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Created page with "{{Infobox person | name=Ned O'Neal Touchstone<br> (Radical Right journalist and publisher from Louisiana) | birth_date=September 27, 1926 | birth_place=Florien, S..."
{{Infobox person
| name=Ned O'Neal Touchstone<br>
(Radical Right journalist and publisher from Louisiana)
| birth_date=September 27, 1926
| birth_place=Florien, Sabine Parish<br>[[Louisiana]], [[United States|USA]]
| death_place=Lake Palestine<br>near [[Tyler, Texas|Tyler]], Smith County<br>[[Texas]], USA
| resting_place=Hillcrest Memorial Park in [[Haughton, Louisiana|Haughton]], Louisiana
| death_date=July 16, 1988 (aged 61)
|nationality=[[United States|American]]
| spouse==June A. McGehee Touchstone<br>
Three children:<br>
David Mark Touchstone<br>Lia Touchstone Tippit<br>Lauren Touchstone Webb<br>
Parents:< br>
Sam F. and Carrie Moore Touchstone
| relations=Danny Roy Moore (cousin)
| religion=
| party=[[Democratic Party|Democrat]]
}}
'''Ned O'Neal Touchstone''' (September 27, 1926 – July 26, 1988) was a [[Louisiana]] [[newspaper]] [[publisher]] active in the "Radical Right" during the 1960s.
Born in [[village]] of Florien in Sabine Parish, he resided in the [[Shreveport]]-[[Bossier City]] metropolitan area for most of his life.<ref name=obit>Ned O. Touchstone obituary, 'The Shreveport Times,'' July 30, 1988.</ref>
Touchstone was a descendant of Richard Touchstone (1657-1729), a [[New Jersey]] native who settled in [[Maryland]]. Another of his ancestors was Captain Benjamin Merrell (1731-1771) of Mercer County, New Jersey, who was [[Hanging|hanged]], drawn, and quartered in [[North Carolina]] in an early attack on the [[Great Britain|British]] crown.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/mckstorymerrell.htm|title=The Merrell Family|publisher=[[Texas A&M University]]|accessdate=March 24, 2017}}</ref> Other family members were pioneers in 1798 in the settlement of [[Mississippi]].
==Publishing ''The Councilor==
Touchstone was a professional researcher and writer and owned and for a time operated the largest retail book store in Shreveport. He was an avid reader and was known for his extensive vocabulary and for remembering and quoting large portions of published books and poetry. For eight years, he published in his print shop in Bossier City numerous weekly newspapers in Louisiana and [[Texas]], including the former ''Bossier Press'' and the ''Waskom Gazette'' in Waskom, in Harrison County in east Texas.<ref name=obit/>
Before owning and operating his newspapers, he worked during the 1950s on Capitol Hill as an administrative assistant for five years for [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] [[U.S. Representative]] Thomas Overton Brooks (1897-1961) of Louisiana's 4th congressional district. Touchstone researched and authored the bill to construct the Veteran's Hospital in Shreveport, which is named for Representative Brooks. As a legislative aide, Touchstone claimed to have encountered several [[Puerto Rico|Puerto Rican]] nationalists who were running down the steps of the Capitol. This small group of armed radicals had assaulted several congressmen and wounded two in the arm.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/28/insider/1954-in-harms-way-on-capitol-hill.html|title=Five Congressmen Shot in House by 3 Puerto Rican Nationalists; Bullets Spray from Gallery|publisher=''[[The New York Times]]''|date=March 2, 1954| accessdate=August 24, 2019}}</ref>
Another legislative aide on Brooks' staff was [[Billy McCormack]], later the pastor of the University Worship Center in Shreveport and a founding director and vice president of the [[Christian Coalition]].<ref name=mccormack>[[Billy McCormack]] Mission Group.com, June 10, 2012; no longer on-line.</ref>
In 1962, Touchstone became the editor of ''The Councilor," the official publication of the White Citizens' Council, of which his mailing list included a worldwide readership of more than 106,000 but a paid circulation of 18,000. The Citizens Council was formed in the middle 1950s to oppose the [[civil rights movement]] in the South. Led in Louisiana by [[William Rainach]], the council was composed of avowed [[Segregation|segregationists]] who sought to exert financial pressures on civil rights supporters. The greater part of the members were medium to lower-income whites who were staunch supporters of what was commonly called "the southern way of life." The Citizens' Council grew in numbers until the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] was signed into law by [[President of the United States|U.S. President]] [[Lyndon B. Johnson]], a frequent target of Touchstone's editorials, along with Johnson's intra-party rival, [[United States Attorney General]] [[Robert F. Kennedy]], subsequently a U.S. senator from [[New York]] for fewer than four years.