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{{template|This article was revised from {{{site|Wikipedia}}} but the text was originally written by BHathorn (under the name) and does not include alterations made by others from that site.|background=#aff|category=Copied Articles}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Walter Bertram "Bert" Hatten
| image =
| image_size =
| caption =
| office=[[Mayor]] of West Monroe, [[Louisiana]], USA
| term_start=July 1, 1966
| term_end=June 30, 1978
| preceded=J. Allen Norris
| succeeded=Dave Norris (not related to J. Allen Norris)
| birth_date =March 9, 1927
| birth_place=Sikes, Winn Parish, Louisiana
| death_date=
| death_place=
| death_cause=
| resting_place=
| occupation=Retired [[newspaper]]man
| party=[[Democratic Party|Democrat]]-turned-[[Independent]]
| residence=West Monroe, Louisiana
| religion=
| spouse=Mary Ann Henderson Hatten (1933-2017)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thenewsstar/obituary.aspx?n=mary-ann-hatten&pid=187683738&fhid=12527|title=Mary Ann Hatten|publisher=''the Monroe News-Star''|date=December 31, 2017|accessdate=February 6, 2018}}</ref>
| children=Beth Hatten Hinton<br>
Catherine Olivia Hatten<br>
Sarah Jill Hatten Maxwell <br>
Three grandchildren
| relations=
| parents=William Earl and Pina Head Hatten
| alma_mater=Ouachita Parish High School<br>
University of Louisiana at Monroe
| footnotes=
}}
'''Walter Bertram Hatten''', known as '''Bert Hatten''' (born March 9, 1927),<ref name=voterportal>{{cite web|url=https://voterportal.sos.la.gov/Home/Home?uid=3850794|title=Click Walter Hatten, 71291,, March 1927|publisher=Louisiana Secretary of State|accessdate=February 6, 2018}}</ref> is a former [[newspaper]]man who served for three terms as the [[mayor]] of West Monroe in Ouachita Parish] in north [[Louisiana]], a position which he filled as a [[Democratic Party]] from 1966 to 1978. He is perhaps best known for his editorial column, "Inside Straight", in ''The Ouachita Citizen'', a weekly in West Monroe.
==Background==
Hatten was born in Sikes in Winn Parish to William Earl Hatten and the former Pina Head. The Hattens moved to West Monroe in 1940. There in 1945, he graduated from Ouachita Parish High School in [[Monroe, Louisiana|Monroe]].</ref> At the age of seventeen, Hatten entered the United States Merchant Marine during [[World War II]] and served for three years. When the war ended, he was aboard the ''USS Grove City Victory'', which was anchored in [[Tokyo Bay]] near the [[USS Missouri]], on which [[General]] [[Douglas MacArthur]] accepted the formal surrender of Japan. Upon his return from the war, Hatten continued his education at Northeast Junior College, now the University of Louisiana at Monroe.
==Journalism career==
Hatten's career as a journalist began in 1948, when he was attending college. He joined the reporting staff at the former ''Monroe Morning World''. He remained at the ''News-Star World'' for fifteen years. By the middle 1950s, before he was thirty, Hatten was the managing editor ''The Morning World'', since merged into ''The Monroe News-Star''. In 1956, he hired Samuel Andrew "Sam" Hanna, Sr. (1933-2006), subsequently an award-winning journalist and newspaper entrepreneur in his own right, as an outdoor writer for ''The Morning World''. By 1963, Hatten had left the Monroe newspapers to enter the [[insurance]] business.<ref name=hannajr/>
On January 1, 1965, Hatten purchased ''The Ouachita Citizen'' from the families of Lee Hawkins, Amos Hood, and Dewitt Henry. He penned "Inside Straight", an editorial column focused on the people, places and events in Ouachita Parish. ''The Ouachita Citizen'', a weekly newspaper, began in 1924 as the ''West Monroe Churchman''. He published ''The Citizen'' for twenty-one years. Hatten's daughter Beth handled the operations of the business. In 1986, Hatten sold ''The Ouachita Citizen'' to Robert E. "Bob" Barton, an employee of ''The 'Ruston Daily Leader'' in [[Ruston, Louisiana|Ruston]] in Lincoln Parish. After a time in West Monroe, Barton lpurchased the ''Bossier Press-Tribune'' in [[Bossier City]]. In 1995, he was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives for Bossier Parish and served one term in the chamber.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://house.louisiana.gov/H_PDFdocs/HouseMembership_History_CURRENT.pdf |title=Membership in the Louisiana House of Representatives, 1812-2016 |publisher=house.louisiana.gov |accessdate=May 22, 2014 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006105414/http://house.louisiana.gov/H_PDFdocs/HouseMembership_History_CURRENT.pdf |archivedate=October 6, 2014 |df= }}</ref>
