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Created page with "{{Infobox officeholder |name= William Putnam "Buck"<br> Sevier, Jr. |office=Mayor of Tallulah, Madison Parish, Louisiana |term_start=March 14, 1947 |term_e..."
{{Infobox officeholder
|name= William Putnam "Buck"<br> Sevier, Jr.
|office=[[Mayor]] of Tallulah, Madison Parish, [[Louisiana]]
|term_start=March 14, 1947
|term_end=July 1, 1974
|preceded=Thomas Hugh Montgomery
|succeeded=Adell Williams
|office2=President of the Louisiana Bankers Association
|term_start2=1961
|term_end2=1962
|preceded2=E. G. Coco of Moreauville
|after=E. J. Beaullieu of Jeanerette
|birth_date=October 13, 1899
|birth_place=Madison Parish, Louisiana, USA
|death_place=Tallulah, Louisiana
|death_date=September 4, 1985 (aged 85)
|death_cause=
|resting_place=Silver Cross Cemetery in Tallulah
|spouse=Martha Boney Sevier (married 1927-1983, her death)
|children=Richard Putnam Sevier<br>
Dorothy Hamilton Elliott<br>
Nancy Sherrill Pirone
|parents=Ada Shadbourne Graves and William Sevier, Sr.
|party= [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]]
|religion=[[Episcopalian]]
|occupation=[[Banker]]<br>
[[United States Army]] in [[World War 1]
]|alma_mater=Tallulah High School<br>
[[Louisiana State University]]}}
'''William Putnam Sevier, Jr.''', sometimes known as '''Buck Sevier''' (October 13, 1899 – September 4, 1985)<ref name=cemetery>{{cite web|url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lamadiso/cemeteries/smsasl.htm|title=Tallulah Cemeteries|publisher=rootsweb.ancestry|accessdate=July 24, 2013}}</ref> was the longest-serving [[mayor]] of a community in the [[U.S. state]] of [[Louisiana]]. A banker in Tallulah, Louisiana, the seat of Madison Parish, Sevier was first elected to tree terms as alderman. In 1946 he was elected as mayor of the city, and served, with repeated re-elections, from 1947 to 1974. Madison Parish is located in the [[Mississippi River]] delta country in the northeastern potion of his state.
He is a great-great-grandson of [[John Sevier]], a [[Tennessee]] pioneer and first [[governor]] of that state. He was a cousin of state Senator Andrew L. Sevier and state Representative]] Henry Clay Sevier, both also from Tallulah.<ref name=roots/>
==Biographical sketch==
Sevier was born near the end of the 19th century on a plantation in southern Madison Parish, the eldest child of William Sevier, Sr. (1868-1943), a native of Thomastown in Leake County in central [[Mississippi]], and the former Ada Shadbourne Graves (1877-1955). His maternal Graves grandparents were large landowners and planters prior to the [[American Civil War]]. As a child, Sevier took the nickname "Buck", but later tried to discourage its use. Most people still called him Buck as an adult. In 1916, he graduated from the [[Segregation|segregated]] Tallulah High School. (It has since beendesegregated, relocated and renamed Madison High School.)
He attended [[Louisiana State University]] in [[Baton Rouge]] with hopes of becoming a lawyer. He was a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity. His studies were interrupted by [[World War I]], when he served as a balloon observer. He never completed legal studies but returned to Tallulah in 1922. He worked at the [[United States Department of Agriculture]] experiment station there, which was established to try to develop ways to protect [[cotton]] growers from the pervasive [[boll weevil]], which was destroying crops throughout the South. This station developed products and processes for crop dusting from airplanes.<ref name=bio>{{cite web|url= http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lamadiso/bios/sevierwp.txt|title=William Putnam Sevier, Jr., Mayor of Tallulah, Madison Parish, Louisiana|publisher=rootswebancestry.com|accessdate=July 24, 2013}}</ref> Hundreds of flights took off from the Tallulah Airport as they worked on the best methods to dust the crops. Delta Dusters, a company that developed here to carry out crop dusting, was the origin of Delta Airlines.
Soon Seveier became a teller at Tallulah State Bank. He worked with the institution and advanced to lead it, serving fifty-eight years until he was eighty. He retired with the title of chairman emeritus. When Sevier began working for the bank, it employed only five people and did not use electricity until after 5 p.m. All receipts were hand-posted. He was working at the bank during the [[Wall Street Crash of 1929]] and the [[Great Depression]], a period in which many financial institutions closed. But his bank survived and has never closed its doors.<ref name=bio/>
Sevier served as president of the Louisiana Bankers Association in 1961-1962<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lba.org/content.cfm?id=63|title=LBA Past Chairmen|publisher=lba.org|accessdate=July 24, 2013}}</ref> and vice president of the American Bankers Association from 1963 to 1964. He also served as a director of the Standard Life Insurance Company of [[Jackson]], Mississippi.<ref name=bio/> Sevier was elected in 1946as the Tallulah mayor and assumed office in 1947. He was repeatedly reelected and served through 1974.<ref name=bio/> (During most of this period, the majority-[[African- American]] population of the city was largely disenfranchised by the state's 1898 constitution and discriminatory practices. This changed after passage of civil rights legislation.)