<ref name=thecouncilor>{{cite web|url=http://faculty.ferris.edu/ISAR/Institut/cca/touchstone_cca.htm|title=Ned Touchstone: The Citizens Councils and The Councilor|publisher=Institute for the Study of Academic Racism|date=1983|accessdate=March 25, 2017}}</ref> In December 1963, a confidential informant (NO 1223-R) identified Touchstone as a member of the Original Knights of the [[Ku Klux Klan]]. The informant further revealed that the KKK had "documented proof" that President Johnson early in his political career joined the KKK, much as his friend [[Robert Byrd]] did in [[West Virginia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://madworldnews.com/trump-democratic-president-kkk/|title=Trump Reveals Which Democratic President Was Also KKK Member, Liberals in Meltdown Mode|date=October 30, 2017|publisher=Madworldnews.com|accessdate=August 25, 2019}}</ref>
''The Councilor'' offered stories hostile toward liberals in both major parties, and particularly the administrations of [[John F. Kennedy]] and Lyndon B. Johnson and [[Moderate Republican]]s who supported civil rights legislation and parts of the Democratic agenda.<ref name=thecouncilor/> Often Touchstone employed editorial ridicule and vociferous personal attacks against those whom he politically opposed.<ref name=ejas/> However, Touchstone claimed to be an expert researcher and said that he had never lost a legal challenge regarding any of his articles. Touchstone often hosted citizens from all over the United States and even various British dignitaries eager for his personal analysis of events.<ref name=thecouncilor/>
Citizens' Council founder [[William Rainach]] accused Ned Touchstone and Courtney F. Smith, Jr. (1925-2013),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?n=courtney-f-smith&pid=166702791|title=Courtney Smith's obituary|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|date=August 31, 2013|accessdate=August 25, 2019}}</ref> an official of the Shreveport Citizens Council, of grandstanding for public attention. Touchstone replied that Rainach, who ran third in the 1959 Democratic primary for governor, was known for "inaction." Additionally, the council fought over Rainach’s support for the unsuccessful Republican candidate, [[Charlton Lyons]], over Democrat [[John J. McKeithen]], in the Louisiana gubernatorial general election held on March 3, 1964. The council also quarreled over the direction of ''The Councilor.'' As a result, Touchstone and Smith were removed from the Citizens’ Council of Louisiana’s board of directors. Touchstone and Smith, however, continued the publication of ''The Councilor'' into the late 1960s and early 1970s. Increasingly, ''The Councilor'' stressed race, [[anti-Semitism]], and an assortment of conspiracy theories.<ref name=ejas>{{cite web|url=https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/14437|title=Citizens' Councils, Conservatism and White Supremacy in Louisiana, 1964-1972|author=Rebecca Bruckmann|publisher=''European Journal of American Studies" in journals.openedition.org|accessdate=August 24, 2019}}</ref>
Touchstone was also affiliated with ''The American Mercury,'' the former magazine of [[H. L. Mencken]] and George Jean Nathan (1882-1958), which fell under the control of anti-Semites in the 1960s. Touchstone was listed as a contributing editor of ''The American Mercury'' and for a time took over management of the publication. He appeared in the masthead as the "financial editor" before the publication closed in 1981. He held a seat on the board of Willis Allison Carto's Liberty Lobby, another anti-Semitic group which operated from 1958 to 2001. Touchstone called Carto (1926-2015) "one of the greatest living Americans."<ref name=thecouncilor/>
==Opposing racial integration and globalism==
Touchstone decried the civil rights activism of [[Martin Luther King, Jr.]], whom he claimed had political and financial ties with international [[communism]]. Touchstone targeted the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, a communist front group in which [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] had been active prior to 1963. The "Fair Play" group sent busloads of northern blacks into the South to accelerate [[Segregation|desegregation]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/docid-32129399.pdf|title=Kennedy Assassination Collection Full Results|author=William A.