In 1996, Hatten resumed ownership of ''The Ouachita Citizen'' but quickly sold it to Sam Hanna, Sr., and Hanna's son, Sam Hanna, Jr. (born 1969) of Monroe, the current publisher of the newspaper.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hannapub.com/ouachitacitizen/about_us/ouachita_about.html|title=About the ''Ouachita Citizen''|publisher=hannapub.com|accessdate=May 22, 2014}}</ref><ref>The Hanna family also owns and operates the ''Concordia Sentinel'' in Ferriday/Vidalia and the ''Franklin Sun'' in Winnsboro, Louisiana, the birthplace of Sam Hanna, Sr.</ref>
==Political life==
In 1963, Hatten was heavily involved in the campaign to return former [[Governor]] [[Robert F. Kennon]] to the state's highest office. Kennon, a [[conservative]] Democrat who served as governor from 1952 to 1956, was eliminated in the primary election held on December 7, just two weeks after the assassination of [[John F. Kennedy]]. Kennon had run as an anti-Kennedy candidate in what turned out to have been the former governor's last campaign.<ref name=hannajr>{{cite web|url=http://www.theind.com/LaLaLand/hanna-shares-family-memories-of-jfk-2360/|title=Sam Hanna, Jr.: One fateful day in Dallas, November 20, 2013|publisher='[The Ouachita Citizen''|accessdate=May 22, 2014}}</ref>
On June 14, 1966, Hatten was handily elected mayor of West Monroe to succeed fellow Democrat J. Allen Norris, who served from 1952 to 1966. He defeated the [[Republican Party|Republican]] candidate, William Green "Billy" Haynes, Jr. (1912-1984),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=18914032|title=William Green Haynes, Jr.|publisher=findagrave.com|accessdate=May 22, 2014}}</ref> also a West Monroe insurance agent, 2,490 votes (68 percent) to 1,171 (32 percent).<ref>On February 1, 1972, W. G. "Billy" Haynes, Jr., a pioneer of the Louisiana [[Republican Party]], ran for state insurance commissioner but was overwhelmed by the Democrat Sherman A. Bernard (1925-2012) of Jefferson Parish.</ref> Five Democrats were elected with Hatten to serve on the city council. One of those aldermen, Charles Anding, a trade union official, was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1987 from District 15, which encompasses West Monroe. Another alderman, Truett Thorn,<ref>''Lake Charles American Press'', June 15, 1966, p. 10.</ref> was a coach at West Monroe High School<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.e-yearbook.com/yearbooks/West_Monroe_High_School_Rebelaire_Yearbook/1983/Page_40.html
|title=West Monroe High School (Class of 1983)|publisher=e-yearbook.com|accessdate=May 17, 2014}}</ref>
and the older brother of the Louisiana journalist Jesse Dale Thorn (1942-2014), another alumnus of the Monroe newspapers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/clarionledger/obituary.aspx?n=jesse-dale-thorn&pid=170968700#sthash.g1JbouVI.dpuf|title=Jesse Dale Thorn|publisher='' The Baton Rouge Morning Advocate''|accessdate=May 17, 2014}}</ref> Altogether, Hatten served with twelve city council members, all men.<ref name=ouacit>{{cite web|url=http://www.hannapub.com/ouachitacitizen/opinion/columns/article_78056c7c-bff9-11e3-bea2-001a4bcf6878.html|title=Bert Hatten: Neighborly relations remembered, 1998|publisher=''The Ouachita Citizen''|accessdate=May 22, 2014}}</ref>
Hatten often joked that his only experience in municipal government prior to his election as mayor had been in covering city council meetings for the Monroe newspapers. He hence relied on advice from seasoned mayors, William Lorenzo "Jack" Howard (1921-2004) of his sister city of Monroe and Clyde Fant of [[Shreveport]]. Hatten noted that Monroe and West Monroe, separated by the Ouachita River, never developed the animosity sometimes associated with other twin cities but instead took pride in the strength of each other.<ref name=ouacit/>
During his tenure as mayor, Hatten oversaw the rebuilding of every street in West Monroe and the upgrading of the water and sewer systems, including the installation of the first sewage treatment plant. He also worked to upgrade the West Monroe Fire and Police departments and to construct Downing Pines Industrial Park, He supported the establishment of the West Ouachita Industrial Park. Under his administration a modern City Hall, Corrections Center and Convention Center were built on the former site of the Ouachita Valley Fair Grounds located on North Seventh Street. The new city complex was completed during the last days of the Hatten administration. He never occupied the new facility, at which his successor, Dave Noel Norris, Sr., was sworn in and began a long period of service in the position.