Sevier's combined service of forty-one years as an elected official is a record for longevity in Louisiana, as was his twenty-seven year tenure as mayor.<ref name=bio/> Among his challenges was dealing with changing local conditions as [[civil rights]] activists, including African-American veterans of [[World War II]], challenged [[Jim Crow]] conditions. In 1965, activists conducted demonstrations and boycotts against white-owned businesses in Tallulah to gain an end to segregation of public facilities, a year after segregation was prohibited by federal law.
In his last term as mayor, Sevier worked alongside Police Chief Zelma Wyche, who in 1969 was elected as the first African American in that position in Tallulah. He was known as "Mr. Civil Rights of Louisiana" for his years of activism since returning to the city as a veteran of World War II. In 1974, Adell Williams was elected as mayor, the first woman and the first African American in the office. She served one term. Wyche later was elected also as mayor, with service from 1986 to 1990.<ref name="sanders">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bVP7JyMGSaEC&pg=PA57&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false|author=Charles L. Sanders|title=Black Lawman in KKK Territory|publisher=''Ebony Magazine''|date=January 1970|page= 57-64|accessdate=July 26, 2013}}</ref>
==Personal life and legacy==
In 1927, Sevier married Martha Fontaine Boney (1904-1983), daughter of the former Rena Cox and Richard Kinsey Boney, owners of the Duckport Plantation in Madison Parish. Martha was the granddaughter of Owen B. Cox of Hinds County, Mississippi, a business partner of [[Jefferson Davis]], president of the [[Confederate States of America]]. Cox was the trustee of Davis' Civil War papers until they were confiscated in 1865 by the U.S. government.<ref name=roots/>
The Seviers had a son, Richard Putnam Sevier, born on March 22, 1931, in Vicksburg, Mississippi. He was residing in [[Midland]], [[Texas]], at the time of his father's death, but later relocated to Jackson, Mississippi. They also had twin daughters, both of whom married and moved away as well: Dorothy Hamilton Elliott, later of El Dorado, [[Arkansas]]; and Nancy Sherrill Pirone, later of [[Lexington, Kentucky|Lexington]], [[Kentucky]].<ref name=roots>{{cite web|url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lamadiso/articles/sevierfamily/sevierfamily.htm|title=Sevier Family of Madison Parish, Louisiana|publisher=rootsweb.ancestry.com|accessdate=July 23, 2013}}</ref>
Sevier died on September 4, 1985, a few weeks before his 86th birthday. He and his wife, Martha, who preceded him in death by two years, are interred at Silver Cross Cemetery in Tallulah. Most members of the extended Sevier family in Louisiana are buried here.<ref name=cemetery/>
Sevier kept a hunting camp on the Tensas River. He had such interest in thoroughbred [[horse racing]] that his son-in-law, Dr. Thomas Pirone, placed a racing form in Sevier's coat pocket before he was buried. The form was from the 1973 [[Kentucky Derby]] won by Secretariat, an event for which Sevier had been in the stands.<ref name=bio/>
In a 1974 "Baghdad on the Bayou" column of the ''Madison Journal'', editor Carroll Regan recalls Sevier's political clout:
<blockquote>
Election fever has hit Tallulah again, and it hardly seems that four years have passed since the last battle for municipal offices. ... Perhaps, though, the most unusual aspect of this race is that it'll be the first time in over 40 years that Mayor W. P. "Buck" Sevier hasn't offered himself for election. It would probably be hard for him to admit so soon, but we bet he'll miss the job before long. Tallulah and her people have always been first, last and always with him—a more loyal citizen she has never had. When elected mayor in 1946, he had already served as alderman for three terms. Well known in banking as well as political circles, he has made Tallulah a fine ambassador wherever he has traveled. His leadership will be missed, but his good citizenship, we are sure, will be with us always. ...<br>
"Character" is really not an apt description of Buck Sevier. "Legend" is more fitting. So great was the admiration for him that I don't think he ever had opposition for mayor, except maybe once in his early career. This carried over even when blacks started seeking public office. They didn't run against him either. No wonder. He was respected because he was fair to blacks as well as whites, both as a mayor and as a banker. ...<ref>Carroll Regan, "Baghdad on the Bayou", ''Madison Journal,'' February 1974</ref></blockquote>
==References==
{{reflist}}
*{{cite web|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/111719006|title=William Putnam "Buck" Sevier, Jr.|publisher=findagrave.com|accessdate=}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sevier, William Putnam}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Mayors]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
[[Category:Episcopalians]]
[[Category:United States Army]]
[[Category:World War I]]
|name= William Putnam "Buck"<br> Sevier, Jr.