Branigan|publisher=archives.gov|accessdate=August 14, 2017}}</ref>}}</ref>
Touchstone and another Radical Right ally, George Singelmann, of the Greater [[New Orleans]] Citizens' Council, then organized the "Reverse Freedom Ride movement," which raised funds to provide bus trips for southern blacks into Northeastern cities populated by large numbers of white citiznes who mostly favored the desegregation of the southern states. The disgruntled southern minorities were encouraged to relocate to Hyannis Port, [[Massachusetts]], the site of President Kennedy's compound, or to other cities where northern leaders who supported civil rights legislation lived. Touchstone claimed that his "Reverse Freedom Rides" neutralized the "Fair Play for Cuba" activists. After some months, the "Reverse Freedom Rides ended in failure.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nola.com/news/politics/article_4ea26568-7608-5f9f-969f-86dd7bb5fb85.html|title=Reverse Freedom Rides sent African Americans out of the South, some for good|publisher=''New Orleans Times Picayume''|date=May 22, 2011|author=Katy Reckdahl|accessdate=August 25, 2019}}</ref>
After the Kennedy assassination, Touchstone traveled and devoted himself to compiling the most detailed, fact-proven essay on the conspiracy that planned and hid the truth of Kennedy's murder in [[Dallas]]. Touchstone questioned the [[Warren Commission]]'s report, which claims President Kennedy died from a single bullet fired by a lone gunman. For years, Touchstone investigated Kennedy's assassination and supported the conspiracy viewpoint formulated by District Attorney [[Jim Garrison]] of [[New Orleans]]. Since that time, many books, documentaries and even a [[Hollywood]] film, ''JFK,'' avowed that a conspiracy was responsible for Kennedy's assassination.The notes and photos that Touchstone compiled were used for the basis of the film ''JFK'' regarding [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] as the possible "fall-guy" and the U.S. government potentially engaging in a cover-up of the assassination so as to hide the real reasons for the killing.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/clinton4.htm|title=The Clinton (Louisiana) Witnesses Linking Clay Shaw to Oswald|author=Dave Reitzes|publisher=Mcadams.posc.mu.edu|accessdate=March 24, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://coverthistory.blogspot.com/2005/12/ned-touchstone-david-ferrie-and-jim.html|title=Covert History: Ned Touchstone, David Ferrie, and Jim Garrison|publisher=Coverthistory.blogspot.com|date=December 22, 2005|accesdate=August 24, 2019}}</ref>
Touchstone was an early critic of [[globalism]] and singled out "dangerous" groups promoting one-world government under the direction of international elites. He questioned the integrity of the [[Council on Foreign Relations]], the [[Federal Reserve System]], the Bank of France, the [[Bank of England]], the three major American television networks, as well as the [[Rothschild family|Rothschilds]] and the Warburgs.<ref name=thecouncilor/> Touchstone claimed that these families were so interrelated that to preserve their domination he found fifty-eight examples up until 1910 of the Rothschilds marrying first cousins. Touchstone alleged that these international families provided the money to establish [[Vladimir Lenin]] in the former [[Soviet Union]] and continued to assist the international communist movement.<ref>cite web|url=https://www.jta.org/1934/09/16/archive/rothschilds-married-cousins|tittle=Rothschilds Married Cousins|publisher=Jewish Telegraphic Agency|date=September 16, 1934|accessdate=August 25, 2019}}</ref>
Six months prior to Touchstone's death, the United States officially observed the third annual celebration of the birth of Martin Luther King. In many cities with large numbers of minorities, the King holiday has become the third most popular of the year. The honor to King was especially troubling to Touchstone, who was never reconciled to desegregation and the turmoil, crime, and lower academic standings that he believed integration brought to southern schools, some of which became known for gangs, [[rape]], [[narcotics]], shootings, crimes against teachers, and even closings from lack of enrollment. However, Billy McCormack, who also served on Representative Overton Brooks' staff, grew to accept desegregation, having served on Shreveport's Human Relations Commission, the Black History Committee, and the Martin Luther King Birthday Committee.<ref name=mccormack/>
==Running for superintendent of education==
On November 4, 1967, Touchstone ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for Louisiana state superintendent of education. He claimed that he would use administrative measures to thwart the accelerating process of school desegregation in Louisiana, which was completed fully under federal court decrees in August 1970. He was badly defeated by [[incumbent]] [[Bill Dodd|William J. "Bill" Dodd]], a long-time Louisiana politician who sought a second term as superintendent.<ref>''[[Shreveport Journal]],'' November 6, 1967, p. 1.</ref> Dodd formerly served as lieutenant governor under [[Earl Long|Earl Kemp Long]]. Touchstone was born in Sabine Parish, and Dodd, who was seventeen years Touchstone's senior, was reared in Sabine Parish.