In 1971, West Monroe streamlined its municipal charter and expanded the powers of the mayor. Under Hatten's tutelage, the city constructed a new City Hall, police department, jail, and convention center on the former Ouachita Valley Fairgrounds.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CZi-yfHRBhEC&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=Bert+Hatten+and+Dave+Norris&source=bl&ots=Sz0DfQTaQ3&sig=HySyeT5PvUTicnNhMEWzCX7ylTk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=PNlvUomZCYLz2QWr94D4BA&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Bert%20Hatten%20and%20Dave%20Norris&f=false|title=Gordon E. Harvey, Historic Ouachita Parish: An Illustrated History|publisher=HPN Books, 2007, p. 44|accessdate=October 29, 2013}}</ref>The West Monroe justice complex is modeled after a plan developed for the needs of smaller cities by the [[University of Illinois]]. West Monroe was the first municipality to follow this particular model.<ref name=ouacit/>
In 1998, in a series of articles written for ''The Ouachita Citizen'', which reflect on his time as mayor, Hatten said that he had received invaluable support from the general public as well as volunteers who helped to make city programs succeed. Hatten said that he has often received credit that should have been shared with others.<ref name=ouacit/>In 1978, Hatten did not seek a fourth term as mayor and was succeeded by Dave Norris, a fellow Democrat and then a professor at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, who remains mayor and was unopposed in 2014 for a tenth four-year term.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/DI/20140424/NEWS01/304240015/|archive-url=https://archive.is/20140522224540/http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/DI/20140424/NEWS01/304240015/|dead-url=yes|archive-date=May 22, 2014|title=West Monroe Mayor Norris to deliver commencement at ULM, April 25, 2014|publisher=''The Monroe News-Star''|accessdate=May 22, 2014}}</ref> Hatten and Norris are virtually the only mayors of which the citizens of West Monroe have a collective memory. Since 1952, there have been only three mayors of West Monroe; from that time since, however, there have been thirteen U.S. presidents.
Along with State Representative Shady Robert Wall (1922-1985) and Wall's wife, Lallage Feazel Wall, Hatten was a member of the first board of advisors of the Twin City Ballet Company, a regional dance entity that fosters community enrichment.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20090929/DELTASTYLE/90803008/Celebrating-40-Years|title=Celebrating 40 Years: Twin City Ballet Company: A Gathering of Dancers, August 3, 2009|publisher=''The Monroe News-Star''|accessdate=May 22, 2014}}</ref>
At some point after leaving the mayor's office, Hatten changed his registration from Democrat to [[Independent]].<ref name=voterportal/>In 2002, he was a donor to the unsuccessful campaign of Republican John Cooksey of Monroe, then the [[U.S. representative]] for Louisiana's 5th congressional district, who failed in a bid to unseat Democrat [[U.S. Senator]] [[Mary Landrieu]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.city-data.com/elec2/02/elec-WEST-MONROE-LA-02.html|title=WEST-MONROE, Louisiana (LA) Political Contributions by Individuals|publisher=city-data.com|accessdate=May 22, 2014}}</ref>Hatten was later the secretary-treasurer of Health In Government, Inc., in West Monroe.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bizapedia.com/people/LOUISIANA/WEST-MONROE/W-BERT-HATTEN.html|title=W. Bert Hatten In West Monroe|publisher=bizapedia.com|accessdate=May 22, 2014}}</ref>
==Memberships and awards==
Hatten served as president of the West Monroe Chamber of Commerce and was the recipient in 1962 of the Junior Chamber International "Young Man of the Year Award". He is a member of the West Monroe Masonic Lodge No. 419, 32nd degree Scottish Rite and York Rite Bodies and Barak Shrine Temple.
