had this 17 year old high school boy fighting this 23 years old prisoner, killer, murderer, and would ….who's going to represent the United States in the Olympics 1982… 1972.. in the community. Well, I don't know if you pray or not, but I do. I don't know what you are supposed to pray for, but I was praying that Tim could win that fight against… That was the first fight of the trial and of course Bobby Lee Hunter had all these write-ups, and his trainer, his guard would have to stay with him. He had to sleep in jail, and when they traveled, put him in a jail, let him stay over night. A big thing, Life magazine [wrote] all about it. But anyway this first fight was Tim and Bobby Lee, and Tim beat him like a drum, he was… He went overseas with him, when the Pan American Games he won but he was too, young he was 16 then so they send him on what they call a consolation prize. They let him fight at England, they let him fight Germany, let him fight Poland. 16 years old and he was over there fighting, and of course the papers [are] full of it. The little boy, the little high school boy, and they'd have…they don't get everything right in the paper. They'd followed a wealthy hotel owner's little boy. I'm trying to make a living (Ray laughs) . But anyway Tim went on and then when he beat…that was for the Olympics trial, he beat Bobby Lee Hunter. And so that cleared away… he beat everybody else. Then he went on to the Olympics, he won his first fight and lost his second fight. But that's….he was real popular and we were building the Sports for Boys Gymnasium, and we all of us had donation, and we just built it, it's still out there. When Irish McNeel died, and then Tim quit boxing other boys quit to boxing, we gave the gym to Salvation Army. I say gave it to them, we still owed some money but they took it up. They put about $80,000 owed on it and there was appraised at about $350,000 so we…that was a good deal. (Ray ..um. uh..) deal. They still use it . [Ray] That's great. You mention you had four sons, could you give me their names? [Mayor Dement] Okay, I got a daughter, too. [Ray] Oh! A daughter. [Mayor Dement] Okay, Ann, she's a Chaplain at LSU hospital. You know who Rick Rowe is? [Ray] No, Sir. [Mayor Dement] Rick Rowe, writes with Channel 3. Rick Rowe writes stories, kind of human interest stories, he's going to have her on Channel 3 tonight, I think it is. She's a Chaplain out at LSU hospital. Steve, is my son, he's in the Bail Bond business. And…I have Walter, who is …with the Deputy Sheriff of Bossier Parish ….I have David, who David stays out we got a farm down in Desoto Parish and he stays down there. And I have Tim, Tim is the one who went to the Olympics, and he's with Bossier Juvenile Officer. [Ray] He's a School Resource Officer. [Mayor Dement] Yeah! [Ray] Now, we are going to get into the fun. How did you get your start in politics? [Mayor Dement] Well, my wife and I were watching, television one day and the television commentator said that Mayor Don Jones of Bossier City has just made the announcement that he was not going to run for Mayor again. And then he made this comment, "Who would even want to be the Mayor of Bossier City, because the Race Track attendance is down, the banks are closing, the businesses are going out of business, who would even want to be the Mayor of Bossier City?" They had to discharge 20 of their policemen, firemen had to take 8% cut in their salary, who would even want to be the Mayor of Bossier City? And I told my wife, "I'd like to be the Mayor of Bossier." She said "Over my dead body." I told her, "I can fix that." (Ray laughs). She said "Read my lips," she was a big fan of Barbara Bush and anyway a group of guys called me and said, 'Would you want to run for Mayor?' And then they started rocking around a little bit, the next thing I knew. Somebody said, "If you run you'll win." I ran and I did win and I've ran since I was 70, naw it was, I was 69 years old. Let me see, it was in, I get confused, it was '89, anyhow. [Ray] The newspaper says you were 68, 69. [Mayor Dement] 68, okay. [Ray] Yes, Sir. [Mayor Dement] Whatever it was. And then they said, You too old. You too old. Well, I've been in the Hospitality business all my life. And of course I had Howard, the guy that used to be the head of the manager, editor of the Shreveport Times. Howard Bronson, he called me over one day, I thought he was going to endorse me. And he said, "George, I never, I never heard anybody say anything bad about you. You are into hospitality industry, you are nice to people, people are nice back to you. But you'd be the worst politician there. And certainly the worst politician running for Mayor." Mr. Walker over there he was running against me…I mean he's in the room next door. (Ray: yeah!). He's running, he's best qualified, best educated, of all of them, and a wonderful person. And the most qualified. He said, you've been nice to people, they be nice to you. But you gonna get in politics and people not gonna all like you. And you're not going to like that." But anyway. I did win. He was right. First time I ran they said you'd win 75 to 25. First time I ran, I ran against one of the…Wanda Bennett, who had been on for 12 years of a very popular. When the first returns came out: Dement 75, Bennett 25. They were patting me on the back, "We told you, we told you" … But that was just 5% of the returns. And they were taking my pictures. They got pictures round here somewhere. When it said 75, 25, my little smiley face, man it was just like that….and then three or four minutes the second came in (snapping his fingers), it was Dement 55, Bennet 45, I mean it closed like that. And they took my picture then. Man it was just like that. And in a few more minutes, it came out the Mayor of Bossier City for the next four years will be Mayor Wanda Bennett. And they took my picture then, that was the saddest looking face you ever