Alexandria, Louisiana

Alexandria is the largest city in central Louisiana and the seat of Rapides Parish, with a 2010 population of 47,723, an increase of 3 percent over the 2000 tabulation. Separated from its neighboring city of Pineville by the Red River, Alexandria is located near the geographic center of Louisiana. The city is majority African American in population. Alexandria is the eleventh largest incorporated municipality in the state, with Monroe at tenth place though the two have roughly the same central city population.

Downtown Alexandria, which lies near Interstate 49, has undergone extensive redevelopment in the past decade. Alexandria contains many churches of multiple denominations, some quite large in membership.

Though Alexandria is heavily Democratic in political orientation, Rapides Parish often votes Republican. Part of Alexandria is represented in the state House by the Republican Lance Harris, who took office early in 2012. Rapides Parish is within the 5th Congressional District represented by the retiring Republican Ralph Abraham, a medical doctor from Richland Paris and a 2019 candidate for governor. Harris is running for Abraham's House seat and faces opposition from Luke Letlow, Abraham's former chief of staff.

Alexandria is named for a native Pennsylvania businessman, Alexander Fulton, who established a settlement in the area in the 1790s. The town was incorporated in 1819 and received a charter in 1832.

The current city charter was implemented in 1977. Democrat Jeff Hall is the mayor, the first Africa-American in that position. John K. Snyder, a controversial, colorful political figure known for his sharp tongue and wit, was the mayor from 1973 to 1977 and again from 1982 to 1986. Snyder's first predecessor, Ed Karst, had an equally controversial political career.

Alexandria has two hospitals, Rapides General downtown and St. Frances Cabrini Hospital on Masonic Drive, named for the famous Roman Catholic nun, Mother Cabrini.

Its newspaper, the Alexandria Town Talk, is published thrice weekly.

Notable people[edit]

