Frank Estes Cole

Frank Estes Cole, sometimes known as F. E. Cole (March 4, 1908 – May 31, 1981),^[1] was an educator from Many, Louisiana, who served as a Democrat in both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature between 1944 and 1960.

Cole was born to Mr. and Mrs. Robert W. Cole in Ball in northern Rapides Parish. He graduated in 1925 from Franklin High School in Franklin in Robertson County, near Bryan/College Station, Texas. He then attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where he played for the Tigers as a guard and a tackle. In 1931, he obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture. He first taught and coached at Rayville High School in Rayville, the seat of Richland Parish in northeast Louisiana located to the east of Monroe. In the late 1930s, he moved to Many (pronounced MANNIE), the seat of Sabine Parish in western Louisiana, where he was a vocational agriculture teacher and football coach for four years.^[2]

During World War II, Cole was employed in the shipyards. He returned to teaching in 1950 and retired in 1965^[2]

Cole was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1944 and served until 1952^[3] during the terms of Governors Jimmie Davis and Earl Kemp Long. He was elected to the state senate in 1956 and served a single term, corresponding with the third Earl Long administration. The district encompassed Beauregard and Vernon parishes, as well as Sabine.^[4] Cole introduced legislation establishing the Sabine Valley Vocational-Technical School in Many.^[2] He was appointed in 1960 to fill a vacancy on the then 11-member Louisiana State Board of Education, a body since revamped under the Louisiana Constitution of 1974. Cole's name was included in a 1963 publication of then sitting Louisiana education board members, along with subsequent superintendent Bill Dodd and the Bossier City banker Enoch T. Nix.

Cole was a member of the First Baptist Church of Many, the Sabine Parish Chamber of Commerce, and the Masonic lodge.^[2] Cole was twice married. By the former Edna Phares, he had two children, Sally Beth and James Robert Cole (born ca. 1942). In 1976, he married the former Margaret Jacobs.^[2][5]

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