seen. There was about three minutes, and they said 'Oh, wait a minute, we made a mistake, here's a box that hadn't been counted.' And then I think I won that by, 52 to 48, they took my picture then, I was stumbling. I was stunned - did I win, did I lose? I thought, no, we made a mistake. But anyway, then the second time I ran I think I won by 82%, the third time 75%, so I've been very blessed. Very just fortunate really. And blessed, I like what I'm doing, and if you like to do something, I guess, you can say, I'm not bragging, I'm not bragging on it. But we are the fastest growing city in the State of Louisiana, the cleanest city, we got the (?)city, and the safest city in the State of Louisiana , and if you got that going for you…and I can't take all that credit, it just happened. But the fact is, that I've been in hospitality, hospitality business, it made it easy for me when they call me and tell me I got a plumbing problem down here on somewhere White Street, just like when I was in the hotel, they'd tell me the commode is running over up there. And it has some I've really liked, you get a lot of opportunities to community involvement. [Ray] Well, what do you feel are your greatest accomplishments so far, being Mayor of Bossier City? [Mayor Dement] Is, uh, being able to hire and work with good people and get along with my staff, and being able to work with my department heads and also recognizing the value of the people that I've been trying to help, like the Bossier Chamber of Commerce, and the Economic Development Foundation, Don Pearson, Louis Covington, the two (?) work for, President Friedly, with the Commission Tourist Bureau, and all these people and of course the Shreveport mayor, we all get along with each other, and the sheriff's department and the police jury and the school board and all of us. Really, we got some lawsuits against us, but for the most part, we (?) all of them, and if we did anything or do anything right, it's being able to choose good people. Our fire chief, just, we get along good, he's the number 1; my police chief we get along and they get along with each other good. They uh, my finance chairman, Charlie Glover, 25 years experience, he's um, he's handled all this money that we've got, he's handled it just perfectly, every dime we've got we've got it somewhere making money for us, carefully and deliberately invested in proper places, and of course we've got a public works department, we have Gary Netherly. Public utilities is provided, water, and our sewer system, the best we've got it, really. And we've had problems with our parks and recreation but that's been corrected and we've got - So, if I've done anything, it's being able to choose and work with good department heads and the people. We have 68, six thousand, eighty-eight people, I mean six-hundred eighty-eight people that work in the city, besides the hospital. [Ray] Well then, conversely, what, what are your, what do you see as your worse moments as being mayor, or your regrets, or you may not have any at all? [Mayor Dement] Well, my, what I had to get used to was limitations. You know when I worked for myself, or when I worked for the Holiday Inn, I was boss. I want something done, I said (claps) "go do that", they do it. Well, it took me, has taken me a long time to really determine my limitations, what I can do, and what I can't do. I know if I have a City Council that wants to do something, I have to try to decide or convince myself, do I want to do that, too? If I do want to do it, I try to convince them that, they're not doing it like I wish they would; but if I see that I just absolutely got five, probably that really won't do it, I can veto it, if I want to do this and cause, and, but everything we've ever done I haven't been against it enough to veto it and then just scramble everything up. Maybe not everything was right, they haven't, we haven't, I haven't but, just being able to harmonize and being able to look ahead and have a 5-mile, 5-year program out in front of you, and being involved is one of the most important things. I belong to the Lion's Club, Officer's Club, Toastmaster's Club, Chamber of Commerce. I tried to get involved in everything I can, to know what's going on. This I-69, you know, you (?) understand what's coming down. I am the Vice-President for the state of Louisiana, and the (?) Seventh State Coalition, and um, all that's been things I have enjoyed, but what you said, you asked me this question. My limitations, that I have to recognize and realize and be aware of what my limitations, what I can do and what I can't do. And um, I'm kinda 'bout to catch on to what that is. [Ray] Now, now is the $64,000 question, about the uh, our friends on the river. The boats. Now, I know you come from a hospitality (Yes sir - Mayor Dement) background. Now to me, it seems that, the industry, whether you're pro or con gambling, it just fits in very well with your experience being in hospitality because really, that's what they are, they're a hospitality type of industry because they want people to come in, have a good time, you know, that's, that's their, that's their main objective, that's their business. Do you see them having a, a continued positive impact upon the city and the parish? [Mayor Dement] I believe, of course, number one, they're legal. They are legal. I believe it's been around 30 years ago, when the Louisiana Downs was in (?)trouble, and they had to vote throughout the parish, and it was a very close, close, but pari-mutuel betting and gambling was voted legal in Bossier Parish. This time when I had the opportunity, when the Horseshoe called me, and the people used to call me and say "George, why don't we get a boat over here?" We thought it was gonna be one boat coming to North Louisiana. Mayor Beard was mayor then, and of course I've been in the hospitality business, hotel business, commissioner of