Steve Thompson (Louisiana politician)

Steve D. Thompson (born December 15, 1935)^[1] is a real estate agent in Winnsboro, Louisiana, who served from 1988 to 1996 in the Louisiana State Senate from District 32,^[2] which encompasses all or parts of the seven parishes of Caldwell, Catahoula, Concordia, Franklin, LaSalle, Rapides, and Tensas.^[3]

Background

Thompson was a son of Walter T. "Slick" Thompson (1906-1961) and the former Ethel Parks (1910-2009), a native of rural Liddieville in Franklin Parish who spent fifty years as a classroom teacher for the Franklin Parish School Board. The couple is interred at New Winnsboro Cemetery, along with Steve Thompson's brother, William Parks "Billy" Thompson (1939-1998). He has another brother, Tommy Thompson of Shreveport and a sister, Betty Zane Williams of Baton Rouge.^[4] Thompson graduated from Winnsboro High School and attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.^[5]

Prior to his real estate business, he was involved in trucking.^[6] He received federal farm payments in the amount of $48,802 between 1995 and 2012, an average of less than $3,000 per year.^[7]

Thompson's first wife, Jeanette H. Thompson (born March 1934),^[1] of Winnsboro was a principal in Thompson Trucking.^[6]He has two children, James W. Thompson and Laura Thompson.^[8] From his second marriage to Sherrie Hardie Thompson (c. 1953-2014), the daughter of Oliver "Billie" Hardie (1926-2007) and Nell Wyles Hardie (born 1933) of Jonesville in Catahoula Parish,^[9] Thompson acquired a step-daughter, Tiffany Danielle Foster. Sherrie Thompson was a beauty contest winner, Miss Northwestern State University, and during the 1970s a legislative aide who also worked for then Governor Edwin Edwards and then Louisiana Secretary of State, Paul J. Hardy. Sherrie Thompson is interred along with her father at McFarlen-Gurie Cemetery in Jonesville, where she was reared. The Thompsons were living in Ferriday in Concordia Parish at the time of her death,^[10] but Steve Thompson is a registered voter in Precinct 16 in Franklin Parish.^[1]

Political life

Thompson unseated his fellow Democrat, William B. Atkins of Jonesville in Catahoula Parish, in the 1987 primary election with 21,576 votes (50.27 percent) in a four-candidate field. Atkins trailed with 15,988 (37.3 percent).^[11]Thompson won his second term in the 1991 primary with 26,840 votes *63 percent). David I. Patten, a former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from Catahoula Parish, trailed with 8,694 votes (20.4 percent).^[12]

As a senator, Thompson was the chairman of the Senate Local and Municipal Affairs Committee and served as well on the Agriculture and Finance panels.^[5]He did not seek a third term in 1995,^[13] when Noble Ellington of Winnsboro defeated fellow Democrat Roy Hebron of Ball in northern Rapides Parish to claim the seat.^[14]

References