|office=[[Mayor]] of Tallulah, Madison Parish, [[Louisiana]]
|term_start=March 14, 1947
|term_end=July 1, 1974
|preceded=Thomas Hugh Montgomery
|succeeded=Adell Williams
|office2=President of the Louisiana Bankers Association
|term_start2=1961
|term_end2=1962
|preceded2=E. G. Coco of Moreauville
|after=E. J. Beaullieu of Jeanerette
|birth_date=October 13, 1899
|birth_place=Madison Parish, Louisiana, USA
|death_place=Tallulah, Louisiana
|death_date=September 4, 1985 (aged 85)
|death_cause=
|resting_place=Silver Cross Cemetery in Tallulah
|spouse=Martha Boney Sevier (married 1927-1983, her death)
|children=Richard Putnam Sevier<br>
Dorothy Hamilton Elliott<br>
Nancy Sherrill Pirone
|parents=Ada Shadbourne Graves and William Sevier, Sr.
|party= [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]]
|religion=[[Episcopalian]]
|occupation=[[Banker]]<br>
[[United States Army]] in [[World War 1]
]|alma_mater=Tallulah High School<br>
[[Louisiana State University]]}}
'''William Putnam Sevier, Jr.''', sometimes known as '''Buck Sevier''' (October 13, 1899 – September 4, 1985)<ref name=cemetery>{{cite web|url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lamadiso/cemeteries/smsasl.htm|title=Tallulah Cemeteries|publisher=rootsweb.ancestry|accessdate=July 24, 2013}}</ref> was the longest-serving [[mayor]] of a community in the [[U.S. state]] of [[Louisiana]]. A banker in Tallulah, Louisiana, the seat of Madison Parish, Sevier was first elected to tree terms as alderman. In 1946 he was elected as mayor of the city, and served, with repeated re-elections, from 1947 to 1974. Madison Parish is located in the [[Mississippi River]] delta country in the northeastern potion of his state.
He is a great-great-grandson of [[John Sevier]], a [[Tennessee]] pioneer and first [[governor]] of that state. He was a cousin of state Senator Andrew L. Sevier and state Representative]] Henry Clay Sevier, both also from Tallulah.<ref name=roots/>
==Biographical sketch==
Sevier was born near the end of the 19th century on a plantation in southern Madison Parish, the eldest child of William Sevier, Sr. (1868-1943), a native of Thomastown in Leake County in central [[Mississippi]], and the former Ada Shadbourne Graves (1877-1955). His maternal Graves grandparents were large landowners and planters prior to the [[American Civil War]]. As a child, Sevier took the nickname "Buck", but later tried to discourage its use. Most people still called him Buck as an adult. In 1916, he graduated from the [[Segregation|segregated]] Tallulah High School. (It has since beendesegregated, relocated and renamed Madison High School.)
He attended [[Louisiana State University]] in [[Baton Rouge]] with hopes of becoming a lawyer. He was a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity. His studies were interrupted by [[World War I]], when he served as a balloon observer. He never completed legal studies but returned to Tallulah in 1922. He worked at the [[United States Department of Agriculture]] experiment station there, which was established to try to develop ways to protect [[cotton]] growers from the pervasive [[boll weevil]], which was destroying crops throughout the South. This station developed products and processes for crop dusting from airplanes.<ref name=bio>{{cite web|url= http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lamadiso/bios/sevierwp.txt|title=William Putnam Sevier, Jr., Mayor of Tallulah, Madison Parish, Louisiana|publisher=rootswebancestry.com|accessdate=July 24, 2013}}</ref> Hundreds of flights took off from the Tallulah Airport as they worked on the best methods to dust the crops. Delta Dusters, a company that developed here to carry out crop dusting, was the origin of Delta Airlines.
Soon Seveier became a teller at Tallulah State Bank. He worked with the institution and advanced to lead it, serving fifty-eight years until he was eighty. He retired with the title of chairman emeritus. When Sevier began working for the bank, it employed only five people and did not use electricity until after 5 p.m. All receipts were hand-posted. He was working at the bank during the [[Wall Street Crash of 1929]] and the [[Great Depression]], a period in which many financial institutions closed. But his bank survived and has never closed its doors.<ref name=bio/>
Sevier served as president of the Louisiana Bankers Association in 1961-1962<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lba.org/content.cfm?id=63|title=LBA Past Chairmen|publisher=lba.org|accessdate=July 24, 2013}}</ref> and vice president of the American Bankers Association from 1963 to 1964. He also served as a director of the Standard Life Insurance Company of [[Jackson]], Mississippi.<ref name=bio/> Sevier was elected in 1946as the Tallulah mayor and assumed office in 1947. He was repeatedly reelected and served through 1974.<ref name=bio/> (During most of this period, the majority-[[African- American]] population of the city was largely disenfranchised by the state's 1898 constitution and discriminatory practices. This changed after passage of civil rights legislation.)