==Personal life==
At the time of his death at the age of sixty-one, Touchstone resided on Lake Palestine near [[Tyler, Texas|Tyler]], Texas, where he and his wife had retired. Services were held on July 30, 1988, at the Osborn Funeral Home Chapel in Shreveport. As a [[World War II]] veteran, he received a [[Purple Heart]] for war wounds,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://peoplepill.com/people/ned-touchstone/|title=Ned Touchstone: Recipient of the purple heart medal|publisher=Peoplepill.com|accessdate=August 24, 2019}}</ref> was given a military burial, and laid to rest at the Hill Crest Memorial Park in Haughton in south Bossier Parish near the red hills and lush forests where he was born and played as a child.<ref name=obit/>
Most of his lifetime work was donated to the Noel Memorial Library at Louisiana State University in Shreveport. His large personal library became the property of his children. Touchstone was known for his vast knowledge of facts and ability to call to mind complete passages from the thousands of books that he had read and collected. He was a world traveler and could discuss nearly any subject intellectually with any expert. His expertise included the fields of ancient history, languages, sciences, poetry, art, and the [[Bible]]<ref name=obit/>
Touchstone's mother, Carrie Moore Touchstone (1906-1982), is interred at Old Town Cemetery in Haynesville in Claiborne Parish.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Touchstone&GSfn=Carrie&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=15890296&df=all&|title=Carrie Lee Moore Touchstone|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=March 24, 2017}}</ref> His father, Sam F. Touchstone (1904-2002), a native of Clarke County, Mississippi, was a taxidermist and inventor in Bossier City. He was affiliated with a half-dozen [[Baptist]] churches during his sixty-seven years as a professing [[Christianity|Christian]]. Like his son Ned, he is interred at Hill Crest Memorial Park in Haughton.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Touchstone&GSfn=Sam&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSst=20&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=99633398&df=all&|title=Sam F. Touchstone|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=March 24, 2017}}</ref>
Touchstone was married to the former June A. McGehee (born April 19, 1927), a native of Homer in Claiborne Parish who resides in Shreveport and is a [[Republican Party|Republican]]. The Touchstones have a surviving son, David Mark Touchstone (born September 23, 1952), a business [[attorney]] in Shreveport-Bossier City; two daughters, Lia Touchstone Tippit then of Rockwall, Texas, and Lauren Touchstone Webb of Shreveport.<ref name=obit/>
From 1981 until his death two decades later, Sam Touchstone operated the Touchstone Wildlife & Art Museum on U.S. Highway 80 in Haughton. The facility showcases [[Taxidermy|taxidermist]] exhibits on two floors from floor to ceiling with specimens of animals from all over the world. After Sam Touchstone's death, his second wife, Lura Patrick Touchstone (born September 1931), of Bossier City and her daughter, Samantha Olson, continued to operate and expand the museum. The facility also contains artifacts of [[Native Americans]] and a section on the outlaws [[Bonnie and Clyde]], who rampaged through [north Louisiana to their deaths in 1934. In March 2017, Mrs. Touchstone, announced that the museum has fallen on difficult economic times with declining attendance, and the future of the facility remained doubtful. She noted that many schools no longer send children to the wildlife museum on field trips though the facility had been very popular with young people in the past.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://press-herald.com/haughton-museum-faces-closure/|title=Haughton museum faces closure|publisher=''Minden Press-Herald''|author=Amanda Simmons|accessdate=March 25, 2017}}</ref> As of the summer of 2019, the museum, which is rated highly among its patrons, was still operational.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/touchstonemuseum/|title=Touchstone Wildlife & Art Museum|publisher=[[Facebook]]|accessdate=August 24, 2019}}</ref>
Touchstone was a first cousin of former Louisiana state Senator Danny Roy Moore, a [[civil engineer]] and land surveyor who resides in Arcadia in Bienville Parish. Moore represented Claiborne and Bienville parishes for a single term from 1964 to 1968. Moore's mother, Capitola Touchstone Moore (1902–2002), a native of Perry County, Mississippi, and an older sister of Sam Touchstone, is interred at Arlington Cemetery in Homer, where she had lived for much of her life. <ref>{{cite web|url=https://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Moore&GSfn=Capitola&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=133990037&df=all&|title=Capitola Touchstone Moore|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=March 24, 2017}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Touchstone, Ned}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Journalists]]
[[Category:Newspapers]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
[[Category:Anti-Communism]]
[[Category:American Authors]]
[[Category:United States Army]]
[[Category:World War II]]
| name=Ned O'Neal Touchstone<br>
(Radical Right journalist and publisher from Louisiana)
| birth_date=September 27, 1926
| birth_place=Florien, Sabine Parish<br>[[Louisiana]], [[United States|USA]]
| death_place=Lake Palestine<br>near [[Tyler, Texas|Tyler]], Smith County<br>[[Texas]], USA
| resting_place=Hillcrest Memorial Park in [[Haughton, Louisiana|Haughton]], Louisiana
| death_date=July 16, 1988 (aged 61)
|nationality=[[United States|American]]
| spouse==June A. McGehee Touchstone<br>
Three children:<br>
David Mark Touchstone<br>Lia Touchstone Tippit<br>Lauren Touchstone Webb<br>
Parents:< br>
Sam F. and Carrie Moore Touchstone
| relations=Danny Roy Moore (cousin)
| religion=
| party=[[Democratic Party|Democrat]]
}}
'''Ned O'Neal Touchstone''' (September 27, 1926 – July 26, 1988) was a [[Louisiana]] [[newspaper]] [[publisher]] active in the "Radical Right" during the 1960s.