• Ray R. Allen, municipal secretary-treasurer and finance director
• John Alley, Southern Baptist clergyman
• Champ Baker, executive director of the Kisatchie-Delta Regional Planning Commission and advocate for veterans' causes
• Schuyler Batson, Southern Baptist clergyman
• Cecil R. Blair, state representative and state senator from 1950 to 1970s
• Jean Boese, former Louisiana poet laureate and Republican national committeewoman
• Al Bolton, Shreveport meteorologist; member of the Alexandria Bolton family
• George Washington Bolton, banker, former Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives
• James C. Bolton, banker and businessman
• Peggy Bolton, historical preservationist
• Robert H. Bolton, banker and philanthropist
• Arna Bontemps, writer of the Harlem Renaissance.
• W. George Bowdon, Jr., mayor from 1953 to 1969.
• John Bradas, insurance agent and the first Republican to serve on the Rapides Parish Police Jury, mid-1970s.
• Hymie Bradford, sports announcer for Louisiana College and LSU-Alexandria
• James J. Brady, federal judge
• W. K. Brown, former state representative
• Glenn Bryant, clergyman and driving force behind the Renaissance Youth Rehabilitation Home
• John Cade, businessman and Republican state chairman, 1976-1978
• Brent Caplan, businessman
• W. A. "Dub" Carruth, developer
• William F. Cotton, with his brother established five bakeries in Alexandria, Shreveport, Monroe, Baton Rouge, and Natchez, Mississippi
• Ed Cullen, newspaper and radio journalist who specializes in human interest essays
• F. Hugh Coughlin, former president of Central Louisiana Electric Company and Alexandria civic figure for whom the downtown Performance Arts Center is partially named
• Robert C. Culpepper, state district court judge in Alexandria and former state senator for Jackson and Ouachita parishes
• William A. Culpepper, state district and circuit court judge
• Paul M. Davis, Jr., orthopedic surgeon, real estate developer, and civic figure
• Nelder Dawson, newspaper executive
• Helen Derr, journalist and co-founder of Friendship House in Alexandria
• Charles DeWitt, former state representative and House Speaker
• Jam Downs, district attorney from 2000 to 2015
• Brian Duke, businessman and Rapides police juror
• Samuel Dunbar, businessman
• B. G. Dyess, Baptist pastor and one-term state senator
• Sue Eakin, historian, compiled Twelve Years a Slave; taught at LSU-A
• Tom Erwin, KALB radio broadcaster, 1948-1956
• Jimmy Faircloth, attorney and Republican politician
• John Fellers, United Methodist clergyman
• Eugene Wilton Frémaux, businessman
• George M. Foote, Alexandria city court judge
• Sylvan Fox, radio station founder, KSYL
• Joe Fryar, architect
• R. W. "Buzzy" Graham, former state representative
• Camille Gravel, attorney and Democratic political activist
• Lance Harris, state representative since 2013
• Edgar Hathorn, businessman and Rapides Parish police juror
• Richmond C. Hathorn, former state representative
• Malcolm Hébert, engineer and last of the Alexandria streets and parks commissioners with service from 1973 to 1977
• Clyde Holloway, U.S. Representative, 1987–1993; Public Service Commissioner, 2009-2016
• Guy Humphries, judge of the 9th Judicial District Court, 1960 to 1981
• Michael T. Johnson, District 27 state representative and lawyer in Alexandria
• J. E. Keeny, president of Louisiana Tech University, 1908–1926; thereafter business manager for Rapides General Hospital
• Grady Kelley, Jr., sheriff of Rapides Parish from 1949 to 1963 and 1984 to 1991
• Marion Kurfiss, Republican political activist
• Adras LaBorde, political columnist with The Alexandria Town Talk
• Carroll Lanier, first mayor under mayor-council system, 1977 to 1982
• John LaPlante, Jr., journalist
• Ed Larvadain, state representative
• Gillis Long, U.S. Representative, 1963-1965; 1973-1985
• Roy O. Martin, Jr., timber businessman
• O'Hearn Mathews, city marshal; commissioner of streets and parks from 1969 to 1973
• Joe McPherson, state senator from 1984-1996 and 2000-2012, businessmanoach
• DeWitt T. Methvin, Jr., attorney
• Robert Munson, state representative, 1956 to 1973
• Ethma Odum, pioneer television broadcaster
• Ruth Granger O'Quinn, pioneer of public education and women in the Southern Baptist denomination
• Larry Parker, former state representative and two-time mayoral candidate
• Ned Randolph, former member of both houses of the state legislature and from 1986 to 2006 the mayor of his native Alexandria
• Joseph Ransdell, former U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator born in Alexandria in 1858
• Fred Redwine, long-term justice of the peace for Ward 11 in Rapides Parish
• Arnold Jack Rosenthal, last of the Alexandria finance and utilities commissioners (1973-1977)
• Chris Roy, Jr., attorney and former state representative
• Jock Scott, state representative from 1976 to 1988
• Alfred Shapiro, attorney, later director of the American Civil Liberties Union
• Don Shows, legendary high school football coach; was at Alexandria Senior High School but primarilyWest Monroe High School
• Charles Slay, Rapides Parish tax assessor, 1974 to 1996
• Joe D. Smith, Jr., publisher of The Town Talk from 1962 to 1996
• Thomas James Spencer, Southern Baptist clergyman
• David Theophilus Stafford, sheriff of Rapides Parish, 1888-1904
• Grove Stafford, former state senator
• T. F. Tenney, Pentecostal clergyman
• Morris Taft Thomas, African-American metal sculptor
• Gus Voltz, attorney
• Michael Wahlder, U.S. Magistrate Judge; businessman
• Irving Ward-Steinman, attorney and radio station owner.
• Ed Ware, district attorney, 1967 to 1984
• Joanne White, philanthropist
• Paul D. White, Sr., entrepreneurial real estate developer who constructed many of the housing and apartment complexes in Rapides Parish
• Les Whitt, director of Alexandria Zoological Park from 1974 until his death in 2008
• Randy Wiggins, Alexandria businessman and former state representative from Pineville
• Cecil Williams, business journalist at The Town Talk

Se also[edit]

• Renaissance Home for Youth

References[edit]