Charles Anding

Charles Ray Anding (July 15, 1928 – May 20, 2004)^[1] of West Monroe, Louisiana, was a Democratic state representative for District 15 in Ouachita Parish in the northeastern portion of his state. He served two terms from 1988 to 1996.^[2]

Anding was a son of John Anding (1901–1981) and Mellie B. Anding (1903–1995) of West Monroe.^[3] From 1945, shortly after his marriage at the age of seventeen to the former Lillie Lorece Parnell, Anding became an officer of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers. He held several positions with the union until his retirement in 1992. Prior to his state House service, he had been a member of the Ouachita Parish School Board and for two terms between 1966 and 1974 an alderman on the West Monroe City Council,^[4] having served his city during the administration of Mayor Bert Hatten.^[5]

In the 1987 general election, Anding narrowly defeated the Republican David Glen Haynes (born c. 1954) to claim the seat vacated by Democrat Evelyn Blackmon, the first woman elected to the legislature from Ouachita Parish. Blackmon ran third in the nonpartisan blanket primary and was hence eliminated from the second round of balloting.^[6] Anding prevailed by 201 votes, 5,672 (50.9 percent) to Haynes's 5,471 (49.1 percent).^[7]

No Republican challenged Anding in 1991, and he received 81 percent of the vote to secure his second term. In 1995, however, he was toppled by the Republican Mike Walsworth, since a state senator until January 2020. Walsworth received 7,745 votes (54.7 percent) to Anding's 6,403 (45.3 percent).^[8]

The Andings had three children, Anita Anding, Shirley A. Downs, and Earnest Anding. He died at the age of seventy-five and is interred in West Monroe at Luna Methodist Cemetery.^[4]