Born in [[village]] of Florien in Sabine Parish, he resided in the [[Shreveport]]-[[Bossier City]] metropolitan area for most of his life.<ref name=obit>Ned O. Touchstone obituary, 'The Shreveport Times,'' July 30, 1988.</ref>
Touchstone was a descendant of Richard Touchstone (1657-1729), a [[New Jersey]] native who settled in [[Maryland]]. Another of his ancestors was Captain Benjamin Merrell (1731-1771) of Mercer County, New Jersey, who was [[Hanging|hanged]], drawn, and quartered in [[North Carolina]] in an early attack on the [[Great Britain|British]] crown.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/mckstorymerrell.htm|title=The Merrell Family|publisher=[[Texas A&M University]]|accessdate=March 24, 2017}}</ref> Other family members were pioneers in 1798 in the settlement of [[Mississippi]].
==Publishing ''The Councilor==
Touchstone was a professional researcher and writer and owned and for a time operated the largest retail book store in Shreveport. He was an avid reader and was known for his extensive vocabulary and for remembering and quoting large portions of published books and poetry. For eight years, he published in his print shop in Bossier City numerous weekly newspapers in Louisiana and [[Texas]], including the former ''Bossier Press'' and the ''Waskom Gazette'' in Waskom, in Harrison County in east Texas.<ref name=obit/>
Before owning and operating his newspapers, he worked during the 1950s on Capitol Hill as an administrative assistant for five years for [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] [[U.S. Representative]] Thomas Overton Brooks (1897-1961) of Louisiana's 4th congressional district. Touchstone researched and authored the bill to construct the Veteran's Hospital in Shreveport, which is named for Representative Brooks. As a legislative aide, Touchstone claimed to have encountered several [[Puerto Rico|Puerto Rican]] nationalists who were running down the steps of the Capitol. This small group of armed radicals had assaulted several congressmen and wounded two in the arm.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/28/insider/1954-in-harms-way-on-capitol-hill.html|title=Five Congressmen Shot in House by 3 Puerto Rican Nationalists; Bullets Spray from Gallery|publisher=''[[The New York Times]]''|date=March 2, 1954| accessdate=August 24, 2019}}</ref>
Another legislative aide on Brooks' staff was [[Billy McCormack]], later the pastor of the University Worship Center in Shreveport and a founding director and vice president of the [[Christian Coalition]].<ref name=mccormack>[[Billy McCormack]] Mission Group.com, June 10, 2012; no longer on-line.</ref>
In 1962, Touchstone became the editor of ''The Councilor," the official publication of the White Citizens' Council, of which his mailing list included a worldwide readership of more than 106,000 but a paid circulation of 18,000. The Citizens Council was formed in the middle 1950s to oppose the [[civil rights movement]] in the South. Led in Louisiana by [[William Rainach]], the council was composed of avowed [[Segregation|segregationists]] who sought to exert financial pressures on civil rights supporters. The greater part of the members were medium to lower-income whites who were staunch supporters of what was commonly called "the southern way of life." The Citizens' Council grew in numbers until the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] was signed into law by [[President of the United States|U.S. President]] [[Lyndon B. Johnson]], a frequent target of Touchstone's editorials, along with Johnson's intra-party rival, [[United States Attorney General]] [[Robert F. Kennedy]], subsequently a U.S. senator from [[New York]] for fewer than four years.<ref name=thecouncilor>{{cite web|url=http://faculty.ferris.edu/ISAR/Institut/cca/touchstone_cca.htm|title=Ned Touchstone: The Citizens Councils and The Councilor|publisher=Institute for the Study of Academic Racism|date=1983|accessdate=March 25, 2017}}</ref> In December 1963, a confidential informant (NO 1223-R) identified Touchstone as a member of the Original Knights of the [[Ku Klux Klan]]. The informant further revealed that the KKK had "documented proof" that President Johnson early in his political career joined the KKK, much as his friend [[Robert Byrd]] did in [[West Virginia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://madworldnews.com/trump-democratic-president-kkk/|title=Trump Reveals Which Democratic President Was Also KKK Member, Liberals in Meltdown Mode|date=October 30, 2017|publisher=Madworldnews.com|accessdate=August 25, 2019}}</ref>