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hatten, Bert}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Journalists]]
[[Category:Mayors]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:World War II]]
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Walter Bertram "Bert" Hatten
| image =
| image_size =
| caption =
| office=[[Mayor]] of West Monroe, [[Louisiana]], USA
| term_start=July 1, 1966
| term_end=June 30, 1978
| preceded=J. Allen Norris
| succeeded=Dave Norris (not related to J. Allen Norris)
| birth_date =March 9, 1927
| birth_place=Sikes, Winn Parish, Louisiana
| death_date=
| death_place=
| death_cause=
| resting_place=
| occupation=Retired [[newspaper]]man
| party=[[Democratic Party|Democrat]]-turned-[[Independent]]
| residence=West Monroe, Louisiana
| religion=
| spouse=Mary Ann Henderson Hatten (1933-2017)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thenewsstar/obituary.aspx?n=mary-ann-hatten&pid=187683738&fhid=12527|title=Mary Ann Hatten|publisher=''the Monroe News-Star''|date=December 31, 2017|accessdate=February 6, 2018}}</ref>
| children=Beth Hatten Hinton<br>
Catherine Olivia Hatten<br>
Sarah Jill Hatten Maxwell <br>
Three grandchildren
| relations=
| parents=William Earl and Pina Head Hatten
| alma_mater=Ouachita Parish High School<br>
University of Louisiana at Monroe
| footnotes=
}}
'''Walter Bertram Hatten''', known as '''Bert Hatten''' (born March 9, 1927),<ref name=voterportal>{{cite web|url=https://voterportal.sos.la.gov/Home/Home?uid=3850794|title=Click Walter Hatten, 71291,, March 1927|publisher=Louisiana Secretary of State|accessdate=February 6, 2018}}</ref> is a former [[newspaper]]man who served for three terms as the [[mayor]] of West Monroe in Ouachita Parish] in north [[Louisiana]], a position which he filled as a [[Democratic Party]] from 1966 to 1978. He is perhaps best known for his editorial column, "Inside Straight", in ''The Ouachita Citizen'', a weekly in West Monroe.
==Background==
Hatten was born in Sikes in Winn Parish to William Earl Hatten and the former Pina Head. The Hattens moved to West Monroe in 1940. There in 1945, he graduated from Ouachita Parish High School in [[Monroe, Louisiana|Monroe]].</ref> At the age of seventeen, Hatten entered the United States Merchant Marine during [[World War II]] and served for three years. When the war ended, he was aboard the ''USS Grove City Victory'', which was anchored in [[Tokyo Bay]] near the [[USS Missouri]], on which [[General]] [[Douglas MacArthur]] accepted the formal surrender of Japan. Upon his return from the war, Hatten continued his education at Northeast Junior College, now the University of Louisiana at Monroe.
==Journalism career==
Hatten's career as a journalist began in 1948, when he was attending college. He joined the reporting staff at the former ''Monroe Morning World''. He remained at the ''News-Star World'' for fifteen years. By the middle 1950s, before he was thirty, Hatten was the managing editor ''The Morning World'', since merged into ''The Monroe News-Star''. In 1956, he hired Samuel Andrew "Sam" Hanna, Sr. (1933-2006), subsequently an award-winning journalist and newspaper entrepreneur in his own right, as an outdoor writer for ''The Morning World''. By 1963, Hatten had left the Monroe newspapers to enter the [[insurance]] business.<ref name=hannajr/>
On January 1, 1965, Hatten purchased ''The Ouachita Citizen'' from the families of Lee Hawkins, Amos Hood, and Dewitt Henry. He penned "Inside Straight", an editorial column focused on the people, places and events in Ouachita Parish. ''The Ouachita Citizen'', a weekly newspaper, began in 1924 as the ''West Monroe Churchman''. He published ''The Citizen'' for twenty-one years. Hatten's daughter Beth handled the operations of the business. In 1986, Hatten sold ''The Ouachita Citizen'' to Robert E. "Bob" Barton, an employee of ''The 'Ruston Daily Leader'' in [[Ruston, Louisiana|Ruston]] in Lincoln Parish. After a time in West Monroe, Barton lpurchased the ''Bossier Press-Tribune'' in [[Bossier City]]. In 1995, he was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives for Bossier Parish and served one term in the chamber.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://house.louisiana.gov/H_PDFdocs/HouseMembership_History_CURRENT.pdf |title=Membership in the Louisiana House of Representatives, 1812-2016 |publisher=house.louisiana.gov |accessdate=May 22, 2014 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006105414/http://house.louisiana.gov/H_PDFdocs/HouseMembership_History_CURRENT.pdf |archivedate=October 6, 2014 |df= }}</ref>
