Joe Henry Cooper

Joe Henry Cooper (May 8, 1918 - August 10, 1980) was a businessman in Mansfield, Louisiana, the seat of De Soto Parish, who served five consecutive terms in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1960 to 1980, having at various times represented De Soto, Red River, Sabine, and Caddo parishes. Cooper authored the Louisiana code of ethics and pushed for efficient managerial controls on state government.

Cooper was born in tiny Fullerton in Vernon Parish to Dock Henry Cooper and the former Elestine Neely, she a native of Copiah County, Mississippi. On December 14, 1937, Cooper married the former Hazel Elizabeth Strong (January 5, 1914 - April 14, 2002), a native of Shelby County, Texas, who was the daughter of Chester A. Strong, a prominent farmer, and the former Naomi Mitchell (1891-1986). The couple had two daughters, Martha Anne (born 1942) and Sara Lynn (born 1947).

During World War II, Cooper served in the United States Navy Seabees as a coxswain in the Pacific Ocean theater. After the war in 1946, he established a general merchandise store in Mansfield, a town well-known in the area because of a battle fought there in 1864 during the American Civil War. He was a member of the Sabine River Authority, the DeSoto Chamber of Commerce, the Farm Bureau, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the Masonic lodge. He was a member of the board of directors of the Mansfield Bank and Trust Company. Cooper was also a deacon in the First Baptist Church of Mansfield.

Cooper entered the legislature as James Houston "Jimmie" Davis was beginning his second nonconsecutive term as governor. Cooper proposed passage of the code of ethics in the Davis administration in an effort, critics would say largely unsuccessful, to stop corrupt practices in Louisiana government. He proposed the investment of idle funds and the release to the public of the state's unclassified payroll. It was during the administration of Davis' successor, John Julian McKeithen, that Cooper obtained passage of his proposed bills.

In his last legislative term, coinciding with the second term of Edwin Washington Edwards, Cooper was chairman of the House Highway, Transportation, and Public Works Committee and cochairman of the Joint Committee on Highways, Public Works, and Transportation. He pushed for the development of the parish unit system for state highway work.

In 1969, Cooper served on the "Mafia" Probe Committee in an effort to rid the state of organized crime. He also served on several joint committee for state management and efficiency and for prison reform, including the decentralization of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola in West Feliciana Parish.

Cooper floor managed the establishment of the Toledo Bend Reservoir, a popular fishing resort on the Sabine River of the Louisiana-Texas boundary, and served on the Sabine authority for eighteen years. He was also instrumental in the establishment of the Toledo Bend Scenic Drive. In developing Toledo Bend, Cooper worked with then Department of Public Works director Claude Kirkpatrick, himself a former member of the Louisiana House.

In 1976, Cooper floor managed a bill making Louisiana State University in Shreveport a four-year institution. Cooper led the effort in the House, and colleague Don W. Williamson of Shreveport moved the proposal through the Louisiana State Senate.

Cooper died in Dallas at the age of sixty-two. He is interred in Mansfield Cemetery.

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References

"Joe Henry Cooper", "A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography", Vol. I (1988), p. 195

http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi

List of Members of Louisiana House of Representatives since 1880 (Baton Rouge: Secretary of State)