Sevier's combined service of forty-one years as an elected official is a record for longevity in Louisiana, as was his twenty-seven year tenure as mayor.<ref name=bio/> Among his challenges was dealing with changing local conditions as [[civil rights]] activists, including African-American veterans of [[World War II]], challenged [[Jim Crow]] conditions. In 1965, activists conducted demonstrations and boycotts against white-owned businesses in Tallulah to gain an end to segregation of public facilities, a year after segregation was prohibited by federal law.
In his last term as mayor, Sevier worked alongside Police Chief Zelma Wyche, who in 1969 was elected as the first African American in that position in Tallulah. He was known as "Mr. Civil Rights of Louisiana" for his years of activism since returning to the city as a veteran of World War II. In 1974, Adell Williams was elected as mayor, the first woman and the first African American in the office. She served one term. Wyche later was elected also as mayor, with service from 1986 to 1990.<ref name="sanders">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bVP7JyMGSaEC&pg=PA57&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false|author=Charles L. Sanders|title=Black Lawman in KKK Territory|publisher=''Ebony Magazine''|date=January 1970|page= 57-64|accessdate=July 26, 2013}}</ref>
==Personal life and legacy==
In 1927, Sevier married Martha Fontaine Boney (1904-1983), daughter of the former Rena Cox and Richard Kinsey Boney, owners of the Duckport Plantation in Madison Parish. Martha was the granddaughter of Owen B. Cox of Hinds County, Mississippi, a business partner of [[Jefferson Davis]], president of the [[Confederate States of America]]. Cox was the trustee of Davis' Civil War papers until they were confiscated in 1865 by the U.S. government.<ref name=roots/>
The Seviers had a son, Richard Putnam Sevier, born on March 22, 1931, in Vicksburg, Mississippi. He was residing in [[Midland]], [[Texas]], at the time of his father's death, but later relocated to Jackson, Mississippi. They also had twin daughters, both of whom married and moved away as well: Dorothy Hamilton Elliott, later of El Dorado, [[Arkansas]]; and Nancy Sherrill Pirone, later of [[Lexington, Kentucky|Lexington]], [[Kentucky]].<ref name=roots>{{cite web|url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lamadiso/articles/sevierfamily/sevierfamily.htm|title=Sevier Family of Madison Parish, Louisiana|publisher=rootsweb.ancestry.com|accessdate=July 23, 2013}}</ref>
Sevier died on September 4, 1985, a few weeks before his 86th birthday. He and his wife, Martha, who preceded him in death by two years, are interred at Silver Cross Cemetery in Tallulah. Most members of the extended Sevier family in Louisiana are buried here.<ref name=cemetery/>
Sevier kept a hunting camp on the Tensas River. He had such interest in thoroughbred [[horse racing]] that his son-in-law, Dr. Thomas Pirone, placed a racing form in Sevier's coat pocket before he was buried. The form was from the 1973 [[Kentucky Derby]] won by Secretariat, an event for which Sevier had been in the stands.<ref name=bio/>
In a 1974 "Baghdad on the Bayou" column of the ''Madison Journal'', editor Carroll Regan recalls Sevier's political clout:
<blockquote>
Election fever has hit Tallulah again, and it hardly seems that four years have passed since the last battle for municipal offices. ... Perhaps, though, the most unusual aspect of this race is that it'll be the first time in over 40 years that Mayor W. P. "Buck" Sevier hasn't offered himself for election. It would probably be hard for him to admit so soon, but we bet he'll miss the job before long. Tallulah and her people have always been first, last and always with him—a more loyal citizen she has never had. When elected mayor in 1946, he had already served as alderman for three terms. Well known in banking as well as political circles, he has made Tallulah a fine ambassador wherever he has traveled. His leadership will be missed, but his good citizenship, we are sure, will be with us always. ...<br>
"Character" is really not an apt description of Buck Sevier. "Legend" is more fitting. So great was the admiration for him that I don't think he ever had opposition for mayor, except maybe once in his early career. This carried over even when blacks started seeking public office. They didn't run against him either. No wonder. He was respected because he was fair to blacks as well as whites, both as a mayor and as a banker. ...<ref>Carroll Regan, "Baghdad on the Bayou", ''Madison Journal,'' February 1974</ref></blockquote>
==References==
{{reflist}}
*{{cite web|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/111719006|title=William Putnam "Buck" Sevier, Jr.|publisher=findagrave.com|accessdate=}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sevier, William Putnam}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Mayors]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
[[Category:Episcopalians]]
[[Category:United States Army]]
[[Category:World War I]]