''The Councilor'' offered stories hostile toward liberals in both major parties, and particularly the administrations of [[John F. Kennedy]] and Lyndon B. Johnson and [[Moderate Republican]]s who supported civil rights legislation and parts of the Democratic agenda.<ref name=thecouncilor/> Often Touchstone employed editorial ridicule and vociferous personal attacks against those whom he politically opposed.<ref name=ejas/> However, Touchstone claimed to be an expert researcher and said that he had never lost a legal challenge regarding any of his articles. Touchstone often hosted citizens from all over the United States and even various British dignitaries eager for his personal analysis of events.<ref name=thecouncilor/>
Citizens' Council founder [[William Rainach]] accused Ned Touchstone and Courtney F. Smith, Jr. (1925-2013),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?n=courtney-f-smith&pid=166702791|title=Courtney Smith's obituary|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|date=August 31, 2013|accessdate=August 25, 2019}}</ref> an official of the Shreveport Citizens Council, of grandstanding for public attention. Touchstone replied that Rainach, who ran third in the 1959 Democratic primary for governor, was known for "inaction." Additionally, the council fought over Rainach’s support for the unsuccessful Republican candidate, [[Charlton Lyons]], over Democrat [[John J. McKeithen]], in the Louisiana gubernatorial general election held on March 3, 1964. The council also quarreled over the direction of ''The Councilor.'' As a result, Touchstone and Smith were removed from the Citizens’ Council of Louisiana’s board of directors. Touchstone and Smith, however, continued the publication of ''The Councilor'' into the late 1960s and early 1970s. Increasingly, ''The Councilor'' stressed race, [[anti-Semitism]], and an assortment of conspiracy theories.<ref name=ejas>{{cite web|url=https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/14437|title=Citizens' Councils, Conservatism and White Supremacy in Louisiana, 1964-1972|author=Rebecca Bruckmann|publisher=''European Journal of American Studies" in journals.openedition.org|accessdate=August 24, 2019}}</ref>
Touchstone was also affiliated with ''The American Mercury,'' the former magazine of [[H. L. Mencken]] and George Jean Nathan (1882-1958), which fell under the control of anti-Semites in the 1960s. Touchstone was listed as a contributing editor of ''The American Mercury'' and for a time took over management of the publication. He appeared in the masthead as the "financial editor" before the publication closed in 1981. He held a seat on the board of Willis Allison Carto's Liberty Lobby, another anti-Semitic group which operated from 1958 to 2001. Touchstone called Carto (1926-2015) "one of the greatest living Americans."<ref name=thecouncilor/>
==Opposing racial integration and globalism==
Touchstone decried the civil rights activism of [[Martin Luther King, Jr.]], whom he claimed had political and financial ties with international [[communism]]. Touchstone targeted the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, a communist front group in which [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] had been active prior to 1963. The "Fair Play" group sent busloads of northern blacks into the South to accelerate [[Segregation|desegregation]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/docid-32129399.pdf|title=Kennedy Assassination Collection Full Results|author=William A.