In 1996, Hatten resumed ownership of ''The Ouachita Citizen'' but quickly sold it to Sam Hanna, Sr., and Hanna's son, Sam Hanna, Jr. (born 1969) of Monroe, the current publisher of the newspaper.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hannapub.com/ouachitacitizen/about_us/ouachita_about.html|title=About the ''Ouachita Citizen''|publisher=hannapub.com|accessdate=May 22, 2014}}</ref><ref>The Hanna family also owns and operates the ''Concordia Sentinel'' in Ferriday/Vidalia and the ''Franklin Sun'' in Winnsboro, Louisiana, the birthplace of Sam Hanna, Sr.</ref>
==Political life==
In 1963, Hatten was heavily involved in the campaign to return former [[Governor]] [[Robert F. Kennon]] to the state's highest office. Kennon, a [[conservative]] Democrat who served as governor from 1952 to 1956, was eliminated in the primary election held on December 7, just two weeks after the assassination of [[John F. Kennedy]]. Kennon had run as an anti-Kennedy candidate in what turned out to have been the former governor's last campaign.<ref name=hannajr>{{cite web|url=http://www.theind.com/LaLaLand/hanna-shares-family-memories-of-jfk-2360/|title=Sam Hanna, Jr.: One fateful day in Dallas, November 20, 2013|publisher='[The Ouachita Citizen''|accessdate=May 22, 2014}}</ref>
On June 14, 1966, Hatten was handily elected mayor of West Monroe to succeed fellow Democrat J. Allen Norris, who served from 1952 to 1966. He defeated the [[Republican Party|Republican]] candidate, William Green "Billy" Haynes, Jr. (1912-1984),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=18914032|title=William Green Haynes, Jr.|publisher=findagrave.com|accessdate=May 22, 2014}}</ref> also a West Monroe insurance agent, 2,490 votes (68 percent) to 1,171 (32 percent).<ref>On February 1, 1972, W. G. "Billy" Haynes, Jr., a pioneer of the Louisiana [[Republican Party]], ran for state insurance commissioner but was overwhelmed by the Democrat Sherman A. Bernard (1925-2012) of Jefferson Parish.</ref> Five Democrats were elected with Hatten to serve on the city council. One of those aldermen, Charles Anding, a trade union official, was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1987 from District 15, which encompasses West Monroe. Another alderman, Truett Thorn,<ref>''Lake Charles American Press'', June 15, 1966, p. 10.</ref> was a coach at West Monroe High School<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.e-yearbook.com/yearbooks/West_Monroe_High_School_Rebelaire_Yearbook/1983/Page_40.html
|title=West Monroe High School (Class of 1983)|publisher=e-yearbook.com|accessdate=May 17, 2014}}</ref>
and the older brother of the Louisiana journalist Jesse Dale Thorn (1942-2014), another alumnus of the Monroe newspapers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/clarionledger/obituary.aspx?n=jesse-dale-thorn&pid=170968700#sthash.g1JbouVI.dpuf|title=Jesse Dale Thorn|publisher='' The Baton Rouge Morning Advocate''|accessdate=May 17, 2014}}</ref> Altogether, Hatten served with twelve city council members, all men.<ref name=ouacit>{{cite web|url=http://www.hannapub.com/ouachitacitizen/opinion/columns/article_78056c7c-bff9-11e3-bea2-001a4bcf6878.html|title=Bert Hatten: Neighborly relations remembered, 1998|publisher=''The Ouachita Citizen''|accessdate=May 22, 2014}}</ref>
Hatten often joked that his only experience in municipal government prior to his election as mayor had been in covering city council meetings for the Monroe newspapers. He hence relied on advice from seasoned mayors, William Lorenzo "Jack" Howard (1921-2004) of his sister city of Monroe and Clyde Fant of [[Shreveport]]. Hatten noted that Monroe and West Monroe, separated by the Ouachita River, never developed the animosity sometimes associated with other twin cities but instead took pride in the strength of each other.<ref name=ouacit/>
During his tenure as mayor, Hatten oversaw the rebuilding of every street in West Monroe and the upgrading of the water and sewer systems, including the installation of the first sewage treatment plant. He also worked to upgrade the West Monroe Fire and Police departments and to construct Downing Pines Industrial Park, He supported the establishment of the West Ouachita Industrial Park. Under his administration a modern City Hall, Corrections Center and Convention Center were built on the former site of the Ouachita Valley Fair Grounds located on North Seventh Street. The new city complex was completed during the last days of the Hatten administration. He never occupied the new facility, at which his successor, Dave Noel Norris, Sr., was sworn in and began a long period of service in the position.
