Noel Byars

Noel Eugene "Gene" Byars, Sr.
Mayor of Minden, Louisiana, USA
In office January 1, 1983 – January 30, 1989
Preceded by	Jack Batton
Succeeded by	Robert Terry Tobin
Personal details
Born	July 4, 1939 (1939-07-04) (age 72)
Nationality	American
Political party	Democratic Party
Spouse(s)	Cecilia O'Rear Byars
Children	Noel E. Byars, Jr. Timothy Byars Jo Anna Byars ____ Randy Byars
Occupation	Educator
Religion	Baptist

Noel Eugene "Gene" Byars, Sr. (born July 4, 1939), is a retired educator and paranormal investigator from Beaumont, Texas,^[1] who served from 1982-1989 as the Democratic mayor of Minden, a small city in northwestern Louisiana and the seat of Webster Parish. Byars was recalled at the midway point of his second term, January 21, 1989, through a citizens' initiative after it was revealed that he had charged the municipality for personal expenses on his city credit card.

Family

Byars was the son of Noel Randolph Byars (1908–2003), a Minden banker and a native of Bearden, Arkansas, and the former Thelma Rowland (1909–2002).^[2] His paternal grandparents were Benjamin Joab Byars and the former Lucy Jane Chambliss. Byars, who is Baptist, graduated from Minden High School in 1957.^[3] He married a Minden High School classmate, the former Cecilia O'Rear (born March 8, 1940).^[4]

Election as mayor

Byars received his bachelor's degree in education and his master's in school administration from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston. In 1970, he left a position in Bossier City as coordinator and regional consultant for the Northwest Louisiana Supplementary Education Center to become the director of data processing in education Region 18 in Lubbock, Texas.^[5] Byars also indicated that he would work on a doctorate in education through Texas Tech University.^[6] In 1982, Byars was a sixth-grade teacher at Phillips Middle School in Minden. He ran for mayor when the one-term incumbent, Jack Batton, a local businessman who had first been elected in 1978, declined to seek a second term. Batton had also served on the Minden City Council, originally as streets and parks commissioner, from 1946–1962 and again from 1966-1978. He was the younger brother of former Webster Parish Sheriff J. D. Batton (1911—1981).^[7]

In the 1982 primary election, Byars led two other candidates: insurance agent James Tenney "Jim" Branch, Sr. (June 27, 1927–June 15, 2010), a native of St. Louis, Missouri, Louisiana State University graduate, a former president of the American Legion, chairman of the Minden Medical Center board, the 1984 Minden "Man of the Year", and a former member and president of the Webster Parish Police Jury whose service had begun in 1968,^[8] and Jacob E. "Pat" Patterson, Batton's predecessor as mayor, having served from 1974-1978. Byars polled 1,957 votes to Branch's 1,446, and Patterson's 1,207. In the all-Democratic general election on November 2, Byars handily defeated Branch, 2,642 (64.3 percent) to 1,468 (35.7 percent). Voters also replaced the police chief, Jim Lee Stanfield (1937—2007), with businessman Chester Adcock (1925—1995), 2,721 to 1,852 votes.^[7]

Byars hence assumed the mayor's office on January 1, 1983.

Recall election

The recall election engendered a heavy turnout. Voters repudiated Byars remaining in office, 3,241 (78 percent) to 914 (22 percent). He lost all fourteen city precincts. Opposition leaders Thomas L. Hathorn (born 1951) and Billy Sherman Cost (born 1948), later of Anahuac, Texas, formed the interest group, "Citizens for Responsible Government for Minden", which used phone banks to contact voters. "During the last few days, we targeted people who were non-petition signers," explained Thomas Hathorn in regard to the success of the initiative. Cost himself ran unsuccessfully for mayor in the 1990 elections.^[9]

A month later Byars was convicted by a six-member jury in the 26th Judicial Court of felony theft. The court determined that Byars cashed a $2,166.60 personal check on July 22, 1987, to his personal account, of which $1,815 of that amount was to have been distributed to eleven other individuals for expenses incurred in regard to a fact-finding trip to Nevada in May 1987 regarding nuclear waste. Byars was also found to have altered travel receipts for double reimbursement and allowing a son to use the long distance phone card in the amount of $2,400 worth of calls. The son was found guilty earlier of felony theft.^[10]