Branigan|publisher=archives.gov|accessdate=August 14, 2017}}</ref>}}</ref>
Touchstone and another Radical Right ally, George Singelmann, of the Greater [[New Orleans]] Citizens' Council, then organized the "Reverse Freedom Ride movement," which raised funds to provide bus trips for southern blacks into Northeastern cities populated by large numbers of white citiznes who mostly favored the desegregation of the southern states. The disgruntled southern minorities were encouraged to relocate to Hyannis Port, [[Massachusetts]], the site of President Kennedy's compound, or to other cities where northern leaders who supported civil rights legislation lived. Touchstone claimed that his "Reverse Freedom Rides" neutralized the "Fair Play for Cuba" activists. After some months, the "Reverse Freedom Rides ended in failure.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nola.com/news/politics/article_4ea26568-7608-5f9f-969f-86dd7bb5fb85.html|title=Reverse Freedom Rides sent African Americans out of the South, some for good|publisher=''New Orleans Times Picayume''|date=May 22, 2011|author=Katy Reckdahl|accessdate=August 25, 2019}}</ref>
After the Kennedy assassination, Touchstone traveled and devoted himself to compiling the most detailed, fact-proven essay on the conspiracy that planned and hid the truth of Kennedy's murder in [[Dallas]]. Touchstone questioned the [[Warren Commission]]'s report, which claims President Kennedy died from a single bullet fired by a lone gunman. For years, Touchstone investigated Kennedy's assassination and supported the conspiracy viewpoint formulated by District Attorney [[Jim Garrison]] of [[New Orleans]]. Since that time, many books, documentaries and even a [[Hollywood]] film, ''JFK,'' avowed that a conspiracy was responsible for Kennedy's assassination.The notes and photos that Touchstone compiled were used for the basis of the film ''JFK'' regarding [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] as the possible "fall-guy" and the U.S. government potentially engaging in a cover-up of the assassination so as to hide the real reasons for the killing.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/clinton4.htm|title=The Clinton (Louisiana) Witnesses Linking Clay Shaw to Oswald|author=Dave Reitzes|publisher=Mcadams.posc.mu.edu|accessdate=March 24, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://coverthistory.blogspot.com/2005/12/ned-touchstone-david-ferrie-and-jim.html|title=Covert History: Ned Touchstone, David Ferrie, and Jim Garrison|publisher=Coverthistory.blogspot.com|date=December 22, 2005|accesdate=August 24, 2019}}</ref>
Touchstone was an early critic of [[globalism]] and singled out "dangerous" groups promoting one-world government under the direction of international elites. He questioned the integrity of the [[Council on Foreign Relations]], the [[Federal Reserve System]], the Bank of France, the [[Bank of England]], the three major American television networks, as well as the [[Rothschild family|Rothschilds]] and the Warburgs.<ref name=thecouncilor/> Touchstone claimed that these families were so interrelated that to preserve their domination he found fifty-eight examples up until 1910 of the Rothschilds marrying first cousins. Touchstone alleged that these international families provided the money to establish [[Vladimir Lenin]] in the former [[Soviet Union]] and continued to assist the international communist movement.<ref>cite web|url=https://www.jta.org/1934/09/16/archive/rothschilds-married-cousins|tittle=Rothschilds Married Cousins|publisher=Jewish Telegraphic Agency|date=September 16, 1934|accessdate=August 25, 2019}}</ref>
Six months prior to Touchstone's death, the United States officially observed the third annual celebration of the birth of Martin Luther King. In many cities with large numbers of minorities, the King holiday has become the third most popular of the year. The honor to King was especially troubling to Touchstone, who was never reconciled to desegregation and the turmoil, crime, and lower academic standings that he believed integration brought to southern schools, some of which became known for gangs, [[rape]], [[narcotics]], shootings, crimes against teachers, and even closings from lack of enrollment. However, Billy McCormack, who also served on Representative Overton Brooks' staff, grew to accept desegregation, having served on Shreveport's Human Relations Commission, the Black History Committee, and the Martin Luther King Birthday Committee.<ref name=mccormack/>
==Running for superintendent of education==
On November 4, 1967, Touchstone ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for Louisiana state superintendent of education. He claimed that he would use administrative measures to thwart the accelerating process of school desegregation in Louisiana, which was completed fully under federal court decrees in August 1970. He was badly defeated by [[incumbent]] [[Bill Dodd|William J. "Bill" Dodd]], a long-time Louisiana politician who sought a second term as superintendent.<ref>''[[Shreveport Journal]],'' November 6, 1967, p. 1.</ref> Dodd formerly served as lieutenant governor under [[Earl Long|Earl Kemp Long]]. Touchstone was born in Sabine Parish, and Dodd, who was seventeen years Touchstone's senior, was reared in Sabine Parish.