tourist bureau. I went to Mayor Beard and I said "Mayor Beard, that big boat here, if it comes over on the Bossier side, course we don't own end of the Bossier bank, the outside of the (?)Cane's Landing. We don't own it, private owners own this side here, and over in Shreveport, and over in Shreveport they own the whole riverbank." I said "If a boat comes up here, let's agree, let's split it 50-50 because we have as many hotel rooms on our side as you do and it is a tourist attraction. Let's split it 50-50." She said, "No, we might do it population-wise, you know." So anyway, they made the announcement one day that they are going to, that Mayor Beard is going to make her choice on Monday and five people that wanted to operate it, that wanted to be located right where they are. People would call me, "George why don't ya'll get one right over here?" Called Mr. Sweeney up at the racetrack. He said, I'm going to Shreveport and wasn't anyway we could get one. Okay, about Thursday one week, Frank Pernici, who I used to buy produce from. Pernici who had that produce house when I had my restaurant. I knew him, he called one day. He said, "George I want Horseshoe Entertainment and we want to put a boat in Bossier City." I said, "Where?" He said, "We got the place, we got an option on a place. Would you support us?" I said, "Well, what's it's gonna cost the city?" "Nothing. Not cost the city anything." I said, "Well, remember I'm Baptist." and uh, he said "Well, it won't cost the city anything." and this is gambling and I got to think what my wife is going to say to me and he said, "Well, you got the racetrack." Well, that's right. He said, "We'll come to Bossier if you'll support us." "What would it cost the city?" "It won't cost anything. Besides, we'll give the city of Bossier a million dollars to clean up old downtown Bossier and they told us, that's just a bunch of old rats nests down there" and then I said uhhh. He said "Anything else we could offer, you know, could we offer more money?" I said "Well, my parks and recreation always need money." "We'll give you $250,000 for parks and recreation. Plus a million dollars. Anything else?" I thought I was on the Vanna White show or something. (laughter) I said, "We have Hooter Park. A Black park always needs money down here." "Give you $25,000 dollars for Hooter Park. We'll give you 1,275,000 dollars to Bossier City if you'll support us and to build a boat in Bossier." I said "Yeah, I'll support it. Well, it won't cost Bossier anything?" "No Sir." Then he said, "But, there's one thing I want you to know." Uh-oh here it comes. "I want you to have a press conference on Friday, because Mayor Beard is going to have her press conference on Monday. But, I want us to have a press conference on Friday over at the Civic Center and we uh we want to make our announcement." Well we did. We had that. Boy I thought I was about half smart alec then. We had that announcement and boy I mean that place was full at Bossier City, they had lots of renderings of what they was gone build. A Horseshoe Entertainment and of course I've been to Las Vegas a couple of times but, I didn't know a horseshoe from a cowshoe whatever it was. But, come to find out that when I met Jack Binion, he said if I get my license, we going blow them all out of the water. But, anyway that's where we had our press conference. I'd asked Mr. Sweeney down at the racetrack to come. I mean to put a boat over here and he said he couldn't he said he was going to Shreveport. That was about 10 o'clock in the morning. By the time I walked from over there and walk over here the phone was ringing. Mr. Sweeny at the racetrack, George, we coming to Bossier. Will you support us? I said uh Mr. Sweeney I just promised the Horseshoe people that I'd support them. You mean long as we've been here paying our taxes, paying to Bossier City you… Yes Sir, I will, I'll support you. Before 12 o'clock I had two boats on this side and she hadn't even had her one yet. I thought I was smart and uh but uh and that's what's it's been. Ya'll just been lucky and then of course since the money that we received from them was as I mentioned a while ago, we had Charlie Glover our Finance Director and he saw Louisiana Downs racetrack go down. This money that Buddy Roemer had taken away from us. We really went down like when Don Jones said who would even want to be the Mayor of Bossier? It was a chance for some of this money to come back and no one had any idea it would be this kind of money. We signed the contract that they would pay us 3.2% of their gross game and revenue, gross game and revenue or 2 and ½ million dollars a year whichever came first. Then we also asked them, could we… We said well we better try to give something to the Parish and they said we'll give you a million dollars extra for the parish, give to the Police Jury, to the Sheriff's Department, to the School Board, to the Economic Development and Johnny Gray Jones Youth Shelter. A million dollars, that's the limit we'll give you. So both boats and 2 million out there and uh, Charlie said let's take this money and let's put it in… |
People |
Bennett, Wanda Brown, James Coleman, Don Dement, Ann Dement, George Elyott, Jr. Dement, Steve Dement, Sunshine Norris Dement, Tim Dement, Walter Glover, Charlie McNeel, Irish Netherly, Gary Norris, Stephen Edward Spearman, Jerry Walker, Lorenz "Lo" |
Search Terms |
Barksdale Drug Store Bellevue Oil and Gas Field Bossier Parish Police Jury Bossier Parish School Board Bossier Parish Sheriff's Office Bossier Strip Elm Grove Gulf Oil Refining Company Holiday Inn Johnny Gray Jones Youth Shelter Louisiana Downs Oral history World War II |
Lexicon category |
8: Communication Artifact |
Interview date |
1998-07-21 |
Interview place |
Mayor's Office, Bossier City Muni. Complex |
Interviewer |
Lucas, Ray |
Lexicon sub-category |
Documentary Artifact |
Inventoried date |
2024-04-22 |