While Byars could have faced ten years imprisonment and heavy fines, District Judge Harmon Drew, Jr., lectured him on ethics and sentenced him to five thousand hours of community service. Byars was required to teach inmates at the Wade Correctional Institute in Homer in Claiborne Parish over a four-year period. Judge Drew said that he had "bent over backwards to be fair" in the case though Byars had complained that officials had a "political vendetta" against him.^[11] However, Byars never served the five thousand hours of community service nor taught at Wade Correctional Institute. Judge Drew instead reduced the sentence to $1,000 in fines and court costs and allowed Byars's work on a booklet that he wrote, "Louisiana Teachers Guide", count as the public service component of the sentence.^[12]

Drew questioned why Byars had been compelled to leave two undisclosed school systems in Texas and required to make restitution for funds that he allegedly misused. "The disturbing thing is your pattern of behavior. You consistently denied wrongdoing (in Texas), and the bottom line is that no criminal charges were filed." The judge said that Byars had misled Webster Parish school officials when he procured doctorate compensation while employed by the local school system for a degree from the University of Sarasota, which the judge called a "diploma mill". Drew added: "Your poor judgment has made you and your family suffer a great deal. Drew delayed implementation of the sentence pending Byars' appeal by his attorney, Richard Goorley, to the state circuit court of appeal. However, the circuit court in turn declined to overturn Judge Drew's ruling.^[11]

On conviction, Byars forfeited the mayor's position. Om February 6, council member Robert T. Tobin, an African American, was named interim mayor. Tobin served until his defeat in the special election held in November 1989.

Byars relocated during the 1990s to Beaumont.

1988 congressional race

On March 8, 1988, nearly a year before he left office, Byars ran for the Fourth Congressional District seat in a special election to choose a successor to incoming Governor Charles Elson "Buddy" Roemer, III, then of Bossier City. Byars polled only 2,018 votes (2 percent). Also in the running was Stanley R. Tiner, then a public relations officer for a natural gas company, who had been the editor of the Minden Press-Herald from 1969-1970. Tiner placed third, with a second round of balloting held between then State Senator Foster Campbell of Bossier Parish and Roemer aide, James Otis "Jim" McCrery, Jr. McCrery defeated Campbell and held the Fourth District House seat until January 2009.^[13]

References

1. ^ Yahoo! People Search
2. ^ Social Security Death Index Interactive Search
3. ^ Minden High School Grig yearbook, 1957
4. ^ Net Detective :: Login :: Get the scoop on anyone!
5. ^ "People's Bank Names [Noel Randolph] Byars Vice-President", Minden Press-Herald, June 13, 1973, p. 1
6. ^ "Noel Byars", Minden Press-Herald, September 25, 1970, p. 1
7. ^ ^{a b} "Byars, Adcock easy victors", Minden Press-Herald, November 3, 1982, p. 1
8. ^ "James Tenney "Jim" Branch, Jr.". Shreveport Times. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?n=james-tenney-branch-jim&pid=143606794. Retrieved June 17, 2010. 
9. ^ Marilyn Miller and Bill Specht, "Byars ousted!", Minden Press-Herald, January 22, 1989, p. 1
10. ^ Marilyn Miller, "Byars convicted of felony theft", Minden Press-Herald, February 24, 1989, p. 1
11. ^ ^{a b} Marilyn Miller, "Byars gets public works sentence: Must spend 5,000 hours teaching Wade inmates", Minden Press-Herald, April 28, 1989, p. 1.
12. ^ "Byars receives reducted sentence Friday: 5,000 community hours set aside by judge", Minden Press-Herald, October 21, 1991, p. 1
13. ^ Louisiana Secretary of State-Multi-Parish Elections Inquiry

Preceded by Jack Batton

Mayor of Minden, Louisiana Noel Eugene "Gene" Byars, Sr. 1982–1989

Succeeded by Robert T. Tobin (interim)

Persondata
Name	Byars, Sr., Noel Eugene
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	July 4, 1939
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death