Billy Boles

​ William Russell Boles, Sr., known as Billy Boles (April 30, 1927 – August 16, 2008), was an attorney and banker who, at the age of twenty-four, served a single term as a Louisiana state senator for his native Richland Parish and neighboring Franklin and Catahoula parishes in the northeastern part of the state. His term extended from 1952 to 1956 during the administration of his fellow Democrat, Governor Robert F. Kennon. Boles succeeded and preceded the pro-Long state senator, Ralph Elijah King, Sr. (1902-1974), a physician from Winnsboro in Franklin Parish.^[1]​

Boles was born on Louisiana Statehood Day 1927 to Vernon and Ruth Boles in Rayville east of Monroe, where he was engaged in his law practice and banking. He attended the University of Louisiana at Monroe (then Northeast Junior College) on a basketball scholarship and then served eighteen months in the United States Navy. Thereafter, he procured his Bachelor of Arts from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston in Lincoln Parish]]. He was student body president of his law class at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.^[2]​ ​

Boles and a close friend, State Senator Jamar William Adcock (1917-1991) of Monroe (service: 1960-1972), co-founded what is now Regions Bank of North Louisiana, originally the American Bank in Monroe. Adcock and Boles also started Fidelity Bank in Slidell in St. Tammany Parish, the Colonial Bank in New Orleans, and Progressive Bank in Metairie in Jefferson Parish. They bought into the former Bossier Bank and Trust Company in Bossier City and the Jena Bank in Jena in La Salle Parish. Boles met Adcock when they were LSU students. Their First Fidelity Mortgage Company was later part of Chase Bank.^[3]

Known for his close ties to important Louisiana politicians, including Governors John J. McKeithen and Edwin Edwards, Boles was in 2004 inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.^[4] At the time of his death, Boles was semi-retired in Monroe in the practice of law with his son, William Boles, Jr. (born 1956).​

Boles was the second youngest person to have served in the Louisiana Senate. Puckett Willis of Winnfield was elected at the age of twenty-three in 1947 and served from 1948 to 1952.

Boles was married until his death for sixty years to the former Mary Catherine Furlow (ca. 1928-2010), a native of Elizabeth in Allen Parish, and the daughter of Adelaide and John Furlow. She was a Roman Catholic. The Boleses are remembered for their philanthropy through the Catherine and William R. "Billy" Boles Terrace on the seventh floor of the library at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. ^[5]

In addition to his wife, Boles left behind three daughters and a son: Linda Boles Campbell (born 1949) and husband George M. Campbell, Sr. (born 1948) of Monroe, Diane Boles Kirtland (born 1951) and husband Walter Kirtland (born 1946) of Baton Rouge, attorney Janet Boles Crawford (born 1954) and husband, Scott Holland Crawford (born 1953), a Baton Rouge attorney-lobbyist originally from Minden in Webster Parish and a grandson of Minden banker Castle Overstreet "C. O." Holland (1895-1981), and attorney William Boles, Jr.^[2]

Services were held on August 19, 2008, in the First Baptist Church of West Monroe, with entombment at Mulhearn Memorial Park Mausoleum.^[2]​

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