==Personal life==
At the time of his death at the age of sixty-one, Touchstone resided on Lake Palestine near [[Tyler, Texas|Tyler]], Texas, where he and his wife had retired. Services were held on July 30, 1988, at the Osborn Funeral Home Chapel in Shreveport. As a [[World War II]] veteran, he received a [[Purple Heart]] for war wounds,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://peoplepill.com/people/ned-touchstone/|title=Ned Touchstone: Recipient of the purple heart medal|publisher=Peoplepill.com|accessdate=August 24, 2019}}</ref> was given a military burial, and laid to rest at the Hill Crest Memorial Park in Haughton in south Bossier Parish near the red hills and lush forests where he was born and played as a child.<ref name=obit/>
Most of his lifetime work was donated to the Noel Memorial Library at Louisiana State University in Shreveport. His large personal library became the property of his children. Touchstone was known for his vast knowledge of facts and ability to call to mind complete passages from the thousands of books that he had read and collected. He was a world traveler and could discuss nearly any subject intellectually with any expert. His expertise included the fields of ancient history, languages, sciences, poetry, art, and the [[Bible]]<ref name=obit/>
Touchstone's mother, Carrie Moore Touchstone (1906-1982), is interred at Old Town Cemetery in Haynesville in Claiborne Parish.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Touchstone&GSfn=Carrie&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=15890296&df=all&|title=Carrie Lee Moore Touchstone|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=March 24, 2017}}</ref> His father, Sam F. Touchstone (1904-2002), a native of Clarke County, Mississippi, was a taxidermist and inventor in Bossier City. He was affiliated with a half-dozen [[Baptist]] churches during his sixty-seven years as a professing [[Christianity|Christian]]. Like his son Ned, he is interred at Hill Crest Memorial Park in Haughton.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Touchstone&GSfn=Sam&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSst=20&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=99633398&df=all&|title=Sam F. Touchstone|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=March 24, 2017}}</ref>
Touchstone was married to the former June A. McGehee (born April 19, 1927), a native of Homer in Claiborne Parish who resides in Shreveport and is a [[Republican Party|Republican]]. The Touchstones have a surviving son, David Mark Touchstone (born September 23, 1952), a business [[attorney]] in Shreveport-Bossier City; two daughters, Lia Touchstone Tippit then of Rockwall, Texas, and Lauren Touchstone Webb of Shreveport.<ref name=obit/>
From 1981 until his death two decades later, Sam Touchstone operated the Touchstone Wildlife & Art Museum on U.S. Highway 80 in Haughton. The facility showcases [[Taxidermy|taxidermist]] exhibits on two floors from floor to ceiling with specimens of animals from all over the world. After Sam Touchstone's death, his second wife, Lura Patrick Touchstone (born September 1931), of Bossier City and her daughter, Samantha Olson, continued to operate and expand the museum. The facility also contains artifacts of [[Native Americans]] and a section on the outlaws [[Bonnie and Clyde]], who rampaged through [north Louisiana to their deaths in 1934. In March 2017, Mrs. Touchstone, announced that the museum has fallen on difficult economic times with declining attendance, and the future of the facility remained doubtful. She noted that many schools no longer send children to the wildlife museum on field trips though the facility had been very popular with young people in the past.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://press-herald.com/haughton-museum-faces-closure/|title=Haughton museum faces closure|publisher=''Minden Press-Herald''|author=Amanda Simmons|accessdate=March 25, 2017}}</ref> As of the summer of 2019, the museum, which is rated highly among its patrons, was still operational.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/touchstonemuseum/|title=Touchstone Wildlife & Art Museum|publisher=[[Facebook]]|accessdate=August 24, 2019}}</ref>
Touchstone was a first cousin of former Louisiana state Senator Danny Roy Moore, a [[civil engineer]] and land surveyor who resides in Arcadia in Bienville Parish. Moore represented Claiborne and Bienville parishes for a single term from 1964 to 1968. Moore's mother, Capitola Touchstone Moore (1902–2002), a native of Perry County, Mississippi, and an older sister of Sam Touchstone, is interred at Arlington Cemetery in Homer, where she had lived for much of her life. <ref>{{cite web|url=https://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Moore&GSfn=Capitola&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=133990037&df=all&|title=Capitola Touchstone Moore|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=March 24, 2017}}</ref>
==References==
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[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Journalists]]
[[Category:Newspapers]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
[[Category:Anti-Communism]]
[[Category:American Authors]]
[[Category:United States Army]]
[[Category:World War II]]