In 1971, West Monroe streamlined its municipal charter and expanded the powers of the mayor. Under Hatten's tutelage, the city constructed a new City Hall, police department, jail, and convention center on the former Ouachita Valley Fairgrounds.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CZi-yfHRBhEC&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=Bert+Hatten+and+Dave+Norris&source=bl&ots=Sz0DfQTaQ3&sig=HySyeT5PvUTicnNhMEWzCX7ylTk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=PNlvUomZCYLz2QWr94D4BA&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Bert%20Hatten%20and%20Dave%20Norris&f=false|title=Gordon E. Harvey, Historic Ouachita Parish: An Illustrated History|publisher=HPN Books, 2007, p. 44|accessdate=October 29, 2013}}</ref>The West Monroe justice complex is modeled after a plan developed for the needs of smaller cities by the [[University of Illinois]]. West Monroe was the first municipality to follow this particular model.<ref name=ouacit/>
In 1998, in a series of articles written for ''The Ouachita Citizen'', which reflect on his time as mayor, Hatten said that he had received invaluable support from the general public as well as volunteers who helped to make city programs succeed. Hatten said that he has often received credit that should have been shared with others.<ref name=ouacit/>In 1978, Hatten did not seek a fourth term as mayor and was succeeded by Dave Norris, a fellow Democrat and then a professor at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, who remains mayor and was unopposed in 2014 for a tenth four-year term.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/DI/20140424/NEWS01/304240015/|archive-url=https://archive.is/20140522224540/http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/DI/20140424/NEWS01/304240015/|dead-url=yes|archive-date=May 22, 2014|title=West Monroe Mayor Norris to deliver commencement at ULM, April 25, 2014|publisher=''The Monroe News-Star''|accessdate=May 22, 2014}}</ref> Hatten and Norris are virtually the only mayors of which the citizens of West Monroe have a collective memory. Since 1952, there have been only three mayors of West Monroe; from that time since, however, there have been thirteen U.S. presidents.
Along with State Representative Shady Robert Wall (1922-1985) and Wall's wife, Lallage Feazel Wall, Hatten was a member of the first board of advisors of the Twin City Ballet Company, a regional dance entity that fosters community enrichment.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20090929/DELTASTYLE/90803008/Celebrating-40-Years|title=Celebrating 40 Years: Twin City Ballet Company: A Gathering of Dancers, August 3, 2009|publisher=''The Monroe News-Star''|accessdate=May 22, 2014}}</ref>
At some point after leaving the mayor's office, Hatten changed his registration from Democrat to [[Independent]].<ref name=voterportal/>In 2002, he was a donor to the unsuccessful campaign of Republican John Cooksey of Monroe, then the [[U.S. representative]] for Louisiana's 5th congressional district, who failed in a bid to unseat Democrat [[U.S. Senator]] [[Mary Landrieu]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.city-data.com/elec2/02/elec-WEST-MONROE-LA-02.html|title=WEST-MONROE, Louisiana (LA) Political Contributions by Individuals|publisher=city-data.com|accessdate=May 22, 2014}}</ref>Hatten was later the secretary-treasurer of Health In Government, Inc., in West Monroe.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bizapedia.com/people/LOUISIANA/WEST-MONROE/W-BERT-HATTEN.html|title=W. Bert Hatten In West Monroe|publisher=bizapedia.com|accessdate=May 22, 2014}}</ref>
==Memberships and awards==
Hatten served as president of the West Monroe Chamber of Commerce and was the recipient in 1962 of the Junior Chamber International "Young Man of the Year Award". He is a member of the West Monroe Masonic Lodge No. 419, 32nd degree Scottish Rite and York Rite Bodies and Barak Shrine Temple.
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hatten, Bert}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Journalists]]
[[Category:Mayors